'Cruel to target most vulnerable'
Martin Bristow says that capitalism and conservatism are not uniquely cruel. In practice, universal credit can take six weeks, sometimes longer, to be decided for each individual case. During that time, how are dependants supposed to get by while they wait for the decision? How are they to pay their rent if there's no money incoming? If they fall behind, they will be evicted and end up homeless?
The government's talk of making work pay is merely a cover for targeting the low-hanging fruit, i.e. the people relying on food banks, the low-paid, the unemployed, the disabled, everyone seen as a bigger drain on the economy than those politicians who have set up offshore trusts in Panama and the Cayman Islands.
That I consider uniquely cruel, along with using the public funds as an excuse to target the most vulnerable people in society. Mahatma Gandhi once said that a society can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. Of course, the government won't chase the tax evaders because it doesn't want to alienate its strongest - and most affluent - supporters.
Let's be honest. These politicians have no idea what it means to be destitute. They come from privileged backgrounds and have no understanding of what life is like for the rest of us. All they care about is ushering their policies through and they have no concern for the consequences of their actions. You could be totally frugal with your money and still end up in dire straits. As far as caring for the vulnerable is concerned, the government has failed miserably and has no business blaming Labour for seven - nearly eight - years of Tory mismanagement. They have had that long to get it right and they cannot admit that they screwed up.
I suspect the reason Mr Bristow blames everyone and everything but capitalism and the government is because he doesn't want to take responsibility for the fact that those who voted Tory enabled the exploitation of the vulnerable. He wants to pass the buck so he can sleep at night. He cannot accept the fact that Tory voters enabled the disabled to be deprived of their disability living allowance and forced to apply for personal independence payment where people have to prove they're disabled, which no one should ever have to do. And even then, being honest is no guarantee your application will be accepted. I know because I've had the interview.
Sean Flanagan
Aldridge
