Too Many Cuts...come join the #Frothers and have your say

[AnyFuckerForAMincePie]

This is the 3rd thread in a series.

It is for people who are horrified, frustrated and downright sad at the erosion of human rights with respect to how this country is being run, just now and in the recent past

it is apolitical in nature, but of course due to many recent initiatives by the recent govt, there will be rants against our current "leaders"

please join in

I shall post the link to the old threads, our "Too Many Cuts #Frothers" blog that is attracting a lot of widespread attention and a little bit of what we are about in a moment

oo where is it KAte , i may go post have my lame proof knickers on

meh the DM readers would probably be greatly improved by a bit of acid. maybe we should get into the dm factories and impregnate the paper with lsd?

opps thats flame not lame

Lame knickers are perfect for Christmas. If I could work out how to put an accent on that last e.

It's in AIBU. About Tories not being thick (now if that doesn't say "STEP AWAY FROM THE THREAD!!" I don't know what does!)

Anyhoo, I've re-customized so I can just hide stuff straight from active convos. I think this will be very useful to avoid future increases in BP.

I actually think there may be a bit of sock puppetry on that thread. Some of the posts feel the same but have different poster's names. I'm probably completely wrong.

Knotty I like your blog post

LOL Knotty

Kate, doubters will realise when and if it affects them. And it's little things too- for example we can;t afford to heat properly this year (and have an exceptioally draughty and leaky rentedhouse) and we notice that the boy's sickness attenndance days off have increased threefold already.

I am livid at EDF today. As far as I'm concerned the point of DD payments is that you pay the same amount all year around and it evens out over summer/vs winter.

We switched to them at the beginning of winter so have used up all our credit already and they have rocketed our DD payments (because apparently we aren't allowed to be in debit to them?! Even though the other way aorund is fine?!)

Bastards.

You're right Peachy, we need more stories on the blog about things that affect people that can be easily identified with.

NHS, SureStart and student fees tend to push the buttons for more people than perhaps the benefits stuff.

Obviously we need both but if we are to prick the conscience of those who think it'll happen to someone else.

Yep, I agree: if nothing appears about SureStart I might look at it at the weekend, good if someone else did as my experiences outdated (obv. will research) but my last 'proper' (ie not student) job was based within a surestart building and funded by them (for a charity).

yep it's kind of why i'm a bit wary of writing for the blog on single parents because sadly most people don't give a shit about single parents and will switch off.

And education. That's another one people can identify with.

Much of this is really hard to understand because of the vast swathes of red tape and the various definitions. It's also hard to understand what life if like for those who are carers or disabled unless you've lived it or seen it at very close-hand.

Nobody wants to think their partner will leave them or they could get ill or die. Nobody wants to think they could get ill or become disabled or lose their job. So they pretend it isn't happening.

Santa it's really important we have the real life stories too, interspersed with those that people can empathise with a bit more easily. Once people start opening their mind and their eyes it is easier to show them the reality.

Absolutely Kate: I firmly beleive that much of this media- assault on claimants panders not to 'nasty' people as some think but to people's instincts to self protect by playing ostrich.

Every kind of blog post is welcome.

important stuff

I used to help run a Sure Start centre. Absolutely brilliant idea, fantastic resources, expensive resources, dedicated staff, interesting activities and plenty of funding.

For a client base that was predominantly wealthy, white , middle class housewives enjoying the baby massage, toy library and breastfeeding support.
In many areas these centres were simply not utilised by the target groups at all, certainly not in the area in which I worked. Seeing director's wives having free soft play passes was pretty sickening to be honest.
I don't know why women from teh target demographics failed to attend month after month, year after yearm but they did. No matter what we tried to make it accessible for them.

sad fact though that when we say, 'that people can empathise with', we mean able bodied, married, economically able people. all the rest of us are obviously people too.

the ostrich thing makes sense - it's like people believing rape myths like 'she was asking for it' so that they don't have to face the fact that it could happen to anyone, even them, their daughters etc. much easier to believe a lie such as bad things only happen to bad people than deal with reality.

Harry very different to where we worked; no soft play or anything like that: lots of deprived people acccessing resources.

I strongly belive that SureStarts vary hugely but we can learn from the ones who do their jobs best.

I rana family group within the set up for my clients and most of them went on to utilise the other areas; however we did have a few MC families and I see that as a positive as it encouraged mixing. Our area was notoriously poor WC though.

TeWi hah, I am MNing as a break from graphing my own figures with EDF.

They are bastards. Fact.

You can refuse to allow the DD they want and threaten to change provider if they whinge. As you say, you are supposed to be in debt to them for this part of the year if you started from 0 at the beginning of winter; then they're in debt to you for the rest of the year.

They will never, ever admit this.

That link I made was to a human rights assessment of welfare changes, sorry didn't say

Yes I hate the idea of ghetto-isation (is that a word?).

it's one i've been using a lot lately kate so sorry if you've picked it up from me - made up but effective i think.

thanks for that link peachy. they've caged it in very polite and tentative language but it's all in there isn't it? that it is discriminatory, that it will lead to destitution for some - mention of government not doing equality of impact assessments AGAIN hints at least at the fact it is yet again disproportionally effecting women, mentions disabled people in connection to underoccupancy and housing caps.

Home town a bit notorious anyway but like many places you knewwhich children would go to what schools and could place a fair bet on what they would be doing in twenty eyars (not always I know; I went to one of those same sinks chools, but I know the reality as a result).

They- and their aprents- should be encouraged to mix as much as possible. Build notions of achievement and break down self imposed barriers on one side, build compassion on the other.

In a couple, they will expect one person to be 'nominated' as the 'main carer', who will be treated with the same conditionality levels as a Lone Parent (e.g. expected to find 20 hrs work a week). The other person in the couple will be expected to find work for 35 hrs a week.

So EACH person in the couple faces their own conditionality. So if SAHM doesn't get 20 hrs a week work then she could be made to do 20hrs/week Workfare. If the Dad doesn't get 35hrs/week work, then HE could be made to do 35 hrs Workfare...

It is all a moot point, provided the Household earns over £17,389 pa. Once you hit that income, there will be no conditionality applied to your UC claim.

So it's a case of fuck you NMW earners - you just aren't working hard enough. If one person earns £17,398pa+, then you are 'worthy', if not - you're scum!

Not wanting to fall out with people, so I'll reply to your points and then leave the thread.

1. No, possibly not on this thread, but in real life there are millions of people who could work but don't want to. I myself know quite a few and I'm from a small rural area.

1. It was years before I was allocated council accomodation and it was a 2-bed flat which I gratefully accepted. The private rental I lived in was not cheap, it was comparable with today's rental costs.

1. I have hardly any family, both my parents died when I was a young teenager. For childminding, I used a rota of my one remaining family member/friends/students from the local college (who I interviewed and requested references from). I paid all these people the going rate for a sleeping nightshift, which was about 20 quid a night in the 80s. Why don't people today do the same?

1. My child was never home alone - I stated that I took him to school, then went to bed for 5 hours, then got up to collect him from school and cook the tea etc. The childminder arrived just before I went to work, when he was already asleep in bed.

5.Yes, I'm physically very healthy. My social phobia, though, was so severe that I was terrified and shaking before doing work related things such as training days, role-play, meetings, presentations for my degree. I had to leave an all day interview (for a promotion) very recently, as I just couldn't handle the talk I was expected to give or the fact that it was a sort of communal interview (neither of which would have been necessary to do the job).

6.I have only one child because that's all I could afford. I would have loved a second child, but I believe we should not have children if we can't afford to pay for them. This is where I have an issue with parents who have one, two, three or more children when they are struggling to cope - either financially or because they or one of their children has a health issue.

FWIW, my son has a good job but is not yet a high earner. He has a stay at home partner and two children. I've told him pretty much what I've said on this thread - that if he wants a higher standard of living he needs to get off his arse and take a second job, or send his GF out to work a couple of nights a week.
It's irresponsible to have children you cannot afford - and then to keep on having them.

I do appreciate though, that people these days have higher expectations of what life should be like - but maybe that's a large part of the problem?