Mike here shows that the amount of welfare benefits paid to Brits criticised by the EU are those, before IDS’ ‘improved’ them even further with the imposition of the bedroom tax and other cuts. Thus the situation is actually worse than that attacked by the Council of Europe. As for the Tories’ hatred of the Council, this has been very clear ever since Maggie Thatcher. I’ve blogged before on how one of her MPs turned up on the Wogan show in the 1980s to praise the single market, while condemning the Social Charter that seeks to protect certain rights for workers. As for Ian Duncan ‘RTU’ Smith trying to rebut their accusation by citing the total amount the government spent on welfare, Mike sees this as another example of Smith’s crass stupidity. I’m not so sure. Smith is stupid: an article about him in the Independent was headlined ‘Smith is the Thickest Ex-Guardsman I’ve ever Met – And that’s saying something!’ However, I think this is more likely a trick by his advisers to con us. There have been several articles by those keen to get the public to develop critical thinking, that show that you should always look at what government spending means when paid to individuals, not the total amount cited, when assessing whether they will actually benefit anyone. From this, it simply seems to me that ‘Matilda’ Smith (he tells such dreadful lies, it makes one gasp and stretch one’s eyes) drew the opposite conclusion, and instead learned a great new way to tell lies with statistics. Or rather his advisors did. Given the way Smith behaves, I have to say when I think of him the old quote about Gerald Ford comes to mind: This is only president, who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
“Manifestly inadequate” are words that should ring in Iain Duncan Smith’s ears for some time to come.
They are the Council of Europe’s verdict on the UK’s social security system of payments for jobseekers, pensioners and recipients of both short- and long-term incapacity benefit.
The Council, an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation, is home to the European Court of Human Rights.
The finding was made in an annual review of the UK’s adherence to the council’s European Social Charter. If the UK’s Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition government takes no action to rectify the situation, then the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers may address a recommendation to the UK, asking it to change the situation in law or in practice. This is clearly a weak way of handling a situation…
View original post 902 more words
Beastrabban\'s Weblog 
January 30, 2014 at 8:42 pm |
Reblogged this on Political Pip Spit or Swallow its up to You.