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2 comments from readers

niceguy
07 August 2008 at 11:57

Is this what they call balanced and objective journalism?

BegbiesEvilTwin
08 August 2008 at 01:20

It looks like the dog whistle meeting the politics of resentment.

Where I differ with Brighty on this is that both the Can Work Will Work and Reduce the Pressure are in many ways merely what Labour has been doing in practice at various points since 1997. The recent DWP announcement on getting disabled people off Incapacity Benefit and back to work seems highly problematic. Getting people back into work sounds noble and can without question be therapeutic but it requires those people to be placed in appropriate meaningful jobs. Until there is adequate legislation and enforcement against disability discrimination in recruitment and in the workplace the likelyhood of long-term disabled people achieving such looks very much like a remote possibility. This is was why the closure of 28 Remploy sites was such a poorly-considered, even scandalous move.

As for Reduce the Pressure Labour have been just as obtuse. Sending asylum seekers back to their home countries when they have challenging health issues such as HIV seems unjustifiable on any reasonable grounds. What I do guarantee is that whenever Labour ends up in opposition they will start crying foul whenever the Tories commit similar actions.