Why has Grayling been given two shots at flogging the govt's insane welfare policies?
I see from the 'councils plan for exodus of poor' thread that Ms Robinson is directly affected by higher rents imposed by private landlords benefiting from the inability of the banks to finance mortgages. Wishing you all the best in your search for a new home, Ms R.
On the housing benefit capping issue, everyone is so focused on the impact of this policy on London that they appear to be forgetting the rest of the country - areas which may not have such high rents but which also have no housing stock. And no jobs.
The Greyling thread is bubbling over nicely. There is a classic piece of employer prejudice from 'onemanandhisparrot' who believes any long term unemployed are losers, that there are 10 million (count em!) folk who would be better off 'exported' abroad and also to make welfare 'eye-wateringly' inadequate. Lovely chap - yes? I think not. In fact I have met people such as this being unemployed long term in the past myself.
What is depressing (sorry) is as Redminer has pointed out, if you look at the general opinion boards there are a lot of the population who believe this kind of gobshite and willingly support it thinking the unemployed are all fiddling the system.
Grayling - Twice in 24 hours - what have we done to deserve such punishment?
I heard on R4 this morning that London councils have block booked bed and breakfast places outside the capital for all the many thousands of people they anticipate will be forced to leave the capital.
what i don't understand is that with, what, how many million unemployed and how many dozen jobs available, some people seem to think that the unemployed just aren't trying hard enough.
this isn't 'round peg in square hole', it's trying to fit a very very large camel through the eye of a very very small needle.
hope the sheffield march went well - just going to look back over yesterday's thread...
Montana - thanks for the link to that brilliant 'Muslims wearing things' blog yesterday! Genius response, as you say. And while that was the best possible pic to start it off, I think my favourit was probably:
"Model Yasmin Warsame is wearing a form of Muslim eveningwear"
Those Grayling threads have not been good for my blood pressure - well, the first one was fair enough because aside from half-a-dozen people supporting the tory gobshite, the other 360 or so responses were adamantly rejecting his bollocks. The second one has been more frustrating, though, with the likes of one-eyed, blinkered JSMilitant to contend with.
My blood pressure tells me to not spend too much time on trolls ! Meanwhile the Gobal Financial Crisis is progressing merrily . . here is chekhov's recomended link to Golem XIV . I checked and Fitch has put Bank of America on "Rating Watch Negative ..." .
Well done yesterday's demonstrators, I now have diesel for next week,s ;)
I doubt they have any intention of 'seeing' or understanding they are there as foot-soldiers in a propaganda/distraction war BB.
There are a lot of MAM outriders/apprentices on the Guard. The powerful and the rich do not, under any circumstances, intend to loose the ground they illicitly occupy or the control of the organs of change (media/MPs) they so blatantly manipulate.
We will not dislodge these bastards with words alone.
Truth is they have all conspired to reduce Parliamentary democracy to little more than a silly side show.
Our only hope is with the words of A42 (good to see you briefly back on UT Annetan) Educate-Organise-Agitate.
But sadly I think Labour is no longer fit for purpose it really did loose it's way with the abandonment of Clause IV.
We would be well advise to respond to those tossers not with argument but with a simple universal footnote....added to whatever you want to say on the thread
I respectfully suggest..... " (insert MAM/name of nasty here in bold)- Go away you mindless money grubbing tosser"
eg JSMilitant - Go away you money grubbing tosser.
Can't even follow me own advice...should have read.
JSMilitant - Go away you mindless money grubbing tosser.
or if you want to ring the changes..
JSMilitant - Go away you money grubbing mindless tosser
or if you don't like swearing....
JSMilitant - Go away you money grubbing mindless masturbatory moron.
If folk can't learn that it really was a lack of an organised collective response that resulted in the easy exclusion of HankScorpio/MonkeyFish/et al from the Guard they will have no real chance of influencing others. 18 months down the road we ain't learned much not even that a minimum requirement for a voice in a noisy world is amplification and that a collective voice is louder.
That's why tea and cake shop over there is such a distraction/waste of time and will never be much more than an occasionally amusing sideshow.
Must say I don't find it that funny but then I am a nutter.
Sorry for the long absence. New job is quite intense and was working yesterday and Friday. It's good though and once I pass the steep learning curve, it will be much more fun I'm sure.
Saw Throbbing Gristle last night - blew my mind a bit. Loads of really interesting people there and thankfully entirely clear of Shoreditch Twats and Hipster fuckwits. Bumped into an old mate of my sister's (music writer) who he i haven't seen for 10 years - is well known for being a bit radio-rental, but really sweet guy!
Had a chat with Genesis P. Orridge ;) a little bizarre but very congenial!
I am trying to think what it would amount to. It can't be assisting suicide because there has to be an element of encouragement or actual assistance at the time they die.
This from the very articulate Hamstrung on the (first) Grayling thread.
Very well worth the read.
I am 52 and have had 3 breakdowns and several close calls. My mental instability cost me my marriage. Frankly, I am more aware of how to manage my disability than any DWP/ATOS employee and, dare I say, my doctor too. I have had to "cope" since 14.
SInce 2004 I have had 3 ATOS medicals. I passed 1 & 3, no problems but failed no. 2.
And, for those of you fortunate enough never having had to go through this experience.....
If you are arrested and taken in for questioning you are allowed to answer No Comment to everything and have the support of a legal representative. Not so the ATOS medical. It is quite the opposite - you have no legal representation and must answer all the questions or immediately be declined. Ergo, a suspect in law has more rights.
I ended up on IB in 2004 because, despite my best efforts on JSA I was given a fait acomplis by the JobCentre staff - long distance driving or care work. Given my mental health problems I didn't think that the driving would be safe for me or other road users so opted for care work. As I was living in a hostel for the homeless at the time, part time work was out of the question - it had to be full time to cover the rent. I got the job (minimum wage, shitty hours) - not much competition. Within four weeks, I was in the back of an ambulance with a suspected heart attack. Well, at least I learned that in addition to my arthritic knees and perpetual mental problems I had arrhythmia. Like ATOS would care!!
I "failed" no. 2 because I work - ergo, if I am well enough to work I shouldn't be claiming IB. Yes, I work for a charity because I prefer not to take state money without paying something back to society if I am at all able. And that is the crux - I work as a volunteer when I am well enough. I am proud to work, I am pleased to do the job I do and I know that it helps keeps me in good health. Better to work and contribute something at least through the charity than moulder away.
Now, I'm gonna ask you to please, don't drift off, you might learn something Mr Grayling.
I had my ATOS "medical" on the Monday and in the post on that Thursday I learned I had failed *no2*. I appealed. Between "failing" and the "tribunal" was 12 weeks without any money. Not a penny piece. From anywhere. The charity I worked for "accidentally over-ordered on lunches" and insisted I took home the extra. The bills at home I paid for on my credit card (how many people on JSA/IB have credit cards?) When I spoke to the office handling my IB they said "Well, you're appealing aren't you? If you are successful then your money will be backdated". And I asked, "And if I'm not successful, what then?" And they answered "Well, you'll have a problem then, won't you?" No kidding.
My tribunal only had two members. One was a doctor who looked truly mortified to be there but the other - what can I say? He'd had a good life. He had burst blood vessels on burst blood vessels. A checked Viyella shirt and a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches. Skip the golf and go straight to the 18th. And these two sat, in a court room, on a dais, looking down on me. I have never even come close to breaking any law. I was incensed.
At the end of the interrogation from Mr. VAT69, I was handed my Award - my Appeal was upheld. I was asked if I had any questions so I said yes, two. My first was, Was the Appeal Notice I was holding a legal document, whereupon I was told Yes so I then asked, In that case, shouldn't my name be spelled correctly? It was worth it. I thought the f**ker sitting in judgement (who knew absolutely "f*ck all about me and that was the point) would explode! Good (only he didn't, shame).
I am sick, not stupid. And now I'm shitting myself. Not just for me. I have a better chance than many. For one thing I am intelligent. And articulate. At my place of work I know many who are neither.
So, when these politicians speak of work, they don't actually mean work, what they mean is paid employment.
I have been with one of the Government sub-contractors to find paid employment (at my own request) for over a year now without any luck. We've been through the CV stuff et al. Two months ago I spent an hour and a half on the computer completing a job application to be a porter at my local hospital. No kidding. And, they didn't even have the civility to respond and say Thanks but No Thanks. It's not like they even have to type and letter and stick a stamp on. An email would do it.
I emplore, emplore (if it's the last thing I do) that official records be kept, on a national scale, of suicides and attempted suicides for future generations so that when this folly is considered again (as it surely will be) the next generation will have something to compare and therefore not repeat.
Clegg, Cameron, Cable, Grayling, Alexander, Duncan Smith - You will have blood on your hands. Be proud, be very proud.
It was really great, they were on top form and it was very emotionally charged.... almost too intense at times, the sound system was enormous and even with earplugs in - they way the bass moved through your body was extraordinary ;) Made my hair stand on end!!!!
Posted on BBC Ouch Disability Message Board by a well known and respected campaigner for the disabled, Anne Novis, currently shortlisted for an award for her work combatting disability hate crime> (my bold)
"I am facing cuts to my benefits and social care.
I don't know when except I have a review of care needs in few weeks I fully expect the local authority to try and reduce my care package.
The there is the review of the Independent Living Fund which pays for half my social care, this is now frozen, and I do not know what is going to happen.
If I loise my incapcity benefit due to ATOS medical I will lose my DLA HRC which also means I will lose my ILF funding for care all are linked one goes all goes.
So I am scared, really scared, for me and so many others and would like some reassurance but there is none out there.
Some disabled people are thinking of mass suicide as they see no other option for thier life, sveral have already taken this path.
The fear is huge, the anxiety os every minute of the day, every news article and TV interview makes it worse.
My life is at the edge of a precipice which this government has put me scared to go out cos of being attacked, facing the hostility as so many resent us thinking we are rich and fraudsters.
It matters not that any of us contribute to society in so many ways, our human rights do not exist, we are the scapegotas for a consumer driven society and the countries debt.
My god, that's bleak. It hadn't even occurred to me that of course, the constant re-affirmation that anyone with a disability is claiming benefits is a 'fraud' and people, already stigmatised are going to suffer attacks because of how they are perceived is horrific.
I was reading somewhere in the last few days about how attacks on the disabled are on the increase - is this constant portrayal of the disabled as 'lying, thieving benefit scroungers' increasing the likelihood?
For those who don't see the paper Guardian, I thought this letter from a doctor covered the situation pretty well:
"From my experience as a GP, if you cannot walk more than a few yards due to kidney failure, or have just had a lung removed from cancer, you will be pronounced 'fit for work'. I now warn my disabled patients that they will be tested, they will be found fit for work, and will have to appeal for benefits. A bit like the old parish charity.
To save money, why don't they come clean and declare every breathing soul fit for work, and skip directly to the appeals?"
La Rit
If you are arrested and taken in for questioning you are allowed to answer No Comment to everything and have the support of a legal representative. Not so the ATOS medical. It is quite the opposite - you have no legal representation and must answer all the questions or immediately be declined. Ergo, a suspect in law has more rights.
The person who goes to an Atos medical doesn't have any rights at all - full stop. They are treated as if they are suspected to be guilty of a criminal act from the first second they enter; and if they believe that they have proven their innocence, many will soon find out that their accounts have not been believed - that is, it has suited their 'accusers' to decided otherwise.
What court of law doesn't allow any evidence, and then decides itself, on a whim, which accounts will be believed?
Or - why are our sick and disabled being treated as if they should have less rights than those suspected of serious criminal acts? Why are they being treated as if they are guilty either way?
Should the 'suspect' hang on for the appeal and get a copy of their medical report, they may well find that the observations the doctor made now have quite other conclusions. They may even find that it says they gave responses that they know they would never give to subjects they don't recollect even being mentioned at the medical.
This still hasn't been emphasised enough. It isn't just that they keep pushing up the height of the hurdles to be leapt over - it is that they then produce reports which sometimes have so little connection with reality that the receiver wonders if they've been sent someone else's report by mistake (that can happen, but usually it's because the paperwork produced by LIMA is a mixture of incompetencies and biased objectives).
This is done knowing that many will give up at that point in despair - considering it hopeless. That the others will have to prove the results of an unwitnessed interview, where it is someone's word against theirs. (Even if they bring someone with them, the accounts/notes of witnesses don't count either - they could be making it up.)
Anyone involved with any involvement or activity should never tell them so! You can even better be a proud contributor to society (doing helpful things without pay, when feeling up to it), without 'boasting' of it and having your income removed. Personally, I don't get this - oh, you're doing some voluntary work - you're trying to do something - you don't qualify for assistance then. Where's the sense to it?
Sounds like that wasn't just recently though, because appeals are now usually at least six months (and rising).
MsChin
Why has Grayling been given two shots at flogging the govt's insane welfare policies?
Presumably because the readers didn't seem to 'get' the message the first time around.
After all, everyone agrees for the need for these cuts. I know this because they keep saying so (still haven't asked me about it).
To which (plus many more astute observations):
"You lot don't need hands, just the two fingers. Trusting you with welfare is like trusting Garry Glitter to mind the kids."
Expect another article telling us again what good things they are doing for us with these benefit cuts - very soon.
The problem, in my opinion, is that the whole ideological thrust of the government, along with its lies and propaganda, need to be challenged publicly and kept in the spotlight continuously from now on, by whatever means possible.
It seems that most people ended up holding off actually doing anything about New Labour for the last couple of years because the thinking seemed to be, you only have to wait for them to be voted out and things will change.
They have changed and the aggressiveness and vindictiveness of the process is apparent after just five months.
If this is left, people will again think, "Oh, they will soon be going through a rocky patch and then we can attack and undermine them and people will follow."
The signs are - as always - that with people like Nick "Propaganda Mouthpiece" Robinson on the BBC, the always unreliable and untrustworthy Cif, the Murdoch and Dacre press, the fact that people are not interested in politics anyway, there will be no spontaneous uprising.
This is not to say that people here and elsewhere are not doing their bit in the real world.
It is simply to say that there will never be a point when the politicians, bankers, business people or anyone in power claps their hand to their forehead and says: "Wait a minute! This is wrong. We are behaving like animals and we need to show that we are moral entities who can choose to behave well."
Remember the film Schindler's List?
Schindler goes to the concentration camp commander and tells him that he has the power to decide not to be evil and that this is a greater power than submitting to the easy choice of giving in to his atavistic nature.
The commander understands and says it is a good point.
Once Schindler leaves, the commander gets more drunk and starts shooting the inmates at random - because he can.
This will never mutate and change for the better.
It will never soften or become ameliorated because the abusers see reason.
Do not have time to read it all properly, but will go back. Thanks.
This quote from your link, though, seems apt:
"I think what we need to do is to stop deluding ourselves into believing that those in power will do what they have not done and they've shown no inclination to do, which is to support life over production," says Jensen, an author and environmental activist who lives in Northern California.
Replace "life over production" with people over profit or truth over propaganda or decency over ambition or honour over career or voters over your filthy, fckless, sponging mates...
evening all - flying visit in between packing for the trip home - George Freche est mort. Local paper is the source for all the other stories, and that's down. Probably more in the morning.
But let's all raise a glass to the old-school racist self-aggrandising power junky who, in his lighter moments, made life hell for the 'new left' and everything it stands for. He was at least honest about things.
Will try to get online tomorrow morning, but if not - will see the London contingent on Thursday in the Crown! Looking forward to it...
"It was a Tuesday evening and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy," she said in an interview today. Booth – who works for Press TV, the English-language Iranian news channel – has stopped eating pork and reads the Qur'an every day. She is currently on page 60."
Wasted some time earlier enjoying wandering around Sheff’s YouTube RSA Animate link – although I suspect somewhere in there it was telling me that I’m a failure (that’s what it usually comes to) - and on the end of ‘21st century enlightenment’ it concludes:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world...
It seems that the Guardian has now shamelessly become the official mouthpiece of the coalition. I can't say that I'm surprised. Although, fortunately they're still running some articles on gay Ugandans, the shortage of gay dads, the gentrification of the 'black neighbourhood' of Brixton, and how the cuts will affect women much more than men.
Thank God for identity politics, or where would all these oh-so-right-on-middle-class-caring 'liberals' be in this brave new world? How would they salve their well-fed consciences, and feel relaxed about maintaining their lovely life-styles if they didn't have somebody demonstrably inferior to stand up for? It's just a pity that it's Chinese miners or Pakistani transgendered persons or people that make ipods for 50 pence a day that they focus on. Although, to be fair, that's not really their fault - the unemployed, disabled, homeless, mentally ill, sick and desperate people in the UK are more or less invisible and discarded now, so why bother with that shit?
PS. working class people need not respond to this provocation - you're all scum anyway. I'm all right, Jack, but I really do care about things. (Just not about you.)
I think Reed sums it all up with this opening comment: "For those who requested a piece about the anti-gay backlash in Uganda - BellaM said we were on the case. A truly extraordinary piece. It's not often I'm moved to tears on Cif, but that one truly got to me."
That message means that there is no boot sector on the startup disk. In the old days, you could get it if you left a floppy disk in drive A and forgot about it, so that the machine tried to boot from there.
If you don't have a floppy drive, then your hard disk boot sector is corrupt somehow. Do you have a Windows restore disk on a CD or DVD? You need to boot the machine from a different disk, take a look at the hard disk that isn't booting, and see if it's kaput or worth restoring.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world...
That bears repeating. Thanks for your post above, above all else, we come to realise that hard-fought for 'Rights' are not 'Rights' at all, but as ol' Zizek points out, they are only vague entitlements handed out by the ruling classes disguised as 'rights in law' to keep us happy in our blissful ignorance that when push comes to shove - they'll trample us underfoot and take them away without a second thought.
I keep looking at people on the street who are already, clearly deprived and impoverished and think " what the hell is going to happen to these people"
LaRit fine apart from being fucking angry at the world....how's you?
Scherfig yep you kinda summed it up nicely.... let's not forget to remind them to give a fiver a month to a campaign to educate Roma kids (or similar)....and remind them that apart from them obviously supporting the education of a highly discriminated group, ( enters brusselsprout: you know they were also gassed in auschwitz) it will mean that you won't have them camping on Hampstead heath.....such an eyesore....
It's a bloody lovely record that - so glad you like it ;) It's poignant. You can't put Mr Knuckles down any way, shape or form for his choices in his remixes (thanks to Mr LaRit - record trainspotter extraordinaire) and like crazed lunatics, off to 'orsemeat dis-ko again.... we got to accompany a friend who's living it up because his kids are off school next week!!!! five squids to get in ;)
Well - it was a small group of 'thoughtful' persons who created the Welfare Reforms, and look what that's doing.
La Rit
It just needs a few really much-better-at-thinking people to think of a way of turning the tables on them - it's not as if they're that bright - they only imagine they're something special.
Although that could be why the surveillance set-ups of NuLab for monitoring all of our communications are being quietly reinstated.
In fact I seem to recollect that it was this same Grayling who kept writing articles puffing off about how they were going to get rid of the ID cards, and more than once I (and others) said - okay, but what about all of the database apparatus behind it? To which there was never a response - just another article with the same - 'we're going to cancel the ID card' mantra.
It was always obvious really.
Sherfig
In this Weekend Guardian there's a long article by Amelia Gentleman entitled 'Britain's not Working', which shows the problem of a family who haven't worked for three generations, and yet at the same time enforces throughout every stereotype of workless layabouts, without using the words. Leaving me wondering, exactly what are its intentions?
I know that lady regularly writes articles on social issues - makes a lot of money writing about people without it - presumably now having an even better insight about some present angles than many of us, since her husband became a Tory MP. It must really help to have someone with their ear-to-the-ground about what the government are doing to make things worse for those she presents in her articles.
(For those not acquainted - her husband Jo Johnson, younger brother of THE Boris, was parachuted into the Orpington seat for the last election; following a career as a merchant banker and then journalist of the Financial Times; following on from Eton and Oxford (of course).)
@PeterJ: thanks for the offer. I don't want to waste your time so I'll be as brief as possible.
The machine is an "HP compaq nc 4010" However before you begin your diagnosis you should know about its history.
My sister gave it to me and it's about 4 years old. It was bought as a package by the firm of consultants she is a director of and given to me on the understanding that I only needed a word processing program and broadband access.
So far (until last night)so good!
The thing is I don't have an external CD connection nor do I have the original stuff (either hard or soft) to re-boot!
As far as I'm aware, for security reasons, the original software is out of bounds, so it looks like I'm stuffed.
Ah. In that case you need a) an external CD-ROM drive and b) a Windows CD to boot in it and c) some fiddling around in the BIOS to make it boot from there.
I have both a) and b) for you to borrow if you like. Would be easy if the notebook was actually here...
Good morning.
ReplyDeleteWhy has Grayling been given two shots at flogging the govt's insane welfare policies?
I see from the 'councils plan for exodus of poor' thread that Ms Robinson is directly affected by higher rents imposed by private landlords benefiting from the inability of the banks to finance mortgages. Wishing you all the best in your search for a new home, Ms R.
On the housing benefit capping issue, everyone is so focused on the impact of this policy on London that they appear to be forgetting the rest of the country - areas which may not have such high rents but which also have no housing stock. And no jobs.
Hi there MsChin and all.
ReplyDeleteThe Greyling thread is bubbling over nicely. There is a classic piece of employer prejudice from 'onemanandhisparrot' who believes any long term unemployed are losers, that there are 10 million (count em!) folk who would be better off 'exported' abroad and also to make welfare 'eye-wateringly' inadequate. Lovely chap - yes? I think not. In fact I have met people such as this being unemployed long term in the past myself.
What is depressing (sorry) is as Redminer has pointed out, if you look at the general opinion boards there are a lot of the population who believe this kind of gobshite and willingly support it thinking the unemployed are all fiddling the system.
I despair.
Morning MsC
ReplyDeleteGrayling - Twice in 24 hours - what have we done to deserve such punishment?
I heard on R4 this morning that London councils have block booked bed and breakfast places outside the capital for all the many thousands of people they anticipate will be forced to leave the capital.
morning all.
ReplyDeletewhat i don't understand is that with, what, how many million unemployed and how many dozen jobs available, some people seem to think that the unemployed just aren't trying hard enough.
this isn't 'round peg in square hole', it's trying to fit a very very large camel through the eye of a very very small needle.
hope the sheffield march went well - just going to look back over yesterday's thread...
Montana - thanks for the link to that brilliant 'Muslims wearing things' blog yesterday! Genius response, as you say. And while that was the best possible pic to start it off, I think my favourit was probably:
ReplyDelete"Model Yasmin Warsame is wearing a form of Muslim eveningwear"
hehehehehe. nice one.
Morning everyone
ReplyDeleteThose Grayling threads have not been good for my blood pressure - well, the first one was fair enough because aside from half-a-dozen people supporting the tory gobshite, the other 360 or so responses were adamantly rejecting his bollocks. The second one has been more frustrating, though, with the likes of one-eyed, blinkered JSMilitant to contend with.
How can they not bloody see?
Cleggzilla on Desert Island Discs .. go on Kirsty!
ReplyDelete"This is not a time for triumphalism & bunting" says Clegg. So how come you were all so luvved up after Osborne delivered his spending review?
Quote from my other half - "Fecking hell, real toff's music!"
Oh Gawd - can't even get away from the bastards on Desert Island Discs
ReplyDeleteBB-- " How can they not bloody see?
ReplyDeleteMy blood pressure tells me to not spend too much time on trolls ! Meanwhile the Gobal Financial Crisis is progressing merrily . . here is chekhov's recomended link to Golem XIV . I checked and Fitch has put Bank of America on "Rating Watch Negative ..." .
Well done yesterday's demonstrators, I now have diesel for next week,s ;)
"How can they not bloody see?"
ReplyDeleteI doubt they have any intention of 'seeing' or understanding they are there as foot-soldiers in a propaganda/distraction war BB.
There are a lot of MAM outriders/apprentices on the Guard. The powerful and the rich do not, under any circumstances, intend to loose the ground they illicitly occupy or the control of the organs of change (media/MPs) they so blatantly manipulate.
We will not dislodge these bastards with words alone.
Truth is they have all conspired to reduce Parliamentary democracy to little more than a silly side show.
Our only hope is with the words of A42 (good to see you briefly back on UT Annetan) Educate-Organise-Agitate.
But sadly I think Labour is no longer fit for purpose it really did loose it's way with the abandonment of Clause IV.
We would be well advise to respond to those tossers not with argument but with a simple universal footnote....added to whatever you want to say on the thread
ReplyDeleteI respectfully suggest..... " (insert MAM/name of nasty here in bold)- Go away you mindless money grubbing tosser"
eg JSMilitant - Go away you money grubbing tosser.
Can't even follow me own advice...should have read.
ReplyDeleteJSMilitant - Go away you mindless money grubbing tosser.
or if you want to ring the changes..
JSMilitant - Go away you money grubbing mindless tosser
or if you don't like swearing....
JSMilitant - Go away you money grubbing mindless masturbatory moron.
If folk can't learn that it really was a lack of an organised collective response that resulted in the easy exclusion of HankScorpio/MonkeyFish/et al from the Guard they will have no real chance of influencing others. 18 months down the road we ain't learned much not even that a minimum requirement for a voice in a noisy world is amplification and that a collective voice is louder.
That's why tea and cake shop over there is such a distraction/waste of time and will never be much more than an occasionally amusing sideshow.
Must say I don't find it that funny but then I am a nutter.
gillesboy put a link to this up on waddya - its quite fun and makes some interesting points
ReplyDeleteThe Secret Powers of Time
Enjoyed that Sheff - great communication technique and great communicator.
ReplyDeleteLooked like a blackboard of a guy I used to know.
Away with Mungo
....saw some of the rest of the series using the technique and thus should add great propaganda tool too....
ReplyDeleteBB
ReplyDeleteMany disabled peole are talking about suicide. One poster said that the life of her son will end together with her own - heartbreaking.
What - if any - recourse would the family of a disabled person who killed themself as a result of these cuts have.
Driving someone to kill themselves cannot possibly be legal.
Hello all!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the long absence. New job is quite intense and was working yesterday and Friday. It's good though and once I pass the steep learning curve, it will be much more fun I'm sure.
Saw Throbbing Gristle last night - blew my mind a bit. Loads of really interesting people there and thankfully entirely clear of Shoreditch Twats and Hipster fuckwits. Bumped into an old mate of my sister's (music writer) who he i haven't seen for 10 years - is well known for being a bit radio-rental, but really sweet guy!
Had a chat with Genesis P. Orridge ;) a little bizarre but very congenial!
SheffP:
ReplyDeleteGlad the demo went well. There's one in Brixton next Saturday - looking forward to it.
Just discovered that Lambeth Council has £9.3 million in tobacco shares and yet they have a big drive to get people to give up smoking. The hypocrisy.
Leni
ReplyDeleteI am trying to think what it would amount to. It can't be assisting suicide because there has to be an element of encouragement or actual assistance at the time they die.
This from the very articulate Hamstrung on the (first) Grayling thread.
ReplyDeleteVery well worth the read.
I am 52 and have had 3 breakdowns and several close calls. My mental instability cost me my marriage. Frankly, I am more aware of how to manage my disability than any DWP/ATOS employee and, dare I say, my doctor too. I have had to "cope" since 14.
SInce 2004 I have had 3 ATOS medicals. I passed 1 & 3, no problems but failed no. 2.
And, for those of you fortunate enough never having had to go through this experience.....
If you are arrested and taken in for questioning you are allowed to answer No Comment to everything and have the support of a legal representative. Not so the ATOS medical. It is quite the opposite - you have no legal representation and must answer all the questions or immediately be declined. Ergo, a suspect in law has more rights.
I ended up on IB in 2004 because, despite my best efforts on JSA I was given a fait acomplis by the JobCentre staff - long distance driving or care work. Given my mental health problems I didn't think that the driving would be safe for me or other road users so opted for care work. As I was living in a hostel for the homeless at the time, part time work was out of the question - it had to be full time to cover the rent. I got the job (minimum wage, shitty hours) - not much competition. Within four weeks, I was in the back of an ambulance with a suspected heart attack. Well, at least I learned that in addition to my arthritic knees and perpetual mental problems I had arrhythmia. Like ATOS would care!!
LaRit
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun!
continued....
ReplyDeleteI "failed" no. 2 because I work - ergo, if I am well enough to work I shouldn't be claiming IB. Yes, I work for a charity because I prefer not to take state money without paying something back to society if I am at all able. And that is the crux - I work as a volunteer when I am well enough. I am proud to work, I am pleased to do the job I do and I know that it helps keeps me in good health. Better to work and contribute something at least through the charity than moulder away.
Now, I'm gonna ask you to please, don't drift off, you might learn something Mr Grayling.
I had my ATOS "medical" on the Monday and in the post on that Thursday I learned I had failed *no2*. I appealed. Between "failing" and the "tribunal" was 12 weeks without any money. Not a penny piece. From anywhere. The charity I worked for "accidentally over-ordered on lunches" and insisted I took home the extra. The bills at home I paid for on my credit card (how many people on JSA/IB have credit cards?) When I spoke to the office handling my IB they said "Well, you're appealing aren't you? If you are successful then your money will be backdated". And I asked, "And if I'm not successful, what then?" And they answered "Well, you'll have a problem then, won't you?" No kidding.
My tribunal only had two members. One was a doctor who looked truly mortified to be there but the other - what can I say? He'd had a good life. He had burst blood vessels on burst blood vessels. A checked Viyella shirt and a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches. Skip the golf and go straight to the 18th. And these two sat, in a court room, on a dais, looking down on me. I have never even come close to breaking any law. I was incensed.
At the end of the interrogation from Mr. VAT69, I was handed my Award - my Appeal was upheld. I was asked if I had any questions so I said yes, two. My first was, Was the Appeal Notice I was holding a legal document, whereupon I was told Yes so I then asked, In that case, shouldn't my name be spelled correctly? It was worth it. I thought the f**ker sitting in judgement (who knew absolutely "f*ck all about me and that was the point) would explode! Good (only he didn't, shame).
I am sick, not stupid. And now I'm shitting myself. Not just for me. I have a better chance than many. For one thing I am intelligent. And articulate. At my place of work I know many who are neither.
So, when these politicians speak of work, they don't actually mean work, what they mean is paid employment.
I have been with one of the Government sub-contractors to find paid employment (at my own request) for over a year now without any luck. We've been through the CV stuff et al. Two months ago I spent an hour and a half on the computer completing a job application to be a porter at my local hospital. No kidding. And, they didn't even have the civility to respond and say Thanks but No Thanks. It's not like they even have to type and letter and stick a stamp on. An email would do it.
I emplore, emplore (if it's the last thing I do) that official records be kept, on a national scale, of suicides and attempted suicides for future generations so that when this folly is considered again (as it surely will be) the next generation will have something to compare and therefore not repeat.
Clegg, Cameron, Cable, Grayling, Alexander, Duncan Smith - You will have blood on your hands. Be proud, be very proud.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry... weird multiple postings going on....
ReplyDeleteBB
It was really great, they were on top form and it was very emotionally charged.... almost too intense at times, the sound system was enormous and even with earplugs in - they way the bass moved through your body was extraordinary ;) Made my hair stand on end!!!!
La Rit
ReplyDeleteRedminer posted this on waddya;
Posted on BBC Ouch Disability Message Board by a well known and respected campaigner for the disabled, Anne Novis, currently shortlisted for an award for her work combatting disability hate crime>
(my bold)
"I am facing cuts to my benefits and social care.
I don't know when except I have a review of care needs in few weeks I fully expect the local authority to try and reduce my care package.
The there is the review of the Independent Living Fund which pays for half my social care, this is now frozen, and I do not know what is going to happen.
If I loise my incapcity benefit due to ATOS medical I will lose my DLA HRC which also means I will lose my ILF funding for care all are linked one goes all goes.
So I am scared, really scared, for me and so many others and would like some reassurance but there is none out there.
Some disabled people are thinking of mass suicide as they see no other option for thier life, sveral have already taken this path.
The fear is huge, the anxiety os every minute of the day, every news article and TV interview makes it worse.
My life is at the edge of a precipice which this government has put me scared to go out cos of being attacked, facing the hostility as so many resent us thinking we are rich and fraudsters.
It matters not that any of us contribute to society in so many ways, our human rights do not exist, we are the scapegotas for a consumer driven society and the countries debt.
The message is loud and clear
We should not exist!"
BBC Ouch messageboard
This is how people are feeling already - what the hell is it going to be like in a year - two years time?
SheffP:
ReplyDeleteMy god, that's bleak. It hadn't even occurred to me that of course, the constant re-affirmation that anyone with a disability is claiming benefits is a 'fraud' and people, already stigmatised are going to suffer attacks because of how they are perceived is horrific.
I was reading somewhere in the last few days about how attacks on the disabled are on the increase - is this constant portrayal of the disabled as 'lying, thieving benefit scroungers' increasing the likelihood?
For those who don't see the paper Guardian, I thought this letter from a doctor covered the situation pretty well:
ReplyDelete"From my experience as a GP, if you cannot walk more than a few yards due to kidney failure, or have just had a lung removed from cancer, you will be pronounced 'fit for work'. I now warn my disabled patients that they will be tested, they will be found fit for work, and will have to appeal for benefits. A bit like the old parish charity.
To save money, why don't they come clean and declare every breathing soul fit for work, and skip directly to the appeals?"
La Rit
If you are arrested and taken in for questioning you are allowed to answer No Comment to everything and have the support of a legal representative. Not so the ATOS medical. It is quite the opposite - you have no legal representation and must answer all the questions or immediately be declined. Ergo, a suspect in law has more rights.
The person who goes to an Atos medical doesn't have any rights at all - full stop. They are treated as if they are suspected to be guilty of a criminal act from the first second they enter; and if they believe that they have proven their innocence, many will soon find out that their accounts have not been believed - that is, it has suited their 'accusers' to decided otherwise.
What court of law doesn't allow any evidence, and then decides itself, on a whim, which accounts will be believed?
Or - why are our sick and disabled being treated as if they should have less rights than those suspected of serious criminal acts? Why are they being treated as if they are guilty either way?
Should the 'suspect' hang on for the appeal and get a copy of their medical report, they may well find that the observations the doctor made now have quite other conclusions. They may even find that it says they gave responses that they know they would never give to subjects they don't recollect even being mentioned at the medical.
This still hasn't been emphasised enough. It isn't just that they keep pushing up the height of the hurdles to be leapt over - it is that they then produce reports which sometimes have so little connection with reality that the receiver wonders if they've been sent someone else's report by mistake (that can happen, but usually it's because the paperwork produced by LIMA is a mixture of incompetencies and biased objectives).
This is done knowing that many will give up at that point in despair - considering it hopeless. That the others will have to prove the results of an unwitnessed interview, where it is someone's word against theirs. (Even if they bring someone with them, the accounts/notes of witnesses don't count either - they could be making it up.)
Anyone involved with any involvement or activity should never tell them so! You can even better be a proud contributor to society (doing helpful things without pay, when feeling up to it), without 'boasting' of it and having your income removed. Personally, I don't get this - oh, you're doing some voluntary work - you're trying to do something - you don't qualify for assistance then. Where's the sense to it?
Sounds like that wasn't just recently though, because appeals are now usually at least six months (and rising).
MsChin
Why has Grayling been given two shots at flogging the govt's insane welfare policies?
Presumably because the readers didn't seem to 'get' the message the first time around.
After all, everyone agrees for the need for these cuts. I know this because they keep saying so (still haven't asked me about it).
To which (plus many more astute observations):
"You lot don't need hands, just the two fingers. Trusting you with welfare is like trusting Garry Glitter to mind the kids."
Expect another article telling us again what good things they are doing for us with these benefit cuts - very soon.
The problem, in my opinion, is that the whole ideological thrust of the government, along with its lies and propaganda, need to be challenged publicly and kept in the spotlight continuously from now on, by whatever means possible.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that most people ended up holding off actually doing anything about New Labour for the last couple of years because the thinking seemed to be, you only have to wait for them to be voted out and things will change.
They have changed and the aggressiveness and vindictiveness of the process is apparent after just five months.
If this is left, people will again think, "Oh, they will soon be going through a rocky patch and then we can attack and undermine them and people will follow."
The signs are - as always - that with people like Nick "Propaganda Mouthpiece" Robinson on the BBC, the always unreliable and untrustworthy Cif, the Murdoch and Dacre press, the fact that people are not interested in politics anyway, there will be no spontaneous uprising.
This is not to say that people here and elsewhere are not doing their bit in the real world.
It is simply to say that there will never be a point when the politicians, bankers, business people or anyone in power claps their hand to their forehead and says: "Wait a minute! This is wrong. We are behaving like animals and we need to show that we are moral entities who can choose to behave well."
Remember the film Schindler's List?
Schindler goes to the concentration camp commander and tells him that he has the power to decide not to be evil and that this is a greater power than submitting to the easy choice of giving in to his atavistic nature.
The commander understands and says it is a good point.
Once Schindler leaves, the commander gets more drunk and starts shooting the inmates at random - because he can.
This will never mutate and change for the better.
It will never soften or become ameliorated because the abusers see reason.
We are now the enemy of the state.
Conversely, the state is now our enemy.
Atomboy This actually 'American' bloke, despite the name, hehe, did some great non-embedded reporting from Iraq . Dahr Jamail at TruthOut 5/9
ReplyDeleteWhen the going gets tough . . .
Frog2
ReplyDeleteDo not have time to read it all properly, but will go back. Thanks.
This quote from your link, though, seems apt:
"I think what we need to do is to stop deluding ourselves into believing that those in power will do what they have not done and they've shown no inclination to do, which is to support life over production," says Jensen, an author and environmental activist who lives in Northern California.
Replace "life over production" with people over profit or truth over propaganda or decency over ambition or honour over career or voters over your filthy, fckless, sponging mates...
You get the idea.
evening all - flying visit in between packing for the trip home - George Freche est mort. Local paper is the source for all the other stories, and that's down. Probably more in the morning.
ReplyDeleteBut let's all raise a glass to the old-school racist self-aggrandising power junky who, in his lighter moments, made life hell for the 'new left' and everything it stands for. He was at least honest about things.
Will try to get online tomorrow morning, but if not - will see the London contingent on Thursday in the Crown! Looking forward to it...
evening all........
ReplyDeleteLauren Booth converts to Islam:
"It was a Tuesday evening and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy," she said in an interview today.
Booth – who works for Press TV, the English-language Iranian news channel – has stopped eating pork and reads the Qur'an every day. She is currently on page 60."
didn't realise she could read as well.....
Wasted some time earlier enjoying wandering around Sheff’s YouTube RSA Animate link – although I suspect somewhere in there it was telling me that I’m a failure (that’s what it usually comes to) - and on the end of ‘21st century enlightenment’ it concludes:
ReplyDeleteNever doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world...
front page Graun:
ReplyDelete"Three killed in helicopter crash
Pilot and two passengers from south-east England were in Northern Ireland for day of shooting"
maybe they should rephrase that one.......
moonwave
ReplyDeleteMargaret Mead - I love that quote.
And now for the govt's next 'deficit reduction' trick: the sell-off of our woodlands & forests.
I presume that I'll still not be able to buy a few trees on the Chatsworth estate, or at Castle Howard.
It seems that the Guardian has now shamelessly become the official mouthpiece of the coalition. I can't say that I'm surprised. Although, fortunately they're still running some articles on gay Ugandans, the shortage of gay dads, the gentrification of the 'black neighbourhood' of Brixton, and how the cuts will affect women much more than men.
ReplyDeleteThank God for identity politics, or where would all these oh-so-right-on-middle-class-caring 'liberals' be in this brave new world? How would they salve their well-fed consciences, and feel relaxed about maintaining their lovely life-styles if they didn't have somebody demonstrably inferior to stand up for? It's just a pity that it's Chinese miners or Pakistani transgendered persons or people that make ipods for 50 pence a day that they focus on. Although, to be fair, that's not really their fault - the unemployed, disabled, homeless, mentally ill, sick and desperate people in the UK are more or less invisible and discarded now, so why bother with that shit?
PS. working class people need not respond to this provocation - you're all scum anyway. I'm all right, Jack, but I really do care about things. (Just not about you.)
Hello everyone; I'm back on the old steam driven kit. The laptop crashed last night no amount of prodding today can wake it up.
ReplyDeleteAny "pooter nerds" on here?
All I'm getting is:
"Non-system disk or disk error
replace and strike any key when ready"
And, yes I've tried turning it off and back on again!
BTW:I notice the coalition have also reneged on their pledge to put the brakes on "mission creep" with regard to surveillance and ID cards.
scherfig
ReplyDeleteI think Reed sums it all up with this opening comment:
"For those who requested a piece about the anti-gay backlash in Uganda - BellaM said we were on the case. A truly extraordinary piece. It's not often I'm moved to tears on Cif, but that one truly got to me."
@chekhov
ReplyDeleteThat message means that there is no boot sector on the startup disk. In the old days, you could get it if you left a floppy disk in drive A and forgot about it, so that the machine tried to boot from there.
If you don't have a floppy drive, then your hard disk boot sector is corrupt somehow. Do you have a Windows restore disk on a CD or DVD? You need to boot the machine from a different disk, take a look at the hard disk that isn't booting, and see if it's kaput or worth restoring.
@chekhov
ReplyDeleteOh, and I can lead you through the process if necessary. What make and model is the machine?
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world...
ReplyDeleteThat bears repeating. Thanks for your post above, above all else, we come to realise that hard-fought for 'Rights' are not 'Rights' at all, but as ol' Zizek points out, they are only vague entitlements handed out by the ruling classes disguised as 'rights in law' to keep us happy in our blissful ignorance that when push comes to shove - they'll trample us underfoot and take them away without a second thought.
I keep looking at people on the street who are already, clearly deprived and impoverished and think " what the hell is going to happen to these people"
Gandolfo:
ReplyDeleteYou alright?
Thanks for making me ROTFL ;0)
LaRit
ReplyDeletefine apart from being fucking angry at the world....how's you?
Scherfig
yep you kinda summed it up nicely....
let's not forget to remind them to give a fiver a month to a campaign to educate Roma kids (or similar)....and remind them that apart from them obviously supporting the education of a highly discriminated group, ( enters brusselsprout: you know they were also gassed in auschwitz) it will mean that you won't have them camping on Hampstead heath.....such an eyesore....
Me too, Gandolfo angrier and angrier .... I keep thinking I'm going to wake up ;(
ReplyDeleteHiya Scherfig - Really nice to see you ;)
For you both and anyone else who's around.... it's a bloody lovely toon...(hope link works)
hercules & love affair - frankieknucklesremix
link works laRit......nice......v.nice........thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt's a bloody lovely record that - so glad you like it ;) It's poignant. You can't put Mr Knuckles down any way, shape or form for his choices in his remixes (thanks to Mr LaRit - record trainspotter extraordinaire) and like crazed lunatics, off to 'orsemeat dis-ko again.... we got to accompany a friend who's living it up because his kids are off school next week!!!! five squids to get in ;)
ReplyDeleteMsChin
ReplyDeleteThank you for supplying the name.
Well - it was a small group of 'thoughtful' persons who created the Welfare Reforms, and look what that's doing.
La Rit
It just needs a few really much-better-at-thinking people to think of a way of turning the tables on them - it's not as if they're that bright - they only imagine they're something special.
Although that could be why the surveillance set-ups of NuLab for monitoring all of our communications are being quietly reinstated.
In fact I seem to recollect that it was this same Grayling who kept writing articles puffing off about how they were going to get rid of the ID cards, and more than once I (and others) said - okay, but what about all of the database apparatus behind it? To which there was never a response - just another article with the same - 'we're going to cancel the ID card' mantra.
It was always obvious really.
Sherfig
In this Weekend Guardian there's a long article by Amelia Gentleman entitled 'Britain's not Working', which shows the problem of a family who haven't worked for three generations, and yet at the same time enforces throughout every stereotype of workless layabouts, without using the words. Leaving me wondering, exactly what are its intentions?
I know that lady regularly writes articles on social issues - makes a lot of money writing about people without it - presumably now having an even better insight about some present angles than many of us, since her husband became a Tory MP. It must really help to have someone with their ear-to-the-ground about what the government are doing to make things worse for those she presents in her articles.
(For those not acquainted - her husband Jo Johnson, younger brother of THE Boris, was parachuted into the Orpington seat for the last election; following a career as a merchant banker and then journalist of the Financial Times; following on from Eton and Oxford (of course).)
So - what's their game?
enjoy.......!
ReplyDelete@PeterJ: thanks for the offer. I don't want to waste your time so I'll be as brief as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe machine is an "HP compaq nc 4010"
However before you begin your diagnosis you should know about its history.
My sister gave it to me and it's about 4 years old. It was bought as a package by the firm of consultants she is a director of and given to me on the understanding that I only needed a word processing program and broadband access.
So far (until last night)so good!
The thing is I don't have an external CD connection nor do I have the original stuff (either hard or soft) to re-boot!
As far as I'm aware, for security reasons, the original software is out of bounds, so it looks like I'm stuffed.
Scherfig:
ReplyDeletewhat's the fucking point anyway?
I thought nihilism was my game... ;( me old souls day is coming up soon a week on Monday.
Moonwave:
*waves* ;)
it's not as if they're that bright - they only imagine they're something special
If only everyone realised this.
It was always obvious really
Wasn't it just?
It doesn't even require strength, just the ability to see from a slightly different angle of the mirror.
Gandolfo
Will try not to be lead into temptation!
What's the point?...well obviously the point is to get Sheffield United to win the Premier League Championship!
ReplyDeleteWhat planet do you all live on;-)
@chekhov
ReplyDeleteAh. In that case you need a) an external CD-ROM drive and b) a Windows CD to boot in it and c) some fiddling around in the BIOS to make it boot from there.
I have both a) and b) for you to borrow if you like. Would be easy if the notebook was actually here...
Excellent piece in Tribune, here, by Martin Rowson, describing his first meeting with George Osborne.
ReplyDelete