ATOS

[ArabiaTerra]

I don't like computer-aided assessments; never have. But whether you like it or not and whatever excuses you come up with re blaming the rich, the banks, whatever - we can't carry on the way we are doing. You want more money for pensioners? You want more money for the disabled? You want more well paid jobs? You want decent training? We want a lot of things but we see jobs go abroad and yet people protest against sweat shops in India but continue to buy cheap goods from the likes of Primark, and continue to buy foreign cars, washing machines, etc.

 

It's not so much a case of blaming the rich, the banks (though they both deserve it), it's the fact that the entire cost of this debacle is being off-loaded onto the poorest in society while the rich bankers get off, scot-free.

 

If the Government had punished the banks, corporations and the rich for their profligacy, really hit them hard, and then, moved on to the middle classes and the poor, if necessary, then there would be a lot less rage. It's the fact that they immediately went after the sectors of society who are least responsible for the crisis that boils the blood.

 

That and the fact that this governments economic policy is exactly the wrong way to deal with the crisis, and is in fact prolonging the downturn.

 

This governments policy is driven by an insane devotion to a bankrupt free-market ideology that doesn't work. It doesn't make everyone better off, it concentrates all the wealth into the hands of a few oligarchs and impoverishes the bulk of the population. It is a return of the feudal system where everything is owned by the few and the rest existed only to serve the needs of that few.

 

This government is trying to set society back 500 years and they're getting away with it.

[go.oot.by.dog]

George Osborne – The Odious Toff Who’s Not Fit To Run A Tuck Shop

Posted on April 3, 2013 by johnny void

 

Dribbling little posh boy George Osborne was cut loose from nanny’s apron strings and allowed out of his inheritance funded parlour yesterday to unleash a stream of lies and abuse directed at those on low incomes.

The heir to the Baronetcy of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon made the astonishing claim that unemployment benefits of £71 a week are generous, showing just how out of touch him and his deluded party truly are. After this months benefit changes, by the time claimants have paid their bedroom tax, council tax and essential bills, many without be left with nothing at all to buy food.

 

Even if Gideon were telling the truth yesterday, and he wasn’t, his vile claim that 90% of working people will be better off as a result of this months social security slashing reveals little more than his utter contempt for those not born with a silver spoon rammed down their delicate throats. What the Chancellor is really admitting is that ten percent of working families will be worse off due to his Government, and those families are already the poorest in the country.

 

This ten percent were the silent crowd of workers he hectored to yesterday as he visited a supermarket distribution depot yesterday. Many of those workers will be victims of this months benefits chaos, which applies to those in and out of work alike. And these same workers will see tax credits and housing benefits reduced in real terms year on year,wiping out any trivial gains from the raising of the tax threshold. It is little wonder that his audience remained silent and contemptuous throughout, no doubt having been threatened with the sack should they raise their voices.

 

Even his attempt to divide those on low incomes by talking about claimants on £26,000 a year was met with stony faces. Low paid workers in the South of England are only too aware that some claimants are forced to pay huge sums to landlords due to the chronic lack of social housing. They know this because many of them are paying the same sky high rents and are as just as dependent on fast disappearing housing benefits as any out of work benefit claimant.

 

In fact Osborne’s only answer to low paid workers is to brag that at least he’s destroying the lives of unemployed, unwell or disabled people as well. Picking on those least able to defend themselves seems to be a competition sport to the Bullingdon bullies in the cabinet.

But it is clearly not just those out of work that are in the Chancellor’s firing line. In truth Gideon cares not at all whether those on low incomes are working – if you are poor you are scum according to the trust fund kid with a four million pound fortune.

 

It matters not at all that those people he has condemned to poverty are the ones who empty his bins, clean his daddy’s offices and will wipe his swollen rancid ass when he gets old. After all these aren’t real people to Gideon. In his fevered mind they are merely a servile class of plebs, only existing to do the work the rich are too lazy to even consider, like making their own beds or scrubbing their own turd from their toilets.

 

Gideon, David and Nick live in such pampered privilege it is unlikely they’ve ever had a sincere conservation with anyone who isn’t rich. And it is this effete bubble of privilege that has allowed the most inept fools possibly in history to fluke their way into government. This bubble means Gideon and David have little idea how talentless they are, as their bribed back-slapping city boy chums cheer their every move. Osborne got his job because the business owning class hailed him as a financial genius, yet any chinless fool could claim to be an economic expert to these clowns. All you need to say is tax the rich less and f*ck the poor and the jeering toads will fete you as a hero of the upper classes.

 

Yet Osborne’s shambolic austerity drive has destroyed the economy and he is more determined than ever to make the poorest pay for his failure. He is not fit to run a tuck shop and yet he has been let loose on the nation’s finances. The man is utterly incompetent, but he is very, very posh. To most Tories that means he has a divine right to rule.

[go.oot.by.dog]

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http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q799/magnacube/ebcc52e4-fc27-4715-8261-d70c6e895f2a_zpsd65c34c2.jpg

[shetlandpeat]

The Daily Fail

 

[unlinkedstudent]

 

This government is trying to set society back 500 years and they're getting away with it.

 

What utter tosh. Labour borrowed and borrowed and borrowed.

 

You want to see poverty? Hell, take a trip on GoogleEarth and have a look at some real poverty in the world. Yes, there's poverty in the UK - but compared to some other countries, we've got it good. There's many people who could work but to be perfectly blunt, are happier on benefits because they don't want to be a few quid a week better off if they worked. Man is greedy. The system with benefits has to change. It's always been a dog-eat-dog world out there - get used to it. Those genuinely disabled fine, I've no problem if they can't work. But you ain't telling me that there aren't a lot of people out there who could physically work, even p/t, who have no intentions whatsoever of ever getting a job.

 

I remember the coal mines closing down. I remember the steel strikes. I saw whole communities have their sources of income disappear overnight. And many did rebuild their lives; not just out of necessity but because they were proud. Many didn't want state handouts. GB, whether you like it or not, has a proportion of workshy peeps. I won't dispute that there are many areas with few jobs and those unemployed in those areas have my sympathy - but you still can't get away from the fact that there are many who are happy to have tax payers subsidise their way of life, living on the dole. I've lived amongst them. Yeah sure, they'll do the odd day of work here and there tax-free, they tend to blow half their giro (do they still have them?) down the pub once a fortnight, have Sky TV and stone a crow, have X-boxes too!

[shetlandpeat]

^^ She bought it

 

 

 

 

Quite frankly, you are blowing out of your harse with that guff. It does not solve one thing, does it, just passing the buck.

That post just shows you have subscribed to the rhetoric that the ConDems want you to believe. Sad really that you think all the problems only started a few years ago, it does not help anyone NOW does it.

[unlinkedstudent]

^^ She bought it

 

 

 

 

Quite frankly, you are blowing out of your harse with that guff. It does not solve one thing, does it, just passing the buck.

That post just shows you have subscribed to the rhetoric that the ConDems want you to believe. Sad really that you think all the problems only started a few years ago, it does not help anyone NOW does it.

 

She, unlike you, doesn't think money grows on trees. I'm a tory - so fecking what? I'd rather vote for them than Labour any day of the week. I love the way you always ignore the fact that Labour intended to bring in even more draconian cuts than those taking place right now - would you be feeling so self-righteous then if they had won the election and made greater cuts?

 

I've never said the system is perfect, I'm not a lover of computerised assessments but I'm yet to hear from you of how you would bring about change. So come on then, SP, are you a communist? Serious question. Communism is fine apart from the fact that don't work either. So, communism on one side of the fence, capitalism on the other. Both have their faults, greed on both sides of the fence.

 

I'm waiting, as I'm sure are many on Shetlink to hear/learn of your manifesto on how to fix everything.

[shetlandpeat]

There is only one thing to do at the moment, is do what you can to support those in need, you keep playing the blame game yet come with no help to reduce the hardship. Your obsession with your party policies have overtaken compassion and good will. It seems there is justification in seeing the struggle of those who have more difficulty in helping themselves in your tone. Quite frankly, your attitude to your fellow human beings sucks. How can you justify this policy. You do however get angry when you are questioned and this is proven in the above statement of venom and bile towards your fellow man/woman. You say one thing and do another.

 

The fact of the matter, that needs addressing is the hardship of others, not whos fault it is because that does nothing. Absolutely nothing. While folk have to go with out heat, food, clothes, opportunity, education and you saying you are hard up as well shows how brainwashed you are if you believe, doing this to people is right.

 

You will find anyone who is experiencing this will put what ever politics they have a leaning towards and get on with supporting folk, this is the reason this thread is here.

[unlinkedstudent]

Thought as much, SP - so basically like a twue politician, you totally avoided the question I posed - you haven't got a clue how to fix the welfare state.

 

And as another poster pointed out to you the other day, you twist what people say. I never said I didn't care. Venom? Come now, SP, you can do better than that. I've said I feel for the genuine disabled, etc. You carp on and on and on and on about the ConDems yet FAIL MISERABLY to state what you would do, in real terms. And again, third time now, you quite happily ignore the fact that Labour proposed even more severe draconian cuts. Not once did I say that I thought problems had come about recently yet you seem to think that I think that. Perhaps you seriously do need to get out of your ivory towers and see just what the average working person gets by on. But you can't, because you've fallen for the Labour Party's rhetoric hook, line and sinker.

[Ghostrider]

There is only one thing to do at the moment, is do what you can to support those in need, you keep playing the blame game yet come with no help to reduce the hardship. Your obsession with your party policies have overtaken compassion and good will. It seems there is justification in seeing the struggle of those who have more difficulty in helping themselves in your tone. Quite frankly, your attitude to your fellow human beings sucks. How can you justify this policy. You do however get angry when you are questioned and this is proven in the above statement of venom and bile towards your fellow man/woman. You say one thing and do another.

 

The fact of the matter, that needs addressing is the hardship of others, not whos fault it is because that does nothing. Absolutely nothing. While folk have to go with out heat, food, clothes, opportunity, education and you saying you are hard up as well shows how brainwashed you are if you believe, doing this to people is right.

 

You will find anyone who is experiencing this will put what ever politics they have a leaning towards and get on with supporting folk, this is the reason this thread is here.

 

So Dr. Peat, in a nutshell, you'd prescribe an asprin. Treat the symptoms, not the problem. A really forward thinking an effective solution that one.

[JustMe]

There's many people who could work but to be perfectly blunt, are happier on benefits because they don't want to be a few quid a week better off if they worked. Man is greedy. The system with benefits has to change. It's always been a dog-eat-dog world out there - get used to it. Those genuinely disabled fine, I've no problem if they can't work. But you ain't telling me that there aren't a lot of people out there who could physically work, even p/t, who have no intentions whatsoever of ever getting a job.

That is part of the problem. Working to be a few quid a week better off (including working part time) may not tempt everyone but even when it does then when the cost of meals at work and transport can mean working for less money than one was getting on the dole/sick. In other words there is not enough of a gap between benefits and wages.

 

I once got a part time job when I was out of work. Worked two days a week (all that was offered) and I had to spend on getting to and from work which was in the nearest city. But I enjoyed the job. Trouble was because I had unpredictable earnings I then had to travel into the city on a day I was not working to "declare" my earnings each week and the expense of my travel really meant I was working for very little.

[shetlandpeat]

Initially GR you are right. You have to treat the symptoms of the disease while you work towards getting rid of it. Well done for spotting that.

[shetlandpeat]

I still do not understand why the ConDems want to continue the isolation of one part of the community. They are that bombastic about it too.

 

I agree there is no incentive to work, it is more lies that work will pay if we starve, worry and make folks jump through smaller hoops to get the help they need. All this just to catch a few (0.5%) who make false claims.

The money is in the system to do this in a more just way, getting the larger companies to pay their fair share of taxes, the lower income you are on the more tax you pay proportionally.

 

Sadly, Tories on the ground here publicly support the GOV yet privately hate it, 3 councillors have resigned already because of ConDem policy in the area I live.

 

There is £12 billion unclaimed on benefits, £30 billion and more in Tax loops and an acute housing shortage. We are now looking at folk with walking difficulties tipping the threshold of acceptable earnings when in social housing because they strive with the threat of being moved, this will cost the HA more in compensation because of the work done to these properties to facilitate an easier life.

 

Now we are moving into another month of 0 degrees temperatures, the share holders of utility companies are raking it in, they have defended this on national radio and are happy about it. They see it as not their problem and make comparisons to other industries, though, I cannot see folk dying because they cannot afford a car.

[go.oot.by.dog]

There is only one thing to do at the moment, is do what you can to support those in need, you keep playing the blame game yet come with no help to reduce the hardship. Your obsession with your party policies have overtaken compassion and good will. It seems there is justification in seeing the struggle of those who have more difficulty in helping themselves in your tone. Quite frankly, your attitude to your fellow human beings sucks. How can you justify this policy. You do however get angry when you are questioned and this is proven in the above statement of venom and bile towards your fellow man/woman. You say one thing and do another.

 

The fact of the matter, that needs addressing is the hardship of others, not whos fault it is because that does nothing. Absolutely nothing. While folk have to go with out heat, food, clothes, opportunity, education and you saying you are hard up as well shows how brainwashed you are if you believe, doing this to people is right.

 

You will find anyone who is experiencing this will put what ever politics they have a leaning towards and get on with supporting folk, this is the reason this thread is here.

 

 

Well said shetlandpeat When i started this thread my intentions were to try and highlight the atrocities that Atos were inflicting on the sick and disabled people of this country as i am sure a lot of people are unaware of the actual scale of the problem that they are causing, i was also hoping to maybe build some support and perhaps even manage to get some emails sent to our MP regarding this from people who were not directly affected but from ones who had a conscience and were willing to speak up for the less able Shetlanders who are having to go through the Work Capability Assessment process and even after more than 2 years and alleged improvements to the test they are still finding 42 out of every 100 of the decisions are overturned on appeal

 

However as i went on i quickly realised that there was also a need to try and highlight the other cuts being imposed, again on the same group of people the sick and disabled, now also the job seekers and the working poor are being targeted as well although i really do think that most of them are not yet fully aware of all that is happening.

 

I was also slightly concerned about what sort of response i would gain when starting this thread, though as i think that Shetland is in the most part quite a caring place as most Shetland folk will go out of their way to help one another and even more so someone in need as that is to me the old traditional values which are still in the most part carried out to this day.

 

You can not change history so blaming what the past Governments have done or may have done does not help! you can however make changes to the future with the policies and plans you set in place and the ones that are being put in place now by the Con Dems are not for the above group of people but rather for the rich as the Torys have always been a rich mans Government.

 

My suggestion on where they could make a start and try and put things right is clearly shown in the graph below-

http://i1359.photobucket.com/albums/q799/magnacube/5686281b-9afa-433f-90e8-61f23b97b3bd_zps23c841a4.jpg

 

It has also been stated that the poorest 2% of the population to date have accounted for 15% of all public sector cuts!

[owre-weel]

Initially GR you are right. You have to treat the symptoms of the disease while you work towards getting rid of it. Well done for spotting that.

 

He may well be right Pete, but you've still avoided answering the question asked by Unlinked!

 

It's all very well coming on here and making your "labour-ish" statements, but Labour, if they had got back in, were intending to make harsher cuts were they not?

 

Meantime you play the politics game of blaming one and other and Labours answer is to borrow borrow borrow!. Anyone with a bit of midder wit, knows that borrowings have to be paid back. You would think Labour would have learned that by now.

 

I don't agree with a lot of these cuts and I'm concerned for those, including myself who are struggling to heat homes and eat a reasonable diet. But I have to accept there is no longer the money to pay for it all.

 

Now come on Pete man up and answer the question!