Kwarsi Kwarteng - is this what's coming next?

[wotjusthappend]

This old BBC article from 2015 gives an interesting insight into Kwarsi Kwarteng's right-wing views on the welfare state:

BBC News - Turn benefits into repayable loan, says Tory group
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33092329

Money pays for people and resources. It's completely ignorant and disingenious to deny that a better education (and health service) for all is not founded on those factors.

Oh yes, there is always a made up example of some guy somewhere living a life of bliss at the taxpayers' expense.

Yet when you look at how much the maximum claim is for a young, single person with no disabilities it is much lower than the amount you would need to live the way you describe.

It's funny, isn't it, this 'person' must have access to some special secret benefits the government doesn't tell us about.

I advise your son to do the same as your 'niece's boyfriend' if it looks a good option.

@TheRubyRedshoes does that not depend on the school, both mine had excellent senco support when needed, my nephew now at 8 has just been assessed and now getting help as they don't assess to early
We do seem to have a high level of sen in this country you don't seem to see it mentioned so much in other countries , not sure why

Both the current polling and (usually more accurate) betting markets say a change of government would come.

But an election that re-elected this lot would at least be democratic.

@worriedatthistime

Shannon trust for one.

Or course people with Sen can work and break through but I think the stats speak for themselves on people in prison.

@worriedatthistime

They were an exception then and not the rule.

@lannistunut its not made up I live in a deprived area its totally true
You prob live a middle class sheltered life
Some of us were brought up in a council estate etc , we are more in touch with reality
I still live in a council house so im not knocking it and it hasn't stopped my dc getting jobs , education and the vast majority of my neighbours work
But don't accuse me of making something up

@lannistunut you don't know what he gets he is entitled to have rent paid and when you go nowhere , don't run a car , pay insurances etc , don't pay bills properly yes there is money for weed and no incentive to work
Does he get as much as someone full time mib wage no , but then he doesn't have the same outgoings either and has more disposable income

for makingthings up about me. The fact you have written a story about me suggest you are not bothered about making things up generally.

I don't and didn't live a sheltered middle class life (whatever that means in your head). You have no idea where in the country I live, what my upbringing was, what my situation is now, how my friends and family members live or what I do for a job.

I will simply repeat, there are always stories like this but the maximum claimable amounts for young single people without disabilities are low.

@TheRubyRedshoes I don't think you can say that as plenty of people do get the help
There has to be parent help as well though , children who need extra help need that support at home too
Both mine were removed of the senco register as it was as most of there help was needed as young school starters so didn't hit the milestones when goverment wanted them too
This is also the issue with so much emphasis on kids having to be academic.
More trade schools or other types for those where education isn't working , academically they struggle
Everyone is good at something sometimes its just finding out what that is

Without early interventions in SEN, healthcare & education then its fairly obvious that it's impossible to break the cycles of poverty, low aspiration and poor life choices.

Ideally, parents would provide this but the world isn't ideal, some parents have severe issues of their own, so unless the state provide this support, problems keep re occurring.

Unfortunately, the Tories starting point is self responsibility, which simply doesn't work for many families, as can be seen when they removed Surestart and closed youth centres.

If you do actually live in a deprived area you will also have many neighbours who are genuinely struggling. Yet you choose to tell only this story about one person living like a king.

If you do live in a deprived area you will see major problems are lack of services, general poverty due to benefits not being increased in line with inflation etc.

Funny how you are not bothered about any of that.

@lannistunut you were ok to accuse me of making things up
Its not as clear cut as the figures make and depends what lifestyle you want, he doesn't want to work thats it
I cab hazard a good guess you didn't grow up on a council estate or deprived area as you wouldn't of accused me of making it up and claim no such thing exists
His situation is quite sad and i never said lives his best life

@lannistunut also the biscuit gives away a lot plus i said probably live not that you do

@lannistunut maybe read my posts ?
You will clearly see where i said some seem to really struggle and others not
And said about my single parent friend etc

I believe that if you work you should be paid at leas the minimum wage in return.

@lannistunut i actually do know where I live yes thanks
And i see all sorts around and families where the cycle is to claim and thats a shame
I also see young kids working who can't afford to move out of home despite having a job because the rents are too high and they don't qualify for help
The systen needs a shake yo to help those that really need it and help get people out if it as well and not get trapped in a cycle
I

Martin Wolf chief economics editor of the FT doesn't hold back - the pound is in a death spiral now predicted to fall to parity and beyond with a knocked-on effect to prices with commodities such as oil priced in dollars. If interest rates don't rise and that will severely impact in the cost of government borrowing then the pound will continue to fall. The so-called Red Wall will find out and quickly they count for the square root of fuck all. I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of this road the IMF is called in as it did in 1976 or we do more QE to the max which causes further inflation and sends the pound lower again.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_sterling_crisis

We are being talked about in some circles as a developing economy now with Brexit, as it has been implemented as the greatest act of economic self-harm in modern history.

It's no coincidence that Kwarteng worked for JP Morgan Chase and the hedge fund Odey which is shorting the fuck out of the UK - disaster capitalism at its best and a budget they are celebrating probably by burning money and dancing around the bonfire.

Kwarteng is risking serious economic instability
www.ft.com/content/52abf1de-10c2-4c15-a0d7-6f3f8f297fbd

Especially at a time of rising interest rates, such largesse is sure to raise questions about debt sustainability. Indeed, the market is already asking them. How might the government respond? Presumably by slashing spending. We have no indication of where and how.

Furthermore, this huge increase in the fiscal deficit occurs in a country that ran a current account deficit of 8.3 per cent of GDP in the second quarter of 2022 and has a tumbling exchange rate, low unemployment and already high inflation. Who could seriously regard this huge fiscal loosening as responsible? The Bank of England will be forced to tighten sharply. The government might then pour blame upon it for the results of its own decisions.

In sum, this mini-Budget will do nigh on nothing to raise medium-term growth, but risks serious macroeconomic instability. The failure to ask the Office for Budget Responsibility to assess its impact is simply scandalous. This government may be indifferent to painful reality. But reality usually wins in the end.

The tightening of the welfare state in the past decade has been a popular policy on the whole. It does point to the fact that the majority of people felt it was too unfair and paying too much who were making choices not to work.

No one disagrees that there should be a safety net, but for many it is a lifestyle choice, even today.

For how many? How many is too many? I think we may have been sold a lie about this.

Sure, there are some piss takers, but is punishing everyone for their misdeeds just?

The thing is though the Tories want us to focus on some Shameless so-called benefits scroungers and reserve our ire for those hapless individuals rather than focus on the wholesale looting by them in plain view. It's a fucking car crash, but weirdly it's refreshing to see the bald, brainless mask slip. This is what they are like. The sterile, bankrupt ideology, unfettered from any sense of attachment to reality, is haunted by ghosts of a world 45 years in the past.
And I think they know the game is almost up and they have to generate as much cash for themselves and their confreres as they can before they scarper.
But the suffering for us all will be immense.

Yes I agree with @vera99 the suffering will
be immense… for us.

Why should someone 18-25, without disabilities, immediately be entitled to unrepayable universal credit when they haven't worked previously.
It then puts them in a far better position then someone that has gone to university and come out with 50k debt

The monthly amount of UC for a person aged under 25 without disabilities is £265.31.

Not sure this princely sum puts them in a "far better position" than a university graduate.

There are major job-seeking conditions attached to claiming too. You get sanctioned pretty quickly if you don't comply.

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You've fallen for the oldest trick in the book here. This 'scroungers' narrative has been used to justify a worsening of all of our living standards.

Please stop falling for it. This Tory government are not on your side (or mine). Look at the state of your local area. They have bought your support for destroying the country by promising to crack down on monsters scroungers and they have sold you out.

Yes individuals have responsibility but the state shoulders the responsibility for maintaining conditions that allow the majority to make the most of that responsibility. With that comes the recognition of the fact that there will always be people who don’t fit the mould and remain part of society.