Laurie Penny

Pop culture and radical politics with a feminist twist

The battle against benefit cuts and “poverty pimps”

Disabled people and their allies are fighting back against cuts – shame on the rest of us if we do not fight with them.

By Laurie Penny Published 24 January 2011 11:38

Of all the obdurate lies peddled by the Conservative Party in the run-up to the last general election, perhaps the most callous was when the Tory disability spokesperson Mark Harmer told key representatives of Britain's millions of disabled and mentally unwell citizens: "I don't think disabled people have anything to fear from a Conservative government." It turns out that disabled people have a great deal to fear.

Despite a fraud rate of just 1 per cent, the government is determined to toss 500,000 people who currently rely on sickness benefits into the open arms of the bleakest labour market in a generation, to cut already meagre disability stipends to starvation levels, to confiscate mobility scooters and community groups from the most needy, and to remove key services that make life bearable for thousands of families with vulnerable relatives. The party assures us that someone's got to pick up the tab for the recklessness of millionaire financiers. So, naturally, they're going to start with the disabled and the mentally ill.

Disabled people, their friends, family members and allies, have much to fear – and much to fight. Today has been designated a national day of action against benefit cuts, and resistance groups across the country will be staging protests and spreading the word about how the government's plans to dismantle most of the welfare state and privatise the rest will affect them. "Housing benefit cuts mean I'm probably going to lose my home," says Carole, 32, "but the removal of the Incapacity Benefit safety net means that I'm terrified of looking for work. If I'm made to do a job I'm not well enough for and have to leave, I'll be left penniless. I don't know what to do."

Many of the demonstrations will target private companies like Atos Origin, which have been given government tender to impose punitive and – studies have shown – largely unreliable medical testing of welfare claimants before forcing the sick to seek work that even the healthy can't get. Campaigns like Benefit Claimants Fight Back are quite clear what they think about these companies – they are "poverty pimps".

As Britain's welfare claimants who are well enough to do so take to the streets, the beleaguered workers responsible for administrating the ersatz and vituperative benefits system have just finished a 48-hour strike over the way their jobs are being restructured to meet increasingly high targets of claimant turnover. "The system is driven towards saving money at the expense of vulnerable people. We want to help people but they're not letting us," says William, a 22-year-old worker in a call centre that deals with Incapacity Benefit claims. "You get old people phoning up in floods of tears when their relatives have died."

"I hate them calls. We're so limited in what we can say because all our calls are recorded and they watch us all the time. You're chained to your desk. It's hell working here," he says.

"We have people off sick with stress all the time – I've had to take medication for anxiety and I normally consider myself quite a strong, down-to earth person," Davies adds. "People come to work in tears, but they're terrified of saying they can't cope, because they know just what happens if they have to go on the sick.

"Nobody wants to have to deal with our system from the other end."

The withering of the welfare state is not just a party game. The gradual erosion of the principle, formalised in the Attlee settlement, that people who are unable to work and support themselves should not be left with nothing to live on, did not start with this government. Labour formalised the process in 2008, mounting grandiose campaigns against "welfare cheats" and flogging off support services to private companies whose express purpose was to deny benefits to as many people as possible – including, in several cases, terminal cancer patients. The argument, put forward by many commentators, that punitive welfare reform can't be that bad because "Labour started it", is the political equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and humming to block out the angry cries of a million human beings deprived of their dignity.

This is more than a party game. For New Labour, the financial intimidation of the sick and vulnerable was, in part, a desperate appeal to the prejudices of voters in marginal seats, a strategy tried and tested by PR professionals in Clinton's second term who later came to work for the Blair/Brown administration. Bullying people off benefits, however, is about more than just votes. It's part of a creeping cultural shift towards a public consensus that there is no room in this society for the weak.

In this country and across the developed world, labour is precarious, competition for jobs and adequate pay is fierce, workers are under terrific pressure and anyone who cannot keep up with the rat race, whether through sickness, mental ill health or physical disability, is mistrusted and shamed. "My clients frequently express more shame that they are not able to work than over the perceived inferiority of their bodies," comments an anonymous disability worker. "In a materialist society, apparently, the ultimate failure of the disabled is that we don't make money."

We like to think of ourselves as a nation where, if anything, 'political correctness' has gone too far, but our attitude towards people with disabilities and mental health problems has barely improved in 20 years. A recent survey revealed that four out of five employers would prefer not to take on anyone with a history of mental health problems. Meanwhile, rather than question the terms of a target-driven labour market whose precariousness routinely drives workers to the edge of mental and physical breakdown, ordinary people are taught to kick down savagely at any fellow citizen who can't keep up.

This is not just about a culture that puts profit before people. This is about a culture that has begun to believe, on some deep and terrifying stratum, that if one cannot turn a profit, one is not really a person at all. Disabled people and their allies are fighting back in whatever way they can. Shame on the rest of us if we do not fight with them.

Special Offer: Get 12 issues of New Statesman magazine for just £12

More from Laurie Penny

121 comments

Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disabl's picture

Wed, 2011-01-26 23:24 — Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disabl (not verified)

Thank you, Penny.

http://www.facebook.com/blacktriangle1

Wed, 2011-01-26 23:28 — Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disabl (not verified)

Laurie Penny, you have done us proud. Yet again.

Love and Solidarity,

http://www.facebook.com/blacktriangle1

Mon, 2011-01-24 21:31 — Djunfitforwork (not verified)

Big respect to all who made it to the demo today -and also to Penny for raising the issue.

As for the right wing Trolls and their "responses"- reading the odd A-S level paperback from a "free-market" apologist does NOT make you "edgy" or "interesting".

Thu, 2011-01-27 03:45 — stuart (not verified)

lets face the facts martin l..me and you have had run ins in the past,and the the time has come where i have to kick your ass into touch,,you try to come across as this working class tory hero who hates layabouts and dole bludgers like me and others,ok ,here is where you going wrong mate,,you are in fact selling yourself out and your soul to people who would piss on you from from a height that would end up drowning you in more poverty,,posher and posher public schoolboyss do not give a monkeys fuck about so called blue collared working class mugs like you that prop up this scum who attack the poor as an idealogy..harsh words martrin 1,but you need to get out of your dream world and live in the real world mate..

Mon, 2011-01-24 22:57 — mike lewis (not verified)

I'd love to have a dig Laurie...and no doubt will again, but this one is just too serious, too abhorrent, too fuckin 'Darwinist'...to do anything but nod along in approval.

...modern day eugenics with a happy-clappy logo, a dynamic mission statement and a bunch of fat fuckin self-satified nose-troughing degenerates pissing on everything that ever made this country worth living in.

One thing though...how can you write
on this topic without a mention of A4E?...and especially the 'Joseph Mengele of "Welfare Reform"' that lives, breathes and goes by the name of Emma Harrison.

...really...google the bitch...or, in fact, don't bother...just think Matt Lucas playing the fat woman 'motivator' down Job Centre Plus..only this time it's for real...and she's got a multi million pound contract and a cattle prod.

...and as you rightly say..Labour started the whole ball rolling...surely that in itself leaves them unfit to govern ever again?...funny you didn't mention that Laurie...not got any ambitions in that direction have you?

Come on Laurie..let's have a bit of consistency...let's hear it...very next piece...'Penny says "Labour have lost the moral credibility to ever govern again...I spit on their petty bourgeois corporate carcass and denounce them from the pit of my being"'...surely, you must feel that way Laurie?...feisty internet 'Socialist' phenomenon that you are?

...go on..prove me wrong...show us you're not all mouth

Mon, 2011-01-24 23:09 — Loraine (not verified)

I'm not disabled myself but who knows what the future holds for any of us. I know alot of disabled people who are truely terrified. I know people who have already had their benefit stopped and are waiting for their appeal decision to come through. Deemed well enough to not be classed as disabled but not well enough to work. The system is completely messed up. I'm a single parent on benefits, while I do not face the same difficulties I too am sat waiting in terror for the information I need, to know if me and my children are going to survive. My childcare bill for 5 days would be £450 a week. How do I find a job to cover that and pay the rent, and feed my children? If I'm terrified as an able bodied, well person, I cannot even begin to imagine what my disabled friends are going through. To add insult to injury this Tory government are trying to kill off the NHS and the latest twisted plan is to have Chemotherapy patients queue up in Boots for their treatment! They have either gone completely insane or they are trying to kill us all off one by one. I pray to God that my friends are spared and I will be standing in front of them, fighting hard for their rights! We are not just talking about people of working age, we are talking about grandparents and children too. March 26th, I'm going to be there, nothing will stop me!

Thu, 2011-01-27 04:22 — alanm

Absolutely superb and spot on analysis of the menacing spread of tacit Malthusianism in our political culture. To think IDS thinks of himself as a Christian - well Christ would not have punished the weak - Christianity is all about protecting the weak and vulnerable, something so many church-going Tories and New Labour bullies fail to understand. It is also ironic to note that Christ himself would have been classed as itinerant and unemployed. This government are the Pontius Pilates of welfare. A moral disgrace. As was a disgustingly ill-informed and slanderous front page story by the Daily Express today which claims spuriously that 75% of those on Incapacity are 'fit to work' just because government-sponsored 'medical experts' who are no doubt given bonuses per disallowed head claim they are. Nonsense. Everyone knows that the descriptors in these assessments are unconscionably stacked against those with mental illness, the symptoms of which are often invisible.

Excellent and compassionate polemic Laurie and absolutely from the same hymn sheet as my dialectical Foreword in Emergency Verse.

Alan Morrison
Editor, Emergency Verse - Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State
www.therecusant.org.uk

Mon, 2011-01-24 23:19 — sinner (not verified)

Re: Marcus uninformed rant above:

If you want a good laugh Marcus
check this out to see what options disabled people in this country feel they have now - euthanasia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49sMJQVuqPA

Or don't you do irony?

Mon, 2011-01-24 23:37 — Keir H

Good article.
Why are we so surprised when the Tories want to replace public sector bodies with private companies! Tories will always put profit before public service ethos. Profit doesn’t allow for compassion, balance or collective agreement.
Yes Labour made mistakes, but I would rather have Labour mistakes than Tory ones. Somebody voted Tory at the last General Election – and I hope they come to regret their decision.
We need to rebut all those Tory media generated lies about the deficit. Labour should start generating some headlines about what’s happening to schools, the NHS, Post Offices, transport, welfare... before it’s too late. If we’re not quick enough to highlight what’s going on it will all belong to our wonderful banker friends in the City. We all know how good they are at keeping profit to themselves.

Mon, 2011-01-24 23:40 — Des Demona (not verified)

@ Mike Lewis..
'.and as you rightly say..Labour started the whole ball rolling...surely that in itself leaves them unfit to govern ever again?...funny you didn't mention that Laurie.'

Ummm, I think she just did you embittered little arse?

Tue, 2011-01-25 00:19 — disabledbabe (not verified)

I was at the Livingston protest aganst Atos Origin today and got pushed and hit by the police. But what are a few bruises compared to what the Coalition and Atos are doing to disabled people? They are terrifying the people who are the least responsible for the implosion of capitalism. Disabled people don't refer to Atos as 'The Evil Empire' for nothing. Back to the eighties? More like back to the 1834 Poor Law.

Wed, 2011-01-26 07:33 — mike lewis (not verified)

Des Demona

Look Des...you made a stupid claim...were called on it, failed to back it up...so now, you try: "naive"? OK Des..I'll take "naive"

...maybe, I'll do a Laurie Penny and spin it as "idealistic", though.

Maybe you'd like to explain why a 'committed socialist firebrand' would have any qualms about denounce the Labour Party btw? What possible reason could she have?..we're talking about a bunch of free-market fundamentalists who were quite happy to start the whole benefits carve up in the first place. Keeping her options open, is she?

"In fact, seeing as you seem to be so keen to have a left leaning journalist denounce the labour party I'd go further and say you have the voice of a Tory troll embittered little arse."

Oh touché Des...attack Ms Penny and you're a right-wing troll? Brilliant...is that cos she 'is' the left these days?

You seem to be taking my posts very personally btw Des? Is your name really Demona? It's also interesting that you don't really dispute any claims I make...just name-calling and accusing me of being a Tory ringer...why am I starting to suspect I've hit a nerve?

Tue, 2011-01-25 00:50 — Claire (not verified)

I've seen nothing about these protests either in the planning stages or being reported on today. Goes to show the students have got the right idea, peaceful protests do NOT work, nobody is talking about this. I would have gone today if I had known, protests need to be advertised.

Great article, heartbreaking stuff.

Tue, 2011-01-25 00:53 — gwenhwyfaer (not verified)

Notable that only one outright troll dared venture on here (Marcus may not yet be a lost soul). Martin L isn't even a good one, otherwise he'd realise that over half that benefits bill is actually going on state pensions. Which have, I repeat, *risen*. Only about a quarter of the remainder goes on disability benefits (and most of what does is, of course, not means-tested).

To be clear, I don't begrudge pensioners their long-overdue reindexing. I just wonder about the politics of reintroducing something that will swell what's already the majority of the welfare bill at a time when everyone else is being told "we can't afford welfare any more, get a job". Even though highly qualified people who don't have extra hurdles can't get paid to stack shelves at the moment.

That's the cold fact of the matter. The employment situation in this country is a complete market failure. The private sector can only actually employ less than half the people in the country, and any company will employ as few people as it can get away with - so without expansion or entrepreneurship, the total job market will decrease. And guess what's not happening right now? Yep - nobody's funding expansion or entrepreneurship - and for that the blame must fall primarily on the banks, and only secondarily on the government for not forcing their hands or stepping into the breach.

Rather than whining about the benefits bill - which frankly, and pathetically, smacks of rank jealousy - why don't you right wingers direct your ire at those figures who steadfastly refuse to fund or support the one thing that DOES actually stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting this country's economy back into shape? Once the private sector is thriving, *then* talk about shrinking the public sector. You might find nobody else is quite as enthusiastic about your crusade then, mind.

Thu, 2011-01-27 07:59 — Michael (not verified)

Thank you Laurie Penny for writing about things that most people will not, and if they do often without the passion and empathy which you show.

Tue, 2011-01-25 00:54 — insanity beckons (not verified)

bipolar disorder, psychosis and personality disorder, thats me. day to day living hard. i cant work if i could who'd employ me. psychiatrist says i cant handle work cuz i end up on a section, like i have few times before, months locked up in hospital. i was found 'fit for work' few weeks ago by atos employee, oh yea,, she was a midwife !!! mental health unit here i come...again. who'ss more crazy, me or the system. fuck um.

Thu, 2011-01-27 08:38 — Nick (not verified)

To read a full response to the claims made in the Daily Express - use the following link. You will need to register but it's very easy and will only take a few seconds. It's a public forum for people to give their views......

http://mylegal.org.uk/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=126

Tue, 2011-01-25 01:06 — Nick9

Excellent article Laurie on this little talked about subject. The problem is that the media have given the benefit claimant a very bad and damaging press, there is almost a hatred campaign on those reliant on state support, it's fuelled by a media frenzy which makes everyone out to be faking it or otherwise on the fiddle.

Politicians are afraid of siding with the claimant because it doesn't fit with what they feel the voter wants to hear. Somehow its okay to go soft on crime but they harden up on those who need state support.

I've posted on here many times over my experience working as a welfare benefit specialist. I believe this gives me some kind of informed view, having advised literally thousands over the years. Those that abuse the system are out there, but from what I see they are in the minority. The current vendetta campaign against claimants doesn't address the fact that many are the by-product of an economy which encouraged welfare dependency, the origins of which are in the early 90's when unemployment figures were embarrassingly high, it makes me laugh how the Major era boasted of well it looked after the disabled and spent more on them, now they want to take away their wheelchairs and walking sticks. They also engage ATOS in making cursory judgements based on their 'opinion' rather than the much more in depth knowledge of a GP who knows their patient best. I often ask myself why these 'healthcare professionals' engage with ATOS, rather than treat people - they prefer to make judgements; they are often wrong. To be fair some are better than others. they are not all bad but some of the medical assessments are appalling, all too brief and far too focussed on a healthcare professional looking at a computer, rather than a person.

The new Employment & Support Allowance was intended to identify claimants who have a limitation which would be recognised by offering of support; instead they choose to treat is as a license to get people back on JSA at any cost. It defeats the whole object of helping disabled people back into work, it's a major flaw. It's one I'm currently raising in the Upper Tribunals - they guide the lower Tribunals on what to do. Who knows what they'll make of it, I can but wait and see.

But as well as the cuts there is an equally worrying move to remove funding for advice agencies who help people with benefit problems. You can read more about this in the NS magazine about front line workers, agencies and CAB face massive cuts in funding.

The coalition wants to cut legal aid funding by removing it entirely for those with a benefit problem, the reality is many organisations won't be able to help people appeal or work through a problem.

This is serious for us as advice agencies and for those who we try to help. But it's not attracting the attention it should and promotion of awareness is seriously needed before it's too late.

Please visit the NS blog on Front line services, there are some good links on there. For those that are able, have a read of the magazine article. You can read it on the blog- I've copied it in there.

When we, as agencies are gone, we're gone, we need people who use our services to speak up. If you don't, you will face a situation where your access to advice becomes restricted, indeed it may not be available at all.

Find out more about the 'Justice for All' campaign using the following links:

http://www.justice-for-all.org.uk/

http://mylegal.org.uk/

http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/legal-aid-reform-151110.htm

We need you to help us - help you!!!!

Wed, 2011-01-26 10:01 — Martin L (not verified)

@vanilla - i have no problem with Laurie being middle class - I just chuckle at the irony of her (privleidged class) making money out of the poor!!!!

@ the idiot who said I knew nothing about ATOS; I pointed out that GP's are not suitable to assess diability due to bias, this was in response to an earlier posters point that GP's SHOULD BE ABLE TO ASSESS IT! perhaps the idiot should read the entire thread and get their facts straight (sorry, I do understand that was point (of smearing me)).

There are lots of jobs near me in factories and fields. FACT. Employers can't fill them with UK unemployed because they refuse to lower themselves. FACT. Why arent the army of unemployed in my community beating the doors down of the employers? Because they are lazy and have a choice - life on benefits.

So what happens? these employers are actually placing adverts in poland, portugal etc to get workers who do want to work.

even in cities there are jobs, but the lazy can't be bothered.

My friend who is polish, has a very good job in a prison - if she can do it, why can't the lazy spongers?

the do-gooders look, but don't see.

Tue, 2011-01-25 01:16 — Nick (not verified)

Mike Lewis; I'm interested in your comments on A4E, as welfare to work providers they now want to further their range of contracts to include....advising people on appealing against welfare benefit decisions?

Wed, 2011-01-26 10:20 — Martin L (not verified)

Isuffer from anxiety, bipolar disorder, bilateral knee arthritis, and a degenerative kidney disease and asthma, so i could be classed as disabled.

But I WORK, and damned hard too, providing for both my family and for sponging families.

most disabled people can work. The few that can't should be cared for. end of.

Tue, 2011-01-25 01:24 — Des Demona (not verified)

Well said Nick.

Tue, 2011-01-25 01:50 — Alison (not verified)

I don't know why I am adding to this excellent (barring the few!) range of comments but it is indicative I suppose of my need to express solidarity while feeling completely frustrated at not knowing what else to do. I am badgering my MP and talking to disbelieving friends but that's not much. I don't think protests in the street will do much good. Yet it seems impossible that this can be happening in this country today and so little be said or understood (except by the few commentators). There has to be a way of total protest - not suicide as some people have hinted at. This is simply not right and right will prevail. What if everyone simply refused to turn up to assessments? There needs to be an ongoing but cumulative process that leaves noone protesting on their own. What is it?

Tue, 2011-01-25 01:55 — Lou (not verified)

@Vanilla Rose,

My misunderstanding it would seem on what was meant by targets and payments. It's not that they are paid more for a fit for work assessment than a non fit one, it's about them being a target based company paid to achieve govt targets, employing people expected to achieve targets, the Govt has figures for how many it wants off benefit and a contractual agreement with Atos to assess capability for work. So it's a performance related pay but not in the sense I conveyed. They don't - as far as I can now see and I'm not privvy to their contractual agreement - get paid more from the Govt specifically for a fit for work verdict.

The 92% is 91% and it was in this article
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/01/14/why-the-sick-and-disabled-will-f...

Disappointed at the lack of news coverage on this subject.

Tue, 2011-01-25 02:12 — stuart (not verified)

i never used to like laurie penny because i thought she was a posh middle class snob,,but now she is my hero for sticking up for the poor and working class people,,the left wingers and right wingers have deserted us and now i see laurie penny as are new leader to help the forgotten majority in society,,god bless laurie, she is the new joan of ark who is prepared to die at the stake for her principles...

Tue, 2011-01-25 02:25 — stuart (not verified)

http://www.maidofheaven.com/joanofarc_quick_life_facts.asp...my tribute to laurie penny, a leader in the making

Tue, 2011-01-25 03:07 — Brendan Savage (not verified)

@stuart You thought Laurie was a snob? I sincerely have no idea what gave you that impression...A penny for you thoughts..? Sorry, that was unforgiveable..

Personally, I think Laurie is a fantastic writer, a real firebrand. She breathes some much needed life into the New Statesman. They are lucky to have her.

Tue, 2011-01-25 03:48 — stuart (not verified)

yes brendan,i used to think laurie was a bit of a middle class dinner party snob and i apologise to her for that, do you know what,i have never been to a dinner party in my life..love to go to one,because most working class people i know dont have a posh voices where i live in hackney and for all i know laurie could come from a working class background like me,but i should not of judged her because of her upbringing and i admit to that,but come on brendan,when these posh right wingers.left wingers,liberals are on the tv with there posh voices telling us how to live are lifes while they are shagging each others partners behind there backs and having a jolly fiddling there state funded expenses,dont it get ur goat up a bit mate,and i have one more thing to say that might get me banned from laurie pennys blog forever,,i class laurie penny as a caring and compassionate and much younger version of margeret thatcher,, this could be my last comment after laurie bans me but do you know where i am coming from brendan..

Tue, 2011-01-25 04:17 — stuart (not verified)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTTyzfF_TCU&feature=related...my last music clip before laurie bans me ,,,byeeeeeeeeeee

Tue, 2011-01-25 04:59 — gwenhwyfaer (not verified)

"most working class people i know dont have a posh voices where i live in hackney"

Nor did the people on the Fenland council estate where I grew up. But between my mum, her Radio 4 addiction, being a solitary child and the fact that I cannot pick up accents to save my life - even after spending half my life up North - I'm stuck with one. Accents are by no means a reliable guide to class.

Tue, 2011-01-25 06:35 — dillon (not verified)

take no notice of stuart,he is a typical lazy working class no hoper dole scrounging council estate layabout we can do without in this country.

Tue, 2011-01-25 07:36 — mike lewis (not verified)

Des Demona

"Ummm, I think she just did you embittered little arse?"

Well, if that's what you 'think', maybe you'd like to look again...then provide me with a quote. Ummmm, good luck with that..you semi-literate arse.

Tue, 2011-01-25 07:56 — Nick9

And in Dillon's early morning comment, there is an illustration of the hatred which exists between himself and those he perceives as lazy layabouts - all of whom he thinks come from Council estates.

I too am up early, off many miles to London to do battle in the Upper Tribunals - to try and do my bit to put straight some of the legislative failure which has affected Employment and Support Allowance determinations.

We need to work out those who are genuine and can't work at all, those that have some degree of limitation and need some support and those who are trying it on. We also need to create jobs and suitable work placements before putting people into work.

We won't do this by adopting wholesale hatred, we need to act with some degree of compassion and adopt an inquisitive approach as to identifying the real barriers which restrict people from work. It's a far better way than tarring all with the same brush, let's drop the hatred and realize that people are people - whatever their circumstances.

Tue, 2011-01-25 08:13 — Luddite (not verified)

Those that can work should work, those that can't should be cared for. The problem is the safety-net has become a fishing-net trapping millions in long-term poverty. Reform is overdue, if Labour had 'sorry' Gordon Brown had allowed Mr Fields to do the unthinkable Labour would probably still be in government.

Tue, 2011-01-25 10:37 — Des Demona (not verified)

@ Mike Lewis

Well... here for example is where Laurie castigates Labour - ' Labour formalised the process in 2008, mounting grandiose campaigns against "welfare cheats" and flogging off support services to private companies whose express purpose was to deny benefits to as many people as possible - including, in several cases, terminal cancer patients. The argument, put forward by many commentators, that punitive welfare reform can't be that bad because 'Labour started it', is the political equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and humming to block out the angry cries of a million human beings deprived of their dignity.''

As far as your second point that she doesn't say that Labour are unfit to govern ever again- well that is just a little bit silly, Micky. Wouldn't you say?
Good luck though with your constant sniping at Laurie's background. As for me, I think content and intent is more important than which school you went to, or if you were brought up in a sink estate or the suburbs. But maybe you are one of those class warriors with their heads so far up their arses that their prejudices don't even allow them to support those trying to draw attention to social injustice?

Wed, 2011-01-26 12:07 — Tyler (not verified)

@ "I hate these posh tory working clas hating scumbags"

Well, you're not working, but you still have access to the internet (and so I assume a laptop and a phone bill?) and time to spend arsing around reading new statesman online rather than looking for a job.

What's not to hate about you and your hypocrisy? Why should taxpayers be fnding your lifestyle?

Fri, 2011-01-28 07:08 — Barny

Laurie's stuff is bang on and she is super!

Tue, 2011-01-25 12:28 — Al (not verified)

Des Demona: putting Mike Lewis' increasingly creepy obsession with Laurie Penny aside, he is correct that the Labour party in its "modern" incarnation is totally unfit to govern, both in moral and practical terms. Anyone who still believes that Labour are some kind of "alternative" to Toryism after the evidence of the past two decades is vigorously deluding themselves.

"Ever again"--well, I'm not a clairvoyant. But certainly not within any foreseeable future.

Tue, 2011-01-25 13:10 — frenetic

I was involved in the initial campaign against the Welfare Reform Bill which brought in the ESA, the lack of support from the left, civil society, etc was a disgrace, Brendan Barber supported the Bill, the churches were focussing on migrants, the far left was invisible and ‘activists’ showed no interest at all.

It doesn’t seem much has changed:, yesterday a small crowd of disabled people protested against ATOS in London at the same time down the road an ad hoc protest by primarily Climate Camp women of over 50 people was railing against the undercover police strategy, I’m not saying that wasn’t important, but surely some of these people could later have joined the ATOS event, didn’t they even know or care it was happening?

Tue, 2011-01-25 13:50 — Vanilla Rose (not verified)

Martin L, and Luddite if there are so many jobs out there, why is it so hard for people who are genuinely seeking them to get them? How much do you know about disability? Why do you not class volunteer work as "real"? Are you also going to say that housework isn't "real" work either?

Tue, 2011-01-25 13:51 — Sarah Cooper (not verified)

There is a universal belief in the UK that the benefit system is a birth right and that is why there is a emerging culture of young people refusing to work believing that what they are recieveing is simply free money.
These are the people who tar those unable to work due to illness or disability with the same brush. It makes me sick that my father, a retired skilled engineer (once a civil servant for Royal Ordnance now owned by BAE Systems) has to beg for benefits which he has spent his whole working life contributing to. The fact is that my father would sell his soul to go back to work, but is unable to, due to a catastrophic RTA leaving his left arm completely paralysed. I have to care for him, along with completing full time A Level studies, and have to watch him becoming more and more depressed each day simply because he regards his status as a benefit recipiant with shame and would give anything to go back to work.
Fuelled by the media and current government portraying those in the same situation as him as spongers.

Tue, 2011-01-25 13:56 — Vanilla Rose (not verified)

And, incidentally, Martin L, why do you think it is fair to judge Penny according to her background? Yes, it seems that her parents had the money to send her to private school. I am not aware of her ever having tried to hide this fact. But surely she deserves some credit for doing exactly what you believe in: trying to earn her own living. Freelance writing is certainly not the easiest way to make ££. I am not her biggest fan, I find her attitude bewilderingly condescending on occasion, but I do not think anyone should be judged according to the actions (or inactions) of their parents.

Wed, 2011-01-26 13:42 — Vanilla Rose (not verified)

Sarah Cooper wrote: "There is a universal belief in the UK that the benefit system is a birth right". Sarah, maybe you should look up the word "universal", since the rest of your post makes it quite clear that this view is NOT universal.

@ Martin L: Good for you, I bet you couldn't work if you had cluster headaches as severe as Douglas's are. Plus, you haven't addressed the question of the lack of jobs, or explained why you have such a sneering attitude to volunteer work.

@ Tyler: I think you will find that many public libraries have internet access.

Mon, 2011-01-24 12:00 — Chris Rigby (not verified)

Yes, I'm disabled. No, I'm not impartial in this argument. But thank God for people like Laurie Penny and The New Statesman, who will speak up for us.

I wish I had the energy to fight against this barbaric savagery, but the Coalition Government has chosen its targets very carefully. The "Eton Boys" (even the one - everlasting shame be on him - whose own son died through disability) know which side of their bread is buttered.

Lucky them. They have bread. I don't care about the butter. Just give me some bread. Just give me warmth and the knowledge that my future is safe. Just give me some respect and dignity. Just give me life.

Wed, 2011-01-26 13:44 — Sal (not verified)

Laurie, I appreciate the article but it would have been lovely to see you put your money where you mouth is and actually *attend* the action in London on Monday. The 70 or so of us standing in the cold could have done with the support.

I notice you *are* attending protests today, for university fees. Was our march not fashionable enough for you to attend?

Mon, 2011-01-24 12:03 — James Beecher (not verified)

how about some links to campaigns and protests we can get involved with? Agree re: shame argument, but many people will not know how to get involved, and aside from a good argument, you haven't helped them much here... @bendygirl @brokenofbritain on twitter are two good places to start... but you could also have talked specifically about One Month Before Heartbreak etc

Wed, 2011-01-26 13:56 — Vanilla Rose (not verified)

@ Martin: Penny is an individual, not a "class". Are you, as a taxpayer, happy to line the pockets of Atos shareholders? Because it seems to me that they aren't doing anything to earn the money.

Mon, 2011-01-24 12:41 — Tim Hardy (not verified)

Yes! Thank you Laurie. Let's show Cameron that we're all in this together - against him.

@Chris Rigby, there are ways that even those who are housebound can protest and this is a discussion we need to be having more online.

@Laurie Penny / NS editors: could you please collate some useful links: if people put them in comments they risk being blocked as spammers. The mods should be able to see my email address: I'm happy to help if you email me.

I'm also on twitter as @bc_tmh if anyone wants to contact me about this.

@James Beecher OMBH a great campaign and those are two great people to follow on twitter.

Those of us who have the advantages that come with being able-bodied would love to work with you on challenging these cuts.

Tue, 2011-01-25 15:51 — Louis123 (not verified)

Interesting article - the author is right to say that:

'Bullying people off benefits...is part of a creeping cultural shift towards a public consensus that there is no room in this society for the weak'

However, the author should be cautious not to fall into the trap of portraying the sick and disabled as 'weak'. This only serves to polarize society's view that those who are jobless or sick are unable to be independent. It also detracts from the what I would suggest is the real problem, namely the systemic inequities of capitalism which preclude the sick and disabled from proper access to the job-market.

In my view, it would be better to open dialogue and consider ways in which the job-market could be made more accessible and fairer to the sick and disabled. That would be the best way to reverse the insidious cultural shift that there is no place in society for the jobless, the sick and those with disability.

Wed, 2011-01-26 14:30 — Martin L (not verified)

i have addressed the jobs - read my post - there are jobs. Send stuart to my village - i would get him a job within 24 hours - so long as he could supply two genuine references - please ask the referees not to mention the cannabis use, begging or assaulting police officers though - or his appalling attitudes though!#

Oh shit, thats why he can't get a job isn't it;

a> not looking
b> would do a 'trainspotting' interview if forced to go to interview.

as for cluster headaches, how many of the current people on sickness would say their symptoms are so severe that they can't work? every fucking one of them claiming such things as obesity, STI's warts etc etc - everyone of them is a special case.

I have never slammed voluntary work - indeed i have often posted that the unemployed should become street cleaners, dustbinmen and dredging canals for 40 hours a week to 'earn' their benefits - in this way they would all apply for jobs because they would be better off.

If there are no jobs, why do my local companies have to advertise in polish and portugese job centres - answer that vanilla know it all!