To think Toby Young deserves scorn for this article?

[BowieFan]

Apologies for linking to the Daily Mail, but I've used a service that denies them advertising revenue: <a class="break-all" href="https://anonym.to/?www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3869182/Why-Lefties-misty-eyed-movie-romanticises-Benefits-Britain-says-TOBY-YOUNG.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">anonym.to/?www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3869182/Why-Lefties-misty-eyed-movie-romanticises-Benefits-Britain-says-TOBY-YOUNG.html

Aside from the basic errors (it's 100minutes long, not nearly 3 hours), it's just an awful article. The fact that Toby Young thinks everyone claiming benefits is a smoking/gambling/drinking loudmouth is just offensive. I'm shocked - not that it was published - but that he thinks his opinion is the opinion of everyone.

I'd love to see him survive on benefits. I wonder if he'd be saying the same things then?

Quorn you are not being bullied, you have bullied Bowie and small all the way through this thread.

Many of us have supported our 'facts' with evidence.
I find it hard to believe that you have an amazing job in the private sector when you struggle with their/there and your/you're.

Quornflakes

My sick note from my doctor said it was stress-induced due to the pressures of my job.

It didn't cost the state a penny piece more, because I am deputy head of Year 8. The person I job share with is deputy head of year 7, so the 2 days of the week I don't work folded into her responsibilities for those days. She didn't require any extra training.

But cheers for suggesting my nervous breakdown was a holiday - it certainly wasn't.

Hirosleaftunnel

I said it was subhuman to leave the country purely because you think your tax is being spent on the wrong kind of people.

Anyway, as long as you don't come back when you've retired and want a pension and the NHS, I don't care where you live.

"graphista - B - they're (Tories) currently being investigated for election fraud by I think at last count 11 police forces dont forget Labour on your examples:"

Nor the LibDems, who had a candidate suspended at the last election for forging signatures on his election papers.

Though neither labour nor the link demand are being investigated on such a grand scale.

Yes, Labour have one possible allegation. Lib Dems have been accused of not declaring the cost of their bus in one constituency.

The Tories are fighting 29 cases from 15 police forces which involve 29 MPs. Over 75% of them are in marginal seats too. That is huge.

I've been on disability benefits too and my ASOS assessor also flat out lied. It's truly shocking, and people without personal experience have no idea.

Bowie, you sound wonderful.

More people would vote Tory today than Labour though no matter what people think about election fraud allegations on either side and the like and tha tis because the Tories policies are the morally right policies as well as being popular.

However I salute the left on this thread for sticking up for their views and having a civil conversation with Tories like I am. The more people can communicate with each other on this planet the more likely to we can all live in peace and harmony with each other.

The way it really is for scroungers
Go on, justify those cuts now!

"because the Tories policies are the morally right policies as well as being popular."

So its morally right to vindictively hurt the poor whilst cutting taxes for the most wealthy and the coporations?

To rightly imprison people for benefit fraud, but allow no punishments what so ever to be sought for those who have put the country into penury with their excessive risk taking and fraudualent behaviour?

That's morally right?

And yes we did leave the UK because we were ground down by the level of taxation. I'm not ashamed to say that. DH was convinced that Labour would win the 2015 GE so we packed up

Cough

I'm in Asia, we had to leave the UK because my DH's role was moved.

Ahem.

To back up what bowie has said I've volunteered for the Free Representation Unit, helping clients who have been refused ESA and PIP at First Tier Tribunal.

My failure rate should be 100% if the assessments are made correctly. My success rate is 100%. My two most memorable cases were both ladies with 0 points. One had a broken spine due to a degenerative bone condition and lived in a neck brace. The second had a hideous condition affecting her entire body which casued her skin to split and slough off. The Maximus assessor had it down as a 'rash on the knee'.

Haha caught out there!

Ground down by the level of taxation in the UK indeed. I bet you were never ground down by the excellent level of NHS care, or the fact that we actually do ( fact checked by the OECD) a highly competant and educated workforce.

Or that we have some of the best infrastructure in the world.

Noo it was the level of taxation that ground you down, you know cause you achieved it all on your own without benefiting from the society that you lived in at all.

Labour have one possible allegation

Labour failed to declare Ed Stone, and have a further 33 receipts, worth £34,392, missing.

They were fined £20,000 is the highest fine imposed since the Electoral Commision was formed.

The tories just haven't been dealt with yet.

29 MPs implicated and 33 constituencies results questions, £182,000 of spending undeclared and uncovered so far.

www.channel4.com/news/election-expenses-exposed

"because the Tories policies are the morally right policies as well as being popular."
Just out of interest, why is it morally right that I spend the winter under an electric blanket and with a hot water bottle rather than put the heating on?
What have I done to deserve no heating? Is it being ill? Is it being older? Is it the being in pain or having arthritis, or being born on the Autistic Spectrum? Do tell, please.

Would those be the tory policies that the UN have declared to be in breach of human rights obligations?

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/06/un-declares-uk-s-austerity-policies-breach-international-human-rights

Popular maybe, morally right no.

Oh this is fun :)

Exactly I never said labour/lib dems were angels (plus I voted for neither in GE 2015) BUT the Tories are the ones (fraudulently?) In power.

So Graphistas post upthread is biased. Other parties have some kind of scandal or corruption or unscrupulous allegations against them, it isn't just the Toriess as was implied.

But the tories have the most, and the largest amount of money, AND they are the party in power.

Me2017

Morally right? Oh please.

Maybe people who read The Sun and the Express think they're morally right, but anyone with a brain in their nut can see that they appeal only to little Englanders who don't want to live next door to a brown person.

Yeah, the majority would probably vote for them, because the majority of people are sheep. They believe what the media tells them to believe. It's always been the case.

ComfortingKormaBalls

Except the Lib Dems and Labour have a few allegations and minor fines. They're not in power, either.

The Tories are in power, have a huge amount of money they can't account for and we have lots of actual evidence that they were fraudulent. Add to that they have a slim majority and that 33 MPs are implicated, 75% of them in marginal constituencies. Suggests fraud on a massive scale!

BreakWindandFire

I've got a 100% success rate as well. 90% of those were overturned after a mandatory reconsideration, the rest went to a tribunal who overturned it based on the same evidence.

Surely a 100% success rate in these decisions being overturned shows how stupid they are! I'd much rather it be your own GP who makes the decision - they in many cases have known you for a long while, so they're going to know your condition better. I know claimants who are too embarrassed to admit they wet themselves daily, or that they have to be given a sponge bath. They'd tell their GP, who they feel they can confide in, but not someone who they've only known 5 minutes.

It would save money too - your doctor would just recommend you from their PC from their computer, the way they print off sick notes. Wouldn't need to hire a private company or thousands of nurses/paramedics/anyone with a vague interest in medicine either.

This was quite an interesting thread, but has somewhat descended in to farce with allegations about electoral fraud and bizarre accusations that the govt are murdering people along with comparisons to Hitler. It is that kind of hyperbole that means that sensible points, of which there were many, get lost and the whole debate sinks to the level of 'loony left' and 'tory scum' mudslinging.

Quorn I haven't contributed to this thread thus far but have been reading. You did make a rather scathing personal judgement on the OP for not working full-time when she admitted that she suffered a mental health breakdown. Fortunately, it is illegal for employers not to make reasonable adjustments e.g. reduced hours.