Disabled people, like myself, despair at the UK welfare system

 

By Lucette Davies

Good/bad, right/wrong, in/out, black/white – Once again yesterday we saw the Tories all position themselves firmly in one camp or the other.  All except George Osborne who sparked a Twitter hashtag #where’sgeorge as the country puzzled over where exactly he was.  It seems to me that this black and white thinking is characteristic of the Tory party and one of the underlying reasons  why their policies are so often dismal failures.  Let me explain…

Poverty, a shameful epidemic raging through Britain

By Lucette Davies

Poverty in the UK and the rise in poverty has to be one of the most important issues that the government needs to tackle.  The state has a duty to ensure the well-being of its citizens, and that means all of its citizens.  I attended a fringe event at the Labour Party conference last week that discussed the role of the state and the church in tackling poverty.  The Trussell Trust is a church led organisation that runs the largest network of food banks in this country and they have collected data that demonstrates the scale of the problem and sent a speaker to this event. I left the meeting thinking how on earth can a country like Britain be witnessing poverty on such a scale.  What has gone wrong?

Duncan-Smith demonstrates the double standards that exist between rich and poor

By Lucette Davies

Tory Party welfare reforms have caused untold misery for the people who claim both in-work and out-of-work benefits.  Iain Duncan-Smith described a recent petition signed by 200,000 people as “disgraceful”.  The petition called for him to  release details about the number of people who have died after being found fit to work.  He has spoken time and time again about: “making work pay” and reforming welfare to stop anyone feeling: “they can get something for nothing”.  But it seems he is exhibiting that  set of double standards that now pervades British society.  Double standards shown, not only by the government, that allow the wealthy to get away with expecting something for nothing.