Apart from your last sentence, I completely agree with you there Moley. I have a problem with your last sentence because I believe the current politicians do know precisely what they are doing. There is no way that they can be ignorant of the pain and suffering they are deliberately inflicting on the most vulnerable. 'Callous' and 'low empathy' are not too strong to describe these people; I think 'evil' is a more appropriate word to describe them. It appears that the more they get away with, the more extreme they become.

"@ComResPolls: UKIP have 11 point lead in new Euro poll for @itvnews :
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LibDem: 8% (NC)
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Blessed Margaret Thatcher did not destroy the unions - they destroyed themselves, remember Red Robbo, Arthur Scargill and all the other extreme-Left union bully boys! What Margaret did was to confront these bullies and bring them to heel whereby they could not continue to intimidate and hold this country and its people to ransom. Long overdue!


I see nothing wrong in asking people to make an effort in exchange for financial support - would these same people be prepared to work on community projects in exchange for their social welfare benefits? I doubt it, they'd moan and make excuses, anything to avoid putting something back in the pot - their ever extended hands are only too happy to receive their social welfare payments but those same hands are not, in many cases, keen to work. I believe welfare should be time-bound and paid with a tapering effect - its become too much of "a right" rather a temporary helping hand.

Agree 100% with those replies. I thought people seeking employment got free bus passes ?

_________________
Lets be careful out there !

As I said earlier, there were rights and wrongs on both sides, and some union bosses in the 70's were above their station and needed bringing down a peg or two. It's a shame they had to drag their members down with them but at least there was a sense of unity. The bosses and politicians were far from blameless it has to be said.

The extreme-Left bully boys used their unions to pursue their own selfish political agenda's, it was a cynical ploy "to smash the system" as they saw it, thank God it didn't work due to us having, at long last, a politician brave enough to stand up to them. The unity you speak about meant nothing because at the end of the day the members were mere cannon fodder, e.g., the miners used by Scargill who fought the wrong battle at the wrong time and ensured that disaster resulted.

I agree with you Moley. Similarly, there are justified benefit claimants, and there are many unjustified claimants. Over the years successive governments have done their level best to encourage and increase the benefit culture, especially Labour governments have; and the Lib element of this Coalition continue to do their best to increase the benefit culture. Having created the problem, the political class are now punishing everybody who makes a benefit claim, whether the claimant be justified or not.

The wilful destruction of private pensions by the political class is one area in which these policies will have enormous impact on the numbers claiming benefits. The open door immigration policy that no party when in government has made any serious attempt to close, is another major reason for the explosion in the benefit culture (and let's not forget that Labour sent agents around the globe seeking immigrants in order to change the culture of Britain). We have the constant expansion of the Nanny State where the political class assume the right to control every aspect of each of our lives; we are even denied the right to think and speak for ourselves.

We now have a grossly inflated benefit culture where the unjustified claimant appears to be left free to abuse the system, while the justified claimant, who through no fault of their own, find themselves needing a measure of financial support.

Consider the unemployed; there will always be those who have no intention of ever finding work; at the same time there are those who desperately do want to work, but the jobs are not there. Since the political destruction of much of British industry it is inevitable now that many genuine job seekers will find it very difficult to find meaningful work that provides a proper living wage. It is the duty of government to positively identify those who will not work, and those who would work if only there were meaningful jobs out there, and deal responsibly with each, in an appropriate manner, not just throw a one-size-fits-all blanket system of punishment over all benefit claimants.

Far too many new jobs these days are of the minimum wage category; it is impossible to properly support a family on that level of income. An average Council Tax demand these days accounts for something like £1500 per month from a taxed income; private rents frequently represent outright greed; the green agenda is pricing the cost of energy out of the reach of anybody trying to live on the minimum wage. Food prices are rising at multiples of the official inflation rate, and food prices are heavily influenced by the cost of road fuel and energy prices. VAT at 20% is another killer for anybody living on the minimum wage. Public transport fares are constantly on an upward spiral.

Council Tax; the green agenda levy on energy; fuel prices (taxes); and VAT, are all within the realm of government, and are responsible for making the now far too common minimum wage and impossible wage on which to support a family.

One other major factor affecting employment today are the ridiculous zero hours employment contracts that have also become very common.

Governments increasingly like to blame the public for the the size and cost of the benefit system, but governments are driven by political policies, and their policies are primarily responsible for the current cost of the benefit system that the politicos complain about. Governments have been driven by the policies of the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and the Liberal Democrat Party. The situation is so utterly ridiculous that the very sanity of the political class has to be called into doubt.

The major reason for the rising popularity of UKIP is the electorate's desparate realisation at last, that there are no fundamental differences between the LibLabCons. This situation is providing the opportunity for the LibLabCons and their media friends to demonstrate just how nasty they all are, as they throw mud at Nigel Farage, UKIP members, and the electorate who dare to vote for them.

The scourge of the 21st Century....

Zero hour contracts....Unless this area is regulated and this madness pegged it will impact badly on the economy in the future.

Example how can a person prove earnings to the bank to get a mortgage or a car loan if an employer has that much control the person does not know what they will be earning from one week to the next.

Larger employers have also come to rely on the benefit system to top up wages in the form of tax credits..

I think they're wicked. Totally wrong.

Thanks for reminding me Geezer. Yes, tax credits are another absurd political policy that are designed to reduce the cost to employers whilst increasing the pressure on the benefit system, i.e.the taxpayer. Tax credits are thoroughly perverse, deceitful, and fraudulent. And represent a perfect example of the zero difference between the LibLabCon these days; Brown of Labour introduced tax credits, but Osborne has done absolutely nothing to rectify this economic insanity.

I plan to vote UKIP on May the 22nd; not because I'm enthralled with the whole of UKIP's policies, but because UKIP represent some degree of alternative to the unified policies of the LibLabCon and their addiction to the evil EU.