To think it won't be long before we have workhouses again?

[MrsTawdry]

I really know very little about politics but I know that there's a proportion of people who love benefits bashing and love abusing those who receive housing benefit etc.

It occurred to me recently that one "answer" to the housing crisis might be a sort of "Housing Centre" ....basic blocks of flats sort of thing...where occupants lose a portion of their JSA in return for a roof...and from there it's a step to being given food vouchers as part of benefits and working on a voluntary basis....litter picking etc.

Could this happen? Could a government legislate and make this happen?

Arsenic - OH has been handing out sleeping bags, food, toothbrushes etc tonight to rough sleepers.
They also made a big pot of soup. He gets so frustrated because these people are vulnerable and need help. They do not need the condescension of others.

I don't know about tube stations, not my neck of the woods. They did a bloody good job if they did, though.

I'm scared to ask Joff

Derek why do you not do an NCTJ?

and what happens to people employed as road sweepers? What do they do while your great army of the unemployed roam the dirty streets picking stuff up? Why should councils employ them if there are people being forced to do it for peanuts?

See, I can see that side too (I'm not completely heartless...) As you say, it's a legitimate job that people are getting paid to do. Which people are less likely to pay workers to do if they get the labour for free.
HOWEVER, what's wrong with working for money given to you? There should be a happy medium. Get given money, put some work in for it.

Betty I wish it was clear who to vote for (other than by process of elimination)

Sally, that's pretty much the definition of a job. If you do a job, you should get at least minimum wage for it.

I understand. No party is radical enough, It is very hard for voters.

MPs should be forced to let a homeless person live in their second home (or whichever house they are not currently in - so tory wife and kiddies get the lad with a dog on a string steaming gently by the Aga).

Interesting these draconian, punitive ideas "Yay! Let's bring back the workhouse and call it a Housing Centre!" never seem to extend to those with power...

I often wonder why we are incentivised by punishment, and privation but the rich are incentivised by bribes and money and big houses.

But I bet if they had Swampy eating from the Royal Doulton, and swimming in the duck pond, they'd soon figure out a way to make sure no poor sod in the 21stC is sleeping rough.

EatShit, you're right. It's just the biggest twats are currently getting to the top of the waiting list, fastest - round here. My old neighbour lost her home of 20 years because she couldn't afford to pay Bedroom Tax. These twats they replaced her with? Underoccupying from day one. They pay Bedroom Tax! And can afford it, too they are being so well paid. My husband reckons he is swinging some sort of Incapacity Benefit, as if it was basic dole they'd not be buying the expensive crap or affording to pay extra money for a spare room.

Eats - The whole system is fucked. It is ridiculous!

Interesting these draconian, punitive ideas "Yay! Let's bring back the workhouse and call it a Housing Centre!" never seem to extend to those with power...

Pretty much like their wars, it's the working class kids that die (apart from WW1 strangely enough, huge attrition rate amongst middle class junior officers)

Get given money, put some work in for it.

But seriously, if claimants are required to jobsearch during working hours, that IS their work. How do they do both? They have to log everything they do daily online now. My friend was showing me her jobsearch account. It is very big brother, real time almost. People can't split themselves in two.

Besides, people want to work, they won't acheive that by being away from their phones and computers during working hours.

Journalism course Derek. You're a born writer.

All this Big Brother stuff still isn't remotely affecting real "scroungers" anyway. The people they actually need to target will be the last to be zero'd in on.

I think this government has been more despicable even than Thatcher (and I never thought I'd write that sentence). Targeting and attacking the disabled. How the LibDems can sleep at night having propped up this level of cynical, casual viciousness, I have no idea.

The people they actually need to target will be the last to be zero'd in on.

That tiny layer of people are lard-coated. Fingers in several pies. Shady activities. No tax ever. You can't 'stop' those people. But they make good tabloid fodder.

That's what sub editors are for.

He'll get locked in a boiler cupboard before too long

You have to learn to write to a house style during training (v plain, easy). After that you write allsorts for allsorts. Think about it. 22 weeks for the standard diploma. Usually free for the unwaged. A level entry.

Just a thought. It's a trade.

Arsenic, too right they do. They'd probably take and enjoy the five minutes of 'fame', too.

Last year, I got to look at an old workhouse's interior (it's now a museum but the only actual original workhouse bits are in the offices, above). And it was a really powerful thing. There was a grand entrance hall and staircase - but that was for the visiting posh folk and local worthies. The actual staircase the inmates were herded up was horrible as were the corridors, as was any surviving part of the original building.

My own workhouse ancestor was buried in a public grave with 13 other workhouse inmates. They'd leave the grave cuts open for a month, dump the bodies in, as they came along, then close it up. This man probably only spent the last few weeks of his life in the workhouse hospital as on every census, and according to accounts we have found of him, he was a hardworking, outstanding man. Incredibly sad to find him in a workhouse grave with strangers, miles from home. His family for generations buried in the village where I now live.

These burials cost a few shillings but were beyond the means of most inmates' families. Most went in a pauper's grave - which was even worse.

I have done a lot of research in poor law records and workhouse records. There are no real words for how heartless the system was. Some ended in the County Asylums. They are sometimes recorded on censuses only by initial.

IDS, Cameron and Clegg would happily see the plebs banged up and picking oakum or whatever the modern version of that is. Even if the OP here is a troll it is interesting to see there really are people in society who would be happy to bring back the workhouse. So long as it's called a housing centre.

Eats - you could do an access course at your local college.