political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Monday, October 11, 2010
Interviewing IDS
Later this week I shall be interviewing Iain Duncan Smith for my next IN CONVERSATION interview for Total Politics.
Feel free to suggest questions you think I should ask him.
Surely the minimum wage will have to be reduced to get people back to work. Britain's MW makes us hopelessly uncompetitive. It's fixed nationally when it should be regional. We have $9.50 an hour. The US has $7 an hour and $2 an hour for tipped labour.
Ask him why it is that he, the privileged ex-guardee who is held up as the epitome of Tory unelectability and Thatcherite callousness, has done more work to alleviate poverty and drug dependency in Glasgow than any of the local Labour MPs.
Ask him why Labour MPs are so much more concerned with getting their children into safe seats than with serving the needs of their constituents.
We can think of other ex-leaders who, having lost that position, descended into bitterness and recrimination.
Ask IDS where he found the inner strength to set aside his personal disappointments and come back as a loyal and invaluable member of the front bench team.
Ask him what his role was in removing child credit ,child care vouchers , trust fund cash and of course child credit. Was this to provide political cover or cash for his Welfare plans ? His crappy government have lumbered people , in the median group, for a fully employed man with dependents ,in the SE with a marginal rate of about 100% up to £50,000 from £40,000. Ask him how this is not madness ? Just ask him if it would be possible to construct a less fair and more stupid way of punishing those who work hard have families , behave responsibly have little ,and already pay a fortune in tax. Ask him that Ask him if this disgraceful assault on families is going to go on because this is not why I voted Conservative. Ask him if he has any idea of what an effective £5000 pay cut does to you when you are on a budget and how would he like to try treating anyone in the Public Sector that way ?
Ask him if we can believe a word he says anyway now we know the Conservative Party outright lied on this subject If he says things are worse than we thought ask him if he thinks we are congenital idiots or does he just enjoy insulting our intelligence ?
Do you really think that you can reinstall the work ethic into the members of a dependency culture without being unacceptably brutal in cutting benefit?
Many Conservative members, such as myself, voted for IDS as leader of the party, frankly (and with the greatest respect) because the choice came down in the final round between him and Europhile Ken Clarke. Is he not concerned that the government is continuing to cede powers to Brussells ?
Also, what use is a referendum lock when treaties such as the Lisbon Treaty are just dismissed as 'tidying up' exercises' ?
University Students, Soldiers, Nurses and many others all often live in blocks. Normally focused around five or six rooms to a single ‘flat’ sharing a bathroom and a kitchen. Six plus ‘flats’ then share a front door. It is a very cost effective way of providing living accommodation to those on low income for whom a third party owes a duty of care.
Why on earth do we not adopt this model of housing for people on welfare?
Young people today can spend 15 years working in a good job and diligently paying their taxes and yet still unable to afford a place of their own. Meanwhile others who choose not to work get given a house for free via housing benefits. .
When people with an addiction to drugs or alcohol are assessed as suitable for incapacity benefit (I understand that one question in the new assessment is whether you need a drink before lunchtime), what exactly do you think the extra money will be spent on? Where is the incentive to rehabilitate? Perhaps there should be a category of 'contributory unfitness to work', below JSA level, which should be restored once co-operation with rehab happens.
Why did he support Blair over the invasion of Iraq? Does he stand by that decision? Could he really not see that Blair is incapable of telling the truth if the truth stands in the way of his personal profit?
Ask him if he is satisfied with the standard of work of ATOS - the firm that carries out medical assessments for ESA. If he says "yes", ask him why the majority of appeals against ATOS's decisions are won by the appellants.
Ask him if he is satisfied by the standard of the Pathways to Work schemes (Private Eye had some pretty devastating criticisms in the last issue).
Should there be more schemes to provide employment for people with learning difficulties as this group has a very high rate of unemployment?
Can you ask him how much re-assessing all DLA claimants is going to cost, how much money he intends to save as a result of re-assessing us all, and how many people will lose entitlement to DLA in the process?
Thanks: a genuine question whose answer could reassure a number of anxious disabled people.
Katherine Birbalsing and Tony Sewell have both made almost the identical point about the effect of left wing ideology on the eduactional under-achievement of black boys.
Can the Conservatives give young black boys and girls an alternative to what Sewell has called 'the discourse of the victim'?
What would IDS like to see happening to those who are merely "moderately" disabled (say, the 7-14 points bracket of the WCA), who are not eligible for ESA but are clearly unable to enter employment without specialised support and/or equipment?
Surely these people are more likely to be the most work-ready? Why are they being dumped on JSA away from all disability support provision?
What do you feel about the intra company transfer visa situation and the way they are used to flood the country with predominately Indian nationals? Often bringing their family in, all of who get free state school places and free nhs, and large tax and national insurance dispensations. Plagues of workers often engaged in moving large projects back to India further depriving the UK workforce of work. Taking some of the best leading techniques and IP back to India, destroying the UKs ability to compete. All outside the so-called cap.
When hundreds of thousands of qualified Brits have been thrown out of work by use of Indian nationals in this way, and this seems to be accepted as normal, and the CBI (and Boris and Vince) is lobbying for more of this, where exactly are the jobs for the British and European workforce coming from? Where is the protection for a British factory where the workers have invented some great new improved techniques when their multinational owners give the techniques straight to their Indian subsidiary, how do British workforces compete in this environment?
Given that the UK insists on more expensive anti pollution measures than many of our competitors, and China and India increase their pollution daily by more than the entire UK output, don't you think we are making ourselves uncompetitive and preventing Brits from working by mandating uncompetitive expensive anti pollution if anyone trys to start-up production here?
Getting Brits back to work is a little more complex than clamping down on benefits claimants and expecting the private sector to do some magic in this regulatory environment? Surely action on visas, immigrations, protection of UK intellectual property, competitive anti pollution measures, and so on are all also needed?
Why are the Tories obsessed with the notion of reform? Isn't it narcissistic of them to expect credit and admiration for tinkering laws which shouldn't exist in the first place, such as the 2007 education act which made the creation of new grammar schools illegal? Why don't they realise that the solution to most of the electorate's problems is repeal of the mass of bad law written over the last 50 years? Since the expenses scandal, the electorate have hated politicians more than ever before. Isn't this narcissistic tinkering with the law for its own sake going to infuriate an already angry and suspicious electorate? Here's a metaphor for how I feel about the current government. The government is my doctor, and I've just been shot in the gut and I'm bleeding. The doctor tells me that he's going to reform the bullet. "What!" I say, "just get rid of the bullet.". The doctor says "no, I'm a young modern doctor and I need to reform the bullet!".
1. DLA has an official fraud rate of 0.5%. Given that, how does he intend to make the 23% cut in claimants without further restricting eligibility to an already rigorously assessed and difficult to claim benefit?
2. As a disabled person I have recently successfully applied for a part time, home based job http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/search/label/work The details of the saga are in the link as it's too lengthy to explain in the comments but I have been faced with the choice of either not doing the work at all, or doing it on a voluntary basis which is how I've chosen to proceed as the requirements of the benefits system and complication of minimum wage mean I am not able to be paid.
Realistically I do not expect to ever be well enough to work full time, part time work may be a fantasy, but it is one which I am not willing to give up. I'm not entitled to a local authority care package as they are rationed. I'm not able to have an appropriate wheelchair as they are also rationed by the NHS. Receiving both of those things would make it significantly more likely I'd be able to work outside my home. With eligibility criteria only set to tighten and the proposed Universal Credit not a magical cure for all these bureaucratic inconsistencies, I feel my only hope is to ask IDS himself if he will employ me? BendyGirl
can you offer me a job?
ReplyDeleteSurely the minimum wage will have to be reduced to get people back to work. Britain's MW makes us hopelessly uncompetitive. It's fixed nationally when it should be regional. We have $9.50 an hour. The US has $7 an hour and $2 an hour for tipped labour.
ReplyDeleteDo you think Britain should leave the EU? Expect an interesting answer.
ReplyDeleteWhat did Tony Blair really say to you before the vote on invading Iraq?
ReplyDeleteAsk him why it is that he, the privileged ex-guardee who is held up as the epitome of Tory unelectability and Thatcherite callousness, has done more work to alleviate poverty and drug dependency in Glasgow than any of the local Labour MPs.
ReplyDeleteAsk him why Labour MPs are so much more concerned with getting their children into safe seats than with serving the needs of their constituents.
Are you hoping to appear in "Strictly Come Dancing"?
ReplyDeleteWe can think of other ex-leaders who, having lost that position, descended into bitterness and recrimination.
ReplyDeleteAsk IDS where he found the inner strength to set aside his personal disappointments and come back as a loyal and invaluable member of the front bench team.
Ask him what his role was in removing child credit ,child care vouchers , trust fund cash and of course child credit. Was this to provide political cover or cash for his Welfare plans ?
ReplyDeleteHis crappy government have lumbered people , in the median group, for a fully employed man with dependents ,in the SE with a marginal rate of about 100% up to £50,000 from £40,000. Ask him how this is not madness ?
Just ask him if it would be possible to construct a less fair and more stupid way of punishing those who work hard have families , behave responsibly have little ,and already pay a fortune in tax. Ask him that
Ask him if this disgraceful assault on families is going to go on because this is not why I voted Conservative.
Ask him if he has any idea of what an effective £5000 pay cut does to you when you are on a budget and how would he like to try treating anyone in the Public Sector that way ?
Ask him if we can believe a word he says anyway now we know the Conservative Party outright lied on this subject
If he says things are worse than we thought ask him if he thinks we are congenital idiots or does he just enjoy insulting our intelligence ?
Do you really think that you can reinstall the work ethic into the members of a dependency culture without being unacceptably brutal in cutting benefit?
ReplyDeleteMany Conservative members, such as myself, voted for IDS as leader of the party, frankly (and with the greatest respect) because the choice came down in the final round between him and Europhile Ken Clarke. Is he not concerned that the government is continuing to cede powers to Brussells ?
ReplyDeleteAlso, what use is a referendum lock when treaties such as the Lisbon Treaty are just dismissed as 'tidying up' exercises' ?
University Students, Soldiers, Nurses and many others all often live in blocks. Normally focused around five or six rooms to a single ‘flat’ sharing a bathroom and a kitchen. Six plus ‘flats’ then share a front door. It is a very cost effective way of providing living accommodation to those on low income for whom a third party owes a duty of care.
ReplyDeleteWhy on earth do we not adopt this model of housing for people on welfare?
Young people today can spend 15 years working in a good job and diligently paying their taxes and yet still unable to afford a place of their own. Meanwhile others who choose not to work get given a house for free via housing benefits. .
Having been knifed in the back before by these people, what makes you think it will be any different this time?
ReplyDeleteWhen people with an addiction to drugs or alcohol are assessed as suitable for incapacity benefit (I understand that one question in the new assessment is whether you need a drink before lunchtime), what exactly do you think the extra money will be spent on? Where is the incentive to rehabilitate? Perhaps there should be a category of 'contributory unfitness to work', below JSA level, which should be restored once co-operation with rehab happens.
ReplyDeleteYou still speak to Guido Fawkes ??
ReplyDeleteWhy did he support Blair over the invasion of Iraq? Does he stand by that decision? Could he really not see that Blair is incapable of telling the truth if the truth stands in the way of his personal profit?
ReplyDeleteAsk him if he is satisfied with the standard of work of ATOS - the firm that carries out medical assessments for ESA. If he says "yes", ask him why the majority of appeals against ATOS's decisions are won by the appellants.
ReplyDeleteAsk him if he is satisfied by the standard of the Pathways to Work schemes (Private Eye had some pretty devastating criticisms in the last issue).
Should there be more schemes to provide employment for people with learning difficulties as this group has a very high rate of unemployment?
Do you think you would have had a hope of getting through your welfare reforms in a Tory majority government?
ReplyDeleteCan you ask him how much re-assessing all DLA claimants is going to cost, how much money he intends to save as a result of re-assessing us all, and how many people will lose entitlement to DLA in the process?
ReplyDeleteThanks: a genuine question whose answer could reassure a number of anxious disabled people.
It would be appreciated.
Katherine Birbalsing and Tony Sewell have both made almost the identical point about the effect of left wing ideology on the eduactional under-achievement of black boys.
ReplyDeleteCan the Conservatives give young black boys and girls an alternative to what Sewell has called 'the discourse of the victim'?
What would IDS like to see happening to those who are merely "moderately" disabled (say, the 7-14 points bracket of the WCA), who are not eligible for ESA but are clearly unable to enter employment without specialised support and/or equipment?
ReplyDeleteSurely these people are more likely to be the most work-ready? Why are they being dumped on JSA away from all disability support provision?
What damage do you think reports about Falinge in Rochdale do to those who genuinely need state support?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you feel about the intra company transfer visa situation and the way they are used to flood the country with predominately Indian nationals? Often bringing their family in, all of who get free state school places and free nhs, and large tax and national insurance dispensations. Plagues of workers often engaged in moving large projects back to India further depriving the UK workforce of work. Taking some of the best leading techniques and IP back to India, destroying the UKs ability to compete. All outside the so-called cap.
ReplyDeleteWhen hundreds of thousands of qualified Brits have been thrown out of work by use of Indian nationals in this way, and this seems to be accepted as normal, and the CBI (and Boris and Vince) is lobbying for more of this, where exactly are the jobs for the British and European workforce coming from? Where is the protection for a British factory where the workers have invented some great new improved techniques when their multinational owners give the techniques straight to their Indian subsidiary, how do British workforces compete in this environment?
Given that the UK insists on more expensive anti pollution measures than many of our competitors, and China and India increase their pollution daily by more than the entire UK output, don't you think we are making ourselves uncompetitive and preventing Brits from working by mandating uncompetitive expensive anti pollution if anyone trys to start-up production here?
Getting Brits back to work is a little more complex than clamping down on benefits claimants and expecting the private sector to do some magic in this regulatory environment? Surely action on visas, immigrations, protection of UK intellectual property, competitive anti pollution measures, and so on are all also needed?
Else where are the jobs coming from?
Why are the Tories obsessed with the notion of reform? Isn't it narcissistic of them to expect credit and admiration for tinkering laws which shouldn't exist in the first place, such as the 2007 education act which made the creation of new grammar schools illegal? Why don't they realise that the solution to most of the electorate's problems is repeal of the mass of bad law written over the last 50 years? Since the expenses scandal, the electorate have hated politicians more than ever before. Isn't this narcissistic tinkering with the law for its own sake going to infuriate an already angry and suspicious electorate? Here's a metaphor for how I feel about the current government. The government is my doctor, and I've just been shot in the gut and I'm bleeding. The doctor tells me that he's going to reform the bullet. "What!" I say, "just get rid of the bullet.". The doctor says "no, I'm a young modern doctor and I need to reform the bullet!".
ReplyDelete1. DLA has an official fraud rate of 0.5%. Given that, how does he intend to make the 23% cut in claimants without further restricting eligibility to an already rigorously assessed and difficult to claim benefit?
ReplyDelete2. As a disabled person I have recently successfully applied for a part time, home based job http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/search/label/work
The details of the saga are in the link as it's too lengthy to explain in the comments but I have been faced with the choice of either not doing the work at all, or doing it on a voluntary basis which is how I've chosen to proceed as the requirements of the benefits system and complication of minimum wage mean I am not able to be paid.
Realistically I do not expect to ever be well enough to work full time, part time work may be a fantasy, but it is one which I am not willing to give up. I'm not entitled to a local authority care package as they are rationed. I'm not able to have an appropriate wheelchair as they are also rationed by the NHS. Receiving both of those things would make it significantly more likely I'd be able to work outside my home. With eligibility criteria only set to tighten and the proposed Universal Credit not a magical cure for all these bureaucratic inconsistencies, I feel my only hope is to ask IDS himself if he will employ me?
BendyGirl