♫ You've got to pick a pocket or 65 million ♫

It seems paying healthy people to stay at home, is no longer trendy now Covid is over

Putting the welfare system “on a sustainable long-term footing”. Ending “sick note culture”. “Hard truths” followed by “painful” choices after the “worst economic inheritance in modern history”.

Nice words. Is our Labour Government planning to do something about benefit scroungers?

One would be forgiven for thinking these are remarks from ministers in the current Government. In fact, they were uttered by austerity architect George Osborne and his prime minister David Cameron.

And this is why I don't believe a word that any of the buggers utter. Fourteen years ago we had a new Conservative coalition telling us that hard choices needed to be made, but we never saw any meaningful austerity then, or in fourteen years of a 'Conservative' Government having the ability to do so

 

And now Labour are saying the same tired old shit. Nothing changed before, and nothing will change now, but some in the Labour party are loosing their shit anyway, just at the thought of something sensible being done to tackle welfare spending

The Labour Prime Minister has vowed to be “ruthless with cuts” to welfare, taking a leaf out of the Conservative Party’s book in the process. Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has meanwhile described some people on health benefits as “taking the mickey”.

True. And most normal people have been saying it for a very long time

“It’s absolutely disgraceful,” says Kim Johnson, the MP for Liverpool Riverside. Ministers are “attacking some of the most vulnerable in our society and picking the pockets of those most in need. I will not stand for it”.

The money in the pockets of those who refuse to work and instead, choose a life of scrounging from others, comes from the pockets of the taxpayers who do go to work and create that money

The only pockets being picked here are ours, the workers

 

But we have Labour MPs who 'will not stand for it'. Will not stand for any sensible approach to welfare payments, where we actually make sure that those in reciept, are getting welfare because they are in a bad situation which is no fault of their own, and they're actually taking all necessary steps to do something about that situation

 

As has been pointed out elswhere, it's quite telling that this is an MP for Liverpool 

I really don't know what she's bothered about though. When it comes to sensibly cutting welfare payments, this Labour Government will achieve pretty much the same as all the other Governments for the past fourteen years

 

Bugger all