To ask you for compassion and to watch this.

[morethanpotatoprints]

I have been appalled at the lack of compassion and empathy shown to a poster seeking help on these threads. Despite trying to find work and succeeding the family are being failed by the welfare system. I don't think they are alone in this and believe there will be many more.

AIBU to ask you to show some support for these families, to offer suggestions or advice to help them support their families?
Not to judge and name call rather than help.

If you think I am being unreasonable, or if you are a young parent please watch my link. It's quite harrowing though. Please spare 5 mins.

Morethan I watched it, it's terrible. I'll keep bumping this thread but unfortunately I don't suppose the target audience will be bothered.

I think part of the problem might be because with the younger generation there is no foundation of shared knowledge about this kind of thing. They don't understand how it happened before, they don't understand it can happen again. The whole reasoning behind the foundation of the modern welfare state seems to have been lost. History is repeating itself and it's just dreadful.

I remember Cathy Come Home because i saw it on a repeat back in the 80s. Its what we are heading for and it is absolutely terrifying.

Someone will come on and flame me for this i am sure but the propaganda in the German press and on posters in 1933 Germany was not dissimilar to what is happening now. There is propaganda against poor people in the right wing press and coming from the Gov with their strivers vs shirkers rhetoric.

gaelic we dont seem to have learnt anything from history as a society.

I don't doubt it Darkesteyes. I am becoming really quite scared by what is happening now. Not because I'll be directly affected - God willing - but because other people and their children will be.

All that is required for evil to flourish is for good men people to do nothing.

(And for the rest to go along with it)

Agree gaelic.

I don't think society has ever learned from history, and I don't think it ever will. There is no overall upward trend evident at all. In prosperity and technology perhaps, but definitely not in morality.

gaelic its simply frightening the amount of people that just dont care. The "im alright jack" attitudes on here from some posters and in RL is absolutely astounding.
And you just know that when this Gov comes for them that they will expect sympathy support and empathy from the very people that they are now deriding.
The same empathy that they are denying to those people now.

Did you see the BBC "news" piece on the benefit cuts this evening? It featured a single mother who was going to suffer from the benefits cap. It ended with something like "so to avoid hardship women like this need to get a job" or words to that effect. Conveniently avoiding the thorny issues of a 3 year old and 2 other children and childcare and where are the blasted jobs?!

gaelic the BBC have been nothing but a Tory mouthpiece for a long time. I wrote a post on an old thread on the News board about it I will see if i can find it and c and p it here.

Channel 4 news did a good report on the bedroom tax tonight. They confronted Lord Freud who could only say "Ummm"

Is anybody else going to come and watch this and post about it do you think? Perhaps it's a little late. I also think people naively believe it will never happen now.

And what did they mean by "women like this" Some mysogyny creeping in there as well as classism.

They might not have used those exact words to be fair, but the implication was most certainly there.

It's shocking how very close we are go this situation. It's very scary and sends chills down my back

And with that kind of mysogyny and attitude towards women its not really hard to see how Savile got away with what he did.

Here is that old post of mine i mentioned earlier.

carernotasaintMon 30-Jul-12 15:31:21

If the BBC one is biased in favour of the Gov. i wont be surprised. Look at the way Newsnight stitched up that single mum. Ive completely lost any respect for that programme as a result.
In the same week as the NatWest/RBS disaster exploded there was NOT one question asked about it on Question Time NOT ONE. But they still found 15 mins to moan about people on benefits. No questions pertaining to the Nat West disaster on the following weeks show either.
Earlier this year John Humphreys did a very biased show about benefit claimants on BBC2.
Then a few months later he did a Panorama programme in Greece about how awful it was that people over there were having to rely on charities and food banks.
Now i know Greece have a bigger crisis than us but people are having to use food banks over here john you fuckwit!
And idiots like him simply REFUSE to see that demonizing low income people the way he does will make it even worse over here.
I have NO FAITH in the BBC at all when they deal with issues like this. They tow the Government line. Too frightened of losing the TV licence.

Its really frustrating isnt it Marius?

There seems to be a habit of denying whats happening on your own doorstep (brilliantly demonstrated by Chocolate on that other thread.) The Americans do it too. Pretending that the huge "tent cities" dont exist.
And people tend to vote for what they aspire to be than rather what they actually are (both here and in the US) there seems to be a terrible ingrained snobbery in society now.

Marius thats another example of classism and mysogyny rolled into one. Funny how they never mention the fathers.

Yes. When the economy takes a downturn society looks to find a scapegoat. This has been the case throughout history.

A few years ago it was single mothers, and now anyone who is on benefits of any kind seems to be the cause of all our ills, at least, according to the more hysterical press.

I couldn't watch the video to the end as I remember it the first time round and find it too harrowing. But what it shows was happening on a daily basis at the time.

In its time Cathy Come Home was instrumental in helping convince government that changes had to be made to help people in 'Cathy's' situation. A made for television play/film it was truly powerful in every sense of the word.

Tragically, history will start repeating itself as the press whips up a right wing frenzy and government jumps on the band wagon.

it's a scary situation just worrying how much damage the tories can cause before we get rid of them.

I admit that if that does happen now I will be surprised.

I know young single mums can rent privately and can get the deposit paid for them by the council. Thereis housing benefit and tax credits. What is it that is going wrong?

I was put in touch with a young girl that had no mother, her father was in prison and she had a young baby. This was through the salvation army. I gave her my pram, cot and car seat. She got somewhere to live with above scheme. I was so pleased that she was helped and went to college and brought up her child. I really thought this was how things were now.

We need a director/writer like Jimmy McGovern/Paul Abbott/Kay Mellor to make an updated version of a drama similar to CCH.
But they have done such a good job with their propaganda would it really make a difference this time.