Will Work & Pensions debate sideline abuses against benefit claimants and carers?

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

(An email from a concerned family carer got me to do this blog piece that I actually started at about 4:55 this morning.)

On Monday 12 April a contributor to CarersUK online forum about today's Daily Politics Show stated:

....

 I watched question time last week and the only person that mentioned the worry and concerns of people with disabilities and Carers was Natalie Bennett. It was brief and the subject wasn't continued!

Then we had William Hague, stating that their party had created jobs to get people out of poverty when questioned about the rise in food banks and the amount of people who had to use them. George Osborne stated the same recently. This is all well and good but how do people cope until they do find work and get on their feet! This party quote numbers about people who are now employed but I am led to believe that many are zero hour contracts (casual labour) and jobs with little security.(1)

....

I had a similar experience back in about 2008 at an Economics Conference run by the Guardian in tandem with the Trades Union Congress. As the then spokesperson for the Green Party of England & Wales on such matters, I asked the panel that included Labour's appointed 'Happiness Guru' Lord Layard how they would improve the economic conditions of family-based carers who were little supported by Carers Alllowance and the removal of their support services from local councils, etc.(2) (Family-based carers saved the UK economy more than the total NHS budget even before the 2010 General Election!) The panel chaired by the Guardian's Economics editor and including one East Midlands Member of the European Parliament were greatly relieved by the chairperson's sidelining of that question as irrelevant.

Since then we have had a harsher 'Work Capability Assessment' i(WCA) n order for people to 'qualify' for Employment & Support Allowance; that test though not piloted until 2011 was actually authorised by Labour's last Work & Pension Secretary Yvette Cooper. And Carers Allowance is being made harder to claim on account of the changes from Disability Living Allowance as gateway benefit to 'Personal Independence Payments' that is tested by the notorious Atos. And the orchestrated smear stories intimidate Labour politicians into mitigating their language against giving proper support to benefit claimants, while its MPs obviously have histories of neglect and abuse of benefit claimants and jobseekers that they would rather not allow to resurface, such as the DWP system meltdown that happed on their pre-2005 General Election watch as a result of staff cuts and a move to remote control of benefit claims.(5)

And I also recall great unease and frustration in carers campaigning colleagues at the 38 Degrees online pressure group's non-inclusion of Atos and carers-related issues before the 2010 General Election when it asked people to vote for its campaigning priorities. Of course, since then things have got much worse, including the scrapping of Independent Living Fund that Labour is not keen to reinstate.

So I would ask my readers to put pressure on the BBC Daily Politics show ahead of their Work & Pensions Debate today, by emailing dailypolitics@bbc.co.uk (6)

Do we get the governments we deserve, or merely the 'options' that even lobbyists such as 38 Degrees and ivory-towered mass media moguls such as Paul Dacre tell us are our [only] options? While I do not approve of violence, maybe it's a case of 'shoot the censors' rather than the politicians as messengers in debates? How about firing an email at them? Politicians can say they are getting support and are supporting people who email them with their concerns, and maybe the censors might feel put under pressure. (Yet I wonder how many of the frontline recipients of email to mass media outlets are themselves unpaid graduate interns?(8))

Post Script

See also:

Carer Watch blog post: Will Iain Duncan Smith turn up for Welfare Debate (9). And note that because of election impartiality rules, if one party does not turn up the debate is cancelled!
Pollsters' 'vision' excludes those offline?,(10) on opinion pollsters as hegemonic censors in the sense of "the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group". (11)

Iain Duncan Smith did turn up and was strongly challenged over 'welfare reform' related deaths by Green Party Work & Pensions Spokesperson Jonathan Bartley. The spokespersons' podia were arranged so that a ding dong between Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative could be covered via one camera position, and the camera rarely moved from that position of a discussion between those who had 'been there, done that'. The only spokesperson who mentioned the plight of family-based carers was UKIP Work & Pensions Spokesperson Suzanne Evans and she was soon marginalised. (12)

Notes

(1) http://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/carer-and-disability-benefits/daily-politics-show-welfare-debate-may-5th-22708?p=304562
(2) http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2009/07/16/change-the-terms-of-carers-allowance-to-allow-more-carers-to-work/
(3) http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2007/09/20/carers-unpaid-support-is-worth-more-than-nhs-annual-budget/
(4) http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=568244
(5) http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2006/11/16/jobcentre-plus-poor-service-continues/
(6)  http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/5-party-welfare-debate-tuesday-5-may.html
(7) http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2013/12/man-who-hates-liberal-britain
(8) http://www.newstatesman.com/economics/2013/08/generation-jobless-worst-youth-unemployment-crisis-european-history-should-be-blam
(9) https://carerwatch.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/will-iain-duncan-smith-turn-up-for-welfare-debate/
 (10) http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/pollsters-vision-excludes-those-offline.html
(11) http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hegemony
(12) This is now available on BBC iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05tb4pz/daily-politics-2015-election-debates-welfare

Beware of small print on election leaflets!

Dude Swheatie has just received email notification that a candidate standing for General Election in a North London constituency has been sending out leaflets attacking one of their opposing parties in colours associated with yet another party.

Officials of the yet another party concerned have received complaints from recipients of those leaflets, and through having locals in the area have discovered that the small print does say that the leaflet comes from the campaign office of the 2010 elected Member of Parliament standing for re-election. Negative campaigning is 'not the style' of the yet another party.

So it's not just benefit claimants who have dirty tricks played on them!

5-party-welfare-debate Tuesday 5 May 2015

Tuesday May 5th Daily Politics debate BBC2 2pm BBC News 8.30pm(1)

Presenters Andrew Neil and Alison Holt 

Participants — in alphabetical order of surname

• Jonathan Bartley Green Party
• Suzanne Evans UKIP 
• Rachel Reeves Labour
• Iain Duncan Smith Conservative 
• Steve Webb LibDems

See also

Election watchdog's Easy-Read 'insult to disabled people'(2)
Election 2015: ‘Jury’ backs Greens, as Tories ignore invite(3)

.... I watched question time last week and the only person that mentioned the worry and concerns of people with disabilities and Carers was Natalie Bennett. It was brief and the subject wasn't continued!.... (Comment Posted Mon 12 April 2015)

Source: http://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/carer-and-disability-benefits/daily-politics-show-welfare-debate-may-5th-22708?p=304562 (4)

Vote for Policies online interactive portal (5)

Notes
(1) https://carerwatch.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/daily-politics-welfare-debate-tues-5th-may/
(2) http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-watchdogs-easy-read-insult-to-disabled-people/
(3) http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-2015-jury-backs-greens-as-tories-ignore-invite/
(4) http://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/carer-and-disability-benefits/daily-politics-show-welfare-debate-may-5th-22708?p=304562
(5)  https://voteforpolicies.org.uk/

What Green Party votes stand for

A Personal View By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

In the face of not only BBC cenorship of the Green Party leader's involvement in last Thursday's 'leaders debate' but also BBC news broadcast non-reporting of the Green Party in daily broadcasts of 'what the main parties are doing in the run-up to Thursday's poll', I offer the following clues, some of which have clickable links to manifesto entries on the Green Party's website.

There are alternatives

 Margaret Thatcher's infamous saying, "There is No Alternative," gave her the nickname 'TINA'. Perhaps the BBC News editors should be described as Auntie TINAs?

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group is non-party-political and contains members of various political parties and none. Outside of the options presented by the BBC as the only valid options, the main parties of interest to Kwug members seem to be TUSC (Trade Union & Socialist Coalition)(1) and the Green Party of England & Wales(2). Some Kwug members while being keen on TUSC advocate voting Labour as a lesser evil than letting in a party that promises or threatens '£12bn further [and unspecified] welfare cuts' even where Hampstead & Kilburn Green Party candidate is making an excellent stand and getting electoral support as a result. I disagree with that stand point, not only on the grounds of making a stand for Proportional Representation.

Green Party votes acknowledge the level of internal democratic process that has led to the formulation of a real alternative electoral platform and the elections of Green Party Members of the European Parliament, London Assembly Members and a Green Party MP.(3)

What Green Party votes stand for

No ifs, no buts, the Green Party stands for no benefit sanctions

---

We have everything we need to build a fair economy: natural resources, skilled people, modern technology.

But the Westminster Establishment has built an unfair [economy] where those at the top gain while those at the bottom suffer.

We can transform our economy if we have the courage to challenge the vested interests and close the gap between the righ and the poor.

[Read on... ](4)

---

We all want somewhere warm, safe and secure to call home.

But we have a housing crisis with soaring private rents while social housing is being sold off left, right and centre....

[Read more....](5)

---

We have world class universities, brilliant teachers and talented students.

But by putting a price tag on education, running schools as businesses and making them exam factories we are wasting children's potential and stifling creativity....

[Read on]....(6)

---

Outline continued on special blog page....

---

Notes

(1) http://tusc2015.com/
(2) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/
(3) See 'What Difference Can a Green MP make?' short film accessed 4 May 2015 https://youtu.be/Uq31QIMjVtU
(4) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/fair-economy.html
(5) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/decent-homes.html
(6) https://www.greenparty.org.uk/we-stand-for/free-education.html

BBC rejects Green Party leader involvement

Petition update

Alex W just posted an update on the petition you signed, BBC: Invite the Green Party to the TV Q&A programmes on 30 April.(1)

Well, we tried... May 03, 2015 — Unfortunately, despite nearly 7000 of us adding our voices to this petition, and the BBC being aware of it, the BBC didn't invite Natalie Bennett to last Thursday's Q&A. The Green... Read more Read more

Notes (1) https://www.change.org/p/bbc-invite-the-green-party-to-the-tv-q-a-programmes-on-30-april (2) Read more link https://www.change.org/p/bbc-invite-the-green-party-to-the-tv-q-a-programmes-on-30-april/u/10663637

Hampstead & Kilburn UKIP candidate update

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

The Hampstaead & Kilburn hustings on Monday 20 April at UCL Academy organised by KUWG with the Somali Cultural Association and Winch Youth Project there were Conservative, Green Party, Labour and Lib Dem candidates but not UKIP candidate Magnus Nielsen. I asked about his absence and was told that he had been invited but not turned up.

I concluded that he wanted nothing to do with the Somali Cultural Association and clearly wanted to conserve his energies. And having heard him speak at one or two hustings, I had thought that before some audiences at hustings in Brent, the Conservative and the UKIP candidates gave themselves 'enough rope to hang themselves' electorally once they took up an invitation to speak. Eg, the Tory candidate for Brent Central had said that if zero hours contracts were abolished, gone would be one of the avenues of Conservative job-creation.

Now, Magnus Nielsen has clearly exposed Isalmophobic tendencies in an 'incendiary' writing comparing Islam to carbon monoxide poisoning, as outlined on Martin Francis' Wembly Matters blog with assistance of the Camden New Journal. Martin had already encountered a full frontal attack from the UKIP agent for Brent Central constituency, describing Martin as a 'dangerous left wing extremist' and Brent Central Green Party candidate Shahrar Ali as an 'anti-Semite'.

See

Hampstead & Kilburn UKIP candidate attacks Islam and admires former EDL leader (1)

UKIP candidate circulates incendiary election 'address' comparing growth of Islam in UK to carbon monoxide poisoning (2)

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/cease-and-desist-ukip-threat-against.html(3)

'Cease and Desist' UKIP threat against Wembley Mat

Notes

(1) Hampstead & Kilburn UKIP candidate attacks Islam and admires former EDL leader  http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/hampstead-kilburn-ukip-candidate.html accessed 3 May 2015

(2) UKIP candidate circulates incendiary election 'address' comparing growth of Islam in UK to carbon monoxide poisoning http://www.camdennewjournal.com/ukip#.VUUCpz_vQcF.twitter accessed 3 May 2015

(3) 'Cease and Desist' UKIP threat against Wembley Matters http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/cease-and-desist-ukip-threat-against.html accessed 3 May 2015

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KUWG and others vs Jess' eviction

Jess with defiant throng outside her flat in December 2014

Jess reports on the anti-eviction event at Gloucester House on the South Kilburn Estate and Brent Housing Partnership's response:

I got help to stay in my home from Community Organisers and the KUWG group in NW6 when last December Brent Housing Partnership staff came to evict me with a Bailiff. We resisted the eviction by standing in front of the door. By doing this I was able to peacefully defend my right to housing.

At a recent meeting with Brent Housing Partnershiip I was told they will be using other methods to remove me next time.

"It strikes me that a way of looking at the criminalising of subletting of council flats is that it deflects attention away from Parliament's abnegation of the responsibility to invest in house building while taxpayer-funded 'Right-to-Buy' legislation has depleted the housing stock far more than subletting has ever done.

"And on 7 May 2015 there is a UK General Election in which such housing and homelessness realities should be highlighted."

— Alan Wheatley, from KUWG

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