15 days to go - In which Iain continues on his crusade of virtuous reform!

22/04/15 

Dear Claire, 

As promised, we’ll carry on from where we left off yesterday. You may remember we were discussing IDS’s “Profound Moral Mission” – you know, the one in which more than 10,000 people died as a result of the ATOS Work Capability Assessments, in the first year alone (2011). Any guesses for 2012, 2013 or 2014? I wonder how many more have died since then. 

Anyway, once again I would like to acknowledge the work of Thomas G Clark and his excellent blog, Another Angry Voice. 

 

To remind ourselves, we were talking about an article written by Peter Oborne in the Torygraph. In the same week that the Bedroom Tax was introduced, Oborne wrote an article entitled: “George Osborne can’t claim credit for Iain Duncan Smith’s virtuous reforms". Oborne’s article contained the phrase “At the heart of Mr Duncan Smith’s programme (of welfare reforms) is a profound moral vision”.  

Let’s consider some more “virtuous reforms”:

Iain Duncan Smith’s profound moral mission,

Virtuous reform number 4: Sanctions.

The number of people being stripped of all their social security payments (often for absolutely ludicrous reasons) has risen to almost a million. Between 2010 and 2013, IDS repeatedly lied to parliament and the public, claiming that there was no such thing as Sanctions League Tables.

In March 2013, the “non-existent” Sanctions League Tables were leaked to the press. DWP whistle-blowers have explained that the sanctions regime resulted in those with learning difficulties and/or mental illness being tricked into committing sanctionable offences, whilst the small minority of hard-core benefits cheats were left well alone, because more often than not, they know the rules better than most of the DWP staff.

One of the most shocking cases is that of Mark Wood. Mark was not a well man, but he was declared fit for work by ATOS, and stripped of his benefits. He starved to death some four months later.

What kind of Orwellian definition of "virtuous" would you have to be using to apply it to a sanctions regime with targets to drive vulnerable people off benefits, resulting in people actually starving to death?

Virtuous reform number 5: Wasteful spending and Mismanagement.

IDS's welfare reforms have seen massive profligacy with taxpayers' money. His Universal Credit scheme is way behind schedule and way over budget. Some £120 million has been written off on botched IT procurement and staff working on Universal Credit have described working on the project as "soul-destroying", "unbelievably frustrating" and "a complete nightmare". Other staff complained of "a near complete absence of anything that looks like strategic leadership in the programme" and "a divisive culture of secrecy" [source].

Another area of extraordinary waste is Iain Duncan Smith's Work Programme, in which private companies are paid money for finding people work. It has been shown over and again that these companies claim this money from the taxpayer, even when their clients found work entirely independently of, or even despite their interference. If it were a Labour minister responsible for this kind of grotesquely incompetent financial mismanagement, Peter Oborne and the Daily Telegraph would be screaming blue murder, but because it's Oborne's mate IDS, it is instead described by them as "wonderful and virtuous"! What kind of Orwellian definition of "virtuous" would you have to be using to apply it to welfare reforms which ensure that ever larger slices of the welfare budget end up in corporate pockets, instead of in the pockets of the people the welfare system was actually designed to help?

That’s probably enough Virtuous Reforms for the moment!

We’ll sum up Oborne’s Torygraph article tomorrow, and perhaps we’ll compare IDS’s behaviour to the definition of ‘Orwellian’ I quoted yesterday, which incidentally came from Wikipedia.

Hang on, Wikipedia – where have I heard that name today? The radio, that’s it. The Today programme, this morning on Radio 4. It seems as if our favourite Tory Party Chairman, the oily Mr Shapps, has been embellishing his profile! Now, who else in a prominent cabinet position has lied about his past? Why, it’s IDS! IDS lied about his attendance at Perugia University, his rank in the Army and his education at Dunchurch College of Management. Three lies on his CV alone, how can ANYONE believe a single word that man says?

Kind regards

Polly