Shitbrain accidently kills his 6 children. Gov wades in

[Korto]

I don't know about Disability in Britain, but in Australia to get it at the moment you seem to have to be pretty well medically absolutely incapable of even looking after yourself. It kind of oscillates with political necessity. If they need to get the unemployment rate down, it's easier to get Disability since if you're on disability you don't count as unemployed. If they need to save money, they make it tougher to get because there's always going to be some disabled who can in fact work, and anyway, Disability pension is a lot more than Unemployment benefit.
(I will confess that's my personal impression. It's possible I'm just being too cynical)

But as I observed in the "I could live on £53 pw" thread that at the moment is running so much in parallel that they may as well be bloody merged, British benefits really seem to suck. Massively suck.

I'll 3rd Zuanne. A long time on the dole kills you. It really kills you. You feel you're a parasite. You feel everyone around you thinks you're a parasite. It wouldn't make any difference to the world if you were dead, in fact, it would be better, because there would be one less parasite, and then at least you wouldn't have to deal every day with how much of a failure you were.

I wonder whether, in all the courses and shit they get you to do, an occasional thing to try and raise self-esteem might help? Maybe they could do a psych assessment (just something really basic) to try and catch those who are drowning. Just a thought.

[Vendetta]

Although traditional concepts of self esteem was probably not high among the personality disorders of Mick Philpott, scumbag to the stars.

Seriously, this is a man who broke one girlfriend's arm, smashed another's leg with a sledgehammer, and then stabbed another repeatedly in her sleep, for which he went to prison, but when he got out used the story of that event to terrify future girlfriends in order to control them.

He didn't squat out 17 kids to get benefits, he kept his girlfriends pregnant so they were vulnerable and dependent, and the root of this event was his reaction to one of those girlfriends defying him by leaving with their children.


The fact that this case was even turned into a discussion on benefits and unemployment is simply evidence that the current british government are a bunch of dishonest scheming fuckbags who literally give no shits about anything but selling their dogma.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Well, V, given the gushing over Thatcher we just saw in Parliament today, no sane person could dispute that at all.

[Hillary]

Well, V, given the gushing over Thatcher we just saw in Parliament today, no sane person could dispute that at all.

Ed Milibean's performance made me want to gnaw my own feet off. At least Clegg looked thoroughly embarrassed by the whole affair. Glenda did a decent job though.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The fact that this case was even turned into a discussion on benefits and unemployment is simply evidence that the current british government are a bunch of dishonest scheming fuckbags who literally give no shits about anything but selling their dogma.

Par for the course, regardless of who's actually in power.