So...yesterday the Daily Mail lumped me and everyone else who claims benefits in with with Mick Philpott!

[JakeBullet]

....and I quote them

"Michael Philpott is a perfect parable for our age: his story shows the pervasiveness of evil born of welfare dependency. The trial spoke volumes about the sheer nastiness of the individuals involved. But it also lifted the lid on the bleak and often grotesque world of the welfare benefit scroungers ? of whom there are not dozens, not hundreds, but tens of thousands in our country."

My asterisks....but shows exactly what the DM thinks of ANYONE who for whatever reason HAS to claim benefits. And as both the women in his life were working I am assuming they include the workers of the UK who have to top up their meagre income to actually survive.

I claim benefits because my son is autistic and I could not any longer manage his care needs AND work. It took me 18 months to make the decision to leave my job (after nearly 30 years of full employment) and I tried other options such as reducing my hours first. When I left it was a leap of faith but a year on I am so glad I did it....even though I do have to live on benefits, even though my income is a fraction of what it was (yes...that's correct I am NOT better off financially).

What has NOT changed are my beliefs and understanding of what is right. I have no desire to burn my house down, go "dogging", have threesomes, perform sex acts on someone I barely know or thieve, drink to excess and/or take drugs. Nor do I want to have other children, claim any other benefits or beg for a larger house at taxpayers expense. My world can be very hard sometimes but it is not "bleak and grotesque"....and nor is my child.

All I want is to be treated like a human being and not lumped together with others like me and demonised as an underclass. Why should I be condemned as fecklessness and workshy by rich arseholes who wouldn't know the truth if it bit them on the arse? Nor might I add do they know "hard work"....just pathetic sound bites.

The Daily Mail crossed the line yesterday and I am so angry because there is nowhere to go with a complaint. Even the PCC has Paul Dacre at it's helm...a sure sign that any complaint will be a waste of time.

They didn't IMO. They just used his benefit lifestyle as another example of showing what an irresponsible scumbag he was (along with his sexual depravity, his history of violence, etc.)

Inevitably (but I believe separately) it does raise the question of how this man and his two partners managed to get the state i.e. you and me to finance their 11 children and their vile and irresponsible lifestyle. I think people are inferring way to much on this and assuming everyone is so stupid they can't tell the difference between those who need and deserve benefits and those who are taking the piss. I think they protesteth too much and are ironically fuelling their own fire.

Excellent post kindle. I think we have forgotten that having a safety net is a sign of compassion - a good thing. That Osbourne has leapt onto the DM bandwagon shows how much in cahoots they are in perpetuating the myth of the feckless scrounger as the 'typical' claimant. To make political hay out of these children's deaths shows just how far from compassionate the coalition is. It's just sickening.

Cunts, the lot of 'em.

Yup, with universal credit, that's a large percentage of the population to write off as murdering scum.

The average DM reader is a twat.

Stop talking about the daily fail - what about looking at positive articles and statistics? "Maybe the cabinet is confused. Twenty-three millionaires in the one room can get like that. But do you know what, enough. Let's call this government's welfare policy what it is ? wrong, nasty and dishonest " caught my eye.

"If Britain is 'broke', it has been for most of the last 300 years".

Chancellor accused of exploitation after saying tragedy supports case for welfare reform.

I would love to see threads discussing the exact opposite views of the daily fail getting lots of exposure. It surely won't hurt the dm if we did avoid linking to the disgusting views they promote?

The only people I know who read the Daily Mail do it because it induces a sense of good old moral outrage at the outlandish right wing opinions.

The fact that some people share those views is utterly terrifying.

I really can't be doing with the mail. Their relentless hate campaigning against single mums and working mums back when I was both drove me to this standpoint. As for benefits. We were on them my entire childhood one way or another. My dad got ill when I was tiny and died when I was 6. My mum couldn't look after us and earn enough to pay everything. She did her best and had some grotty part time jobs over the years to try and make ends meet. I don't know what she got exactly but it was whatever lone parents got then. We are not anything the DM would have its readers believe.