Low Pay Britain

I think that it is terrible!
I actually looked up the numbers after TheFlatBox posted, as I thought that it might have been meals rather than people, but her number is correct.

falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/how-85-of-tax-and-benefit-savings-have-been-at-the-expense-of-women

Joe Halewood gave this link to the study on the effect of benefit sanctions in his latest blog:

www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/benefit-sanctions-britains-secret-penal-system

This is the link to his blog too, if you're interested.

https://speye.wordpress.com/

Even the DM has occasionally covered some of the appalling arbitrary sanctions, which means it really must be bad!

Another one, MamaCaz.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/03/tory-minister-inhuman-inflexibility-benefit-sanctions

MP for Grantham. I wonder what his majority is, and if they will deselect him next week.

I like Joe Halewood's final two sentences.

"Benefit sanctions are an amateurish, secret penal system which is more severe than the mainstream judicial system, but lacks its safeguards. It is time for everyone concerned for the rights of the citizen to demand their abolition. - See more at: www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/benefit-sanctions-britains-secret-penal-system#sthash.kFfwl27g.dpuf"

How is it that people support these sorts of measures? Some people are not happy about them but I've met several who are wholeheartedly behind them.

Even prisoners are not denied food and heating (not that I think they should be).

We do not support these measures. Until recently the vast majority of the population did not know about them - and majority probably still don't.

When a political party stands for election it puts forward a broad policy like. We will encourage and help people, particularly the long term unemployed, to re-enter the labour market and may well then suggest some acceptable measures - retraining, back to work courses. They may mention sanctions for those who resist the positive measures, which all sound fine. That is what people make voting decisions on.

But the details of what they intend to do is never mentioned so we end up with an inhuman sanctions policy like the one we have now, which has killed at least 50 people already - well it gets them off the unemployment register.

Good question, Eloethan.

It seems that something strange happens in most people's brains when they hear the word 'benefits' that supresses all feelings of either compassion or reasoned thinking. The Government is milking this for all it's worth (votes!!!), actively encouraging intolerance towards benefit claimants Just the language that they use is insulting and divisive (not to mention very misleading) and would be totally unacceptable if aimed at any other sector of society.
People need to wake up to what's happening, because when a Government is prepared to use a vulnerable, powerless sector of society as political pawns, it is the thin edge of the wedge IMHO.

This government avowed policy is one of small government and low taxes. Like John Major it is harking back to some mythical past when families supported their own and all business was benevolent.

Unfortunately people vote for the Conservatives because they like the idea of low taxes and then squeal when the significance of what this means affects them and theirs. I hasten to say that I am not including contributors to this thread in that group. The only way things will change is when the voters realise that there is a direct link between low taxes and low welfare standards and decide to prefer the second to the first.

I do not understand, Flickety. How will preferring low welfare standards change things?

Sorry I got my orders mixed up. What I meant to say was that until people put a desire for higher welfare standards ahead of their desire for low taxation nothing will change.

But the majority of people have that desire. Unfortunately, we do not have a say in it.
The government has done what it has done on a minority vote, propped up by a few others who are going to lose their seats in May.
If you vote Green, your expectations aren't high. But people who voted LibDem were definitely betrayed.
The cabinet seems to have as little idea about the benefits fiasco as it had about the NHS changes, if we believe what they say. I do not.

I voted LibDem jen and I don't feel betrayed.

That's okay, then. You can vote LibDem again.

Actually Durhamjen I do not think they do. I think the majority of voters still fail to make the link between low taxes and poor public services and welfare. Or if they do, because they are in work and healthy and do not see welfare issues as affecting them they vote with their pockets.

I joined the Liberal Party in 1962 and have been a member ever since. I feel very betrayed.

I appreciate that the Lib/Dems are a small minority party working with a much larger party that will inevitably make most of the running, but there have been too many occasions when the Lib Dems have just acquiesced without protest in policies that go against the fundamental principles of the party. University fees were a very particular case in point.

I am not sure how I will vote in May. Certainly not Conservative, Labour, Green or UKIP, which rather restricts my choice. DH has a mantra that if there is nobody you can vote for there is always someone you can vote against. The problem is I want to vote against the lot of them.

www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/sheffield_students_occupy_nick_clegg_s_office

Nick Clegg might lose his seat this time.

weownit.org.uk/privatisation-people-vs-politicians

Just to show how the parties think compared to the people.

I think quite a few well known politicians' seats appear to be a risk but there is plenty of time yet for big changes. As Harold Macmillan said "Events dear boy, events" so you never know what will change between now and the election - or not .

I would quite like two votes really jen although it is kind of you to give me permission to vote LibDem . I do find the Green's policies very attractive at times. Not surprising really as they are often recycled LibDem ones.

62 days until the election.
I dont know about anyone else, but it all feels a bit lacklustre this time around?

Our LibDem leaflet came yesterday. Well, I wasnt actually sure it was LibDem at first. Or for a while. It seemed to avoid mention of the LibDems as much as possible. Even the colour of it only bore a passing resemblance to LibDem colours.
I got the distint impression, he was trying to distance himself, and the leaflet, as much as he could away from LibDems!

Like quite a few on here, I suspect, I really dont know how to cast my vote, and this is the first time in my life that I have felt this way. As I have mentioned before, I am in a staunch Tory seat and we never see him until he crawls out of the woodwork when an election is due, but despite this safe seat and inevitability of the result I still vote as my mind and conscience dictate. Would rather take my own liver out with a pen knife than vote for the incumbent tory who would appear to support all the punitive welfare cuts/low taxation stance of central office. I am unsure of Labour as our local party are quite honestly, wild eyed and scary, the candidate is a self serving prat and on a wider level, I feel that Milliband is grabbing at headline stuff like reducing student fees, attempting to stop MPs earning anything outside the Commons, etc., both of which seem to me to be unthought out knee jerk reactions to try and please the electorate, I also dont trust Ed Balls. Always voted LibDem, but feel they have sold out their principles just to stay in some kind of power, Greens are a bit too extreme in some of their policies.......obviously not UKIP.......maybe too much information, but I dont think I can be the only one feeling the same despair. A friend and I have joked that there should be a 'None of the above' party,.......

How can reducing student fees be headline grabbing?
I thought the Labour party wanted the maximum to be £6000 last time, so he hasn't actually changed, has he?
In fact the level was supposed to be £6000, but all the universities decided they should have £9000.

Why Cameron will not debate on television.

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/03/05/cameron-won-t-debate-because-he-has-no-record-to-defend

Thanks for that link, durhamjen. It is a very good description of the current Government and its tactics.

One thing we should remember in all this is that if you are on the minimum wage, not easy I know, you are among the top 10% of earners globally. We are lucky in so many ways in this country; we just need to spread the luck rather more evenly.

Wasn't it a Labour government who introduced student fees in the first place though durhamjen?

I am sure you will correct me if I am wrong, but it seems a bit hypocritical of them to pledge a reduction in the very fees that they brought about in the firt place.