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Benefits Britain episode 7 -I'm speechless!

(93 Posts)
Anne58 Thu 26-Feb-15 21:56:43

Evening all, I avoided this programme on it's first showing (Monday) but unfortunately I' watching it tonight.

2 central stories, 1 a "new age" sort of woman trying to sell her invention, the Chakra Swing, the other a couple of people who think they have a career as singer/songwriters, he is about 46, she is 51.

Kit, the new age woman has been given a flat, which apprears to be at least
partly furnished, the others have all their housing rent paid for by the taxpayer. The man in the couple had the bloody cheek to say that he hates the government because if he was to take a job, they would deduct tax from his wagesshock Well, excuse me but who the hell do you think is funding your lifestyle why you pursue something that is never going to happen!

What I really don't understand is why these people continue to get JSA?

When I was signing on I had to produce evidence of my job searching, websites I'd looked at, applications made (both for advertised jobs and contacting companies " on spec") , there doesn't seem to be any evidence of those in the programme doing that! Ok, it might be a bit of judicious editing, but showing him sitting in a coffee shop with a poster in the window saying "staff urgently required" said a lot!

Comparing my own experiences with this lot makes me angry angry angry

rosequartz Wed 18-Mar-15 19:41:21

My DF used to say cheese wasn't worth eating until it was ready to walk off the table. Whereupon we all used to shout 'ooh, not eating that, revolting'.
But he lived through two wars and was in the RN!
Weevilly biscuits and all that .... grin

Ana Wed 18-Mar-15 21:11:20

I agree with you about advising your mother to protect her skin, ethelbags, I think that's important at any age but especially when older and more at risk due to health problems.

Eating hard cheese after cutting bits of mould off is not dangerous, though!

FlicketyB Sun 22-Mar-15 17:29:06

I am sorry I think it is offensive to call any older person an 'old dear' regardless of age or mental condition.

Sometimes it is not what you say, but the way that you say it. If you discuss and advise the generation above you in the same casual way you would give information to a friend or grown up child then do it, but if you are advising and telling older people what to do in the nannying I know better than you voice , then no wonder they ignore you.

Equally you should expect older people to receive your suggestions in the way you would expect a friend or grown-up child to receive them with interest, consider them, and then choose to accept or reject them as they will. All of us have aspects of our life style, however trivial, that some other people, of all ages, will either totally agree with or think completely beyond the pale.

As you say your mother is a fully functional adult, active and alert, what right have you to decide what she should or should not eat and whether it might be good or bad for her. She is free to make her own decisions.

Have you ever considered that you might be doing things that shock and appal her as unsafe and dangerous to your health and would you follow her advice if she told you so?

etheltbags1 Mon 23-Mar-15 09:41:00

I try to advise my mother what to do because in the long term I will have to deal with the results. ie. she gardens in a skirt, there is no reason why she cant wear trousers just for the garden to protect her legs. Last year she gardened as usual and got a tiny skin prick in her leg resulting in a skin infection. there was no appointments as it was a weekend so it was me who ended up taking her to A&e and waiting for over three hours. She will not tolerate anyone helping her apart from me and im not a nurse nor can I stand looking after people. That is why I try to tell her to be careful, as for cheese with mould on, we are always being told that dairy products past their sell by date is dangerous, mould is dangerous too and I don't want to have to take her with vomiting to A&E.

etheltbags1 Mon 23-Mar-15 09:44:58

also flick, I find hospital staff who pat me on the hand and call me 'love' is offensive too but they still do it. I cant say anything as Im going to have an operation and I don't want to upset anyone who is going to have my life in their hands.
Also I cant see what harm it does calling anyone anything as long as they don't hear it. Im sure many of us have talked to a boring person and smiled and been polite but make a face behind their back, its called manners. I always say manners are just pantomime but we all do it.

whitewave Mon 23-Mar-15 09:45:29

You could always have stuck the mouldy cheese on your mothers infection - I believe it is what the Romans did? grin

etheltbags1 Mon 23-Mar-15 10:30:19

lol whitewave, that's a new one, must try it sometime Im keen on alternative remedies

rosequartz Mon 23-Mar-15 14:14:22

Im sure many of us have talked to a boring person and smiled and been polite but make a face behind their back

Someone once told me that if they are very pompous or snobbish, to smile when they are talking down to you and imagine them sitting on the lavatory. grin

rosesarered Mon 23-Mar-15 14:44:19

I always cut the mould of cheese and then use the remaining cheese, and thought that everyone did!

rosesarered Mon 23-Mar-15 14:45:09

Anything other than cheese though, and it gets binned.

Galen Mon 23-Mar-15 15:06:30

Should I be cutting the mould off my Gorgonzola?

tiggypiro Mon 23-Mar-15 15:34:04

In a similar vein rosequartz I was once told by a school nurse (after I had let fly about a meeting with a very unpleasant parent) that when giving an enema after half an inch in they were all the same. It always brought a smile to my face on future occasions !!

FlicketyB Mon 23-Mar-15 16:00:19

But lots of cheeses have mould on; Stilton, Roquefort, Gorgonzola etc etc and, while pregnant women are advised to avoid cheeses made with raw milk, and eggs may harbour salmonella, beyond that I am unaware of information telling us dairy products beyond their sell date are dangerous.

Here is an interesting link on the subject www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/mouldy-food-still-safe-eat-4493286

To return to 'old dears'. 'Love' is a casual and lazy way of addressing directly someone whose name you do not know and anyone form 0 - 100 plus, male and female, can be called love. 'old dear/s' is a phrase used between people about another person/people and is always used in a dismissive, patronising and derogatory sense.

rosequartz Mon 23-Mar-15 16:05:57

tiggypiro grin

I can't stand it when a man I have only just met calls me 'love'. It makes my hackles rise.
I don't seem to mind if it is another woman, it seems friendly, but from the male of the species it seems patronising.

(is that a sexist remark?)

rosesarered Mon 23-Mar-15 21:27:40

Yes it is a sexist remark Rose, go and stand in the sin bin for ten minutes and think about your wickedness.

Ana Mon 23-Mar-15 21:49:12

It seems to be the law that only men can be deemed to be sexist!

durhamjen Mon 23-Mar-15 23:00:23

Gone a long way from your op, phoenix, but did you watch Dispatches tonight?
Apparently benefit claimants can afford to pay a lot of money for something ridiculous, according to Hugo Swire, Tory MP.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/23/tory-minister-benefits-claimants-joke-channel-4-dispatches-hugo-swire