Posts Tagged ‘Ian Duncan Smith’

Tory Cynicism and the Work Capability Assessment

by Phil Burton-Cartledge.

When I used to write letters to ministers for a living, it struck me that Damian Green was relatively decent. Well, if you ignore the appalling voting record, the missives we got back from the civil servant who scribbled his letters in immigration suggested he was a reasonable bloke, albeit one hemmed in by the politics […]

Scrounging off the state? When Ian Duncan Smith put his wife on the parliamentary payroll

by James Elliott.

There is an unsavoury episode in the parliamentary history of Ian Duncan Smith that he will be hoping people will have forgotten. This concerns Dr Vanessa Gearson, who IDS appointed as his Chief of Staff for part of his time as Tory Leader (prior to this Dr Gearson worked as Private Secretary to the Chair […]

Parliament should have power to force Duncan Smith to resign over WCA deaths

by Jon Lansman.

The report that in just over 2 years up to February last year no less than 2,380 disabled claimants died within 2 weeks of being assessed as fit for work and then having their benefit either reduced or stopped altogether, is beyond shocking. It is arguably the most damning statistic yet of the sheer callousness […]

Tories revert to their age-old policy of stopping the poor breeding

by Michael Meacher.

Occasionally the mask slips and the truth becomes clear. We had already been told that the Tories planned to limit child benefit to the first two children because it would save money. Then IDS (Iain Duncan Smith) let the cat out of the bag: he said it would promote “behavioural change”. This element in the […]

Labour’s despicable secret deal

by Michael Meacher.

It now emerges that Labour did a secret deal with the DWP that the latter would set up an independent inquiry into the use of sanctions against job-seekers in return for Labour supporting emergency legislation – the Jobseekers (Back-to-Work Schemes) Bill which passed all its stages in the Commons last Tuesday – which established the […]

Up your bedroom tax, Duncan Smith!

by Michael Meacher.

So public and political pressure does work, even against this government. You can always tell when a Minister’s in trouble – they get irritable and tetchy, as Duncan Smith has been over the last several days. Just 3 weeks before the hated bedroom tax comes into force, he has been forced to make some concessions. […]

IMF’s Lagarde has a …….nerve

by Michael Meacher.

One thing the Right is really good at is turning a blind eye as diaster steadily builds up and then blaming everyone else when it happens. Osborne is a past master at this, ignoring the riskiness of deregulated banks and then trying to make the victims pay (‘We’re all in it together’). But Lagarde at […]

Do the Blairites actually agree with IDS over making people work for nothing?

by Michael Meacher.

Why isn’t Labour shouting from the roof-tops against the blatant injustice of forcing people to work for nothing, under threat of losing benefits if they don’t, when the jobs are simply not available, largley because of the government’s own policies? There are currently about 400,000 vacancies, but 2.65m unemployed, so with 6 people chasing every […]

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