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We have all read these headlines, have all heard them repeated on radio programmes like BBC Radio5Live and Radio 4 and seen them on TV, but the majority turned a blind eye or agreed with the government and did think the unemployed are all feckless, lazy scroungers. It was all too easy for the government aided and abetted by their right wing friends in the media to demonise people and blame them for the predicament the found themselves in. it was also helped through by the Liberal Democrat party (the biggest turncoats in the political history of this country). Some of us tried to warn people that this government viewed us ordinary folk as useful only at election times and that they were deliberately pandering to people's fears and base instincts in order to divide and rule their opposition to make it easier to implement their right wing ideology. We said that pretty soon this government would come for 'you' and your family, and when they did we hoped there would still be enough people around to care and with enough fight left in them to help try and stop what this Tory government is doing to our society. That day is looming ever closer!
Today Nick Hurd, the Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, who has led a life of privilege and who attended, public school at Eton and Oxford university decided to blame all unemployed 16 - 24 year olds for being unemployed, stating that they "lacked grit and determination, social skills and discipline" and this is why they can't get a job. This is the man who is a 4th generation Conservative MP following his father, grandfather and great grandfather to be elected to the House of Commons. He is the eldest son of Conservative Life Peer, Douglas, Lord Hurd a former Conservative cabinet minister.
Nick Hurd is the man who apart from representing a British bank in Brazil once has spent his entire adult working life cocooned in the safety of the Conservative party. I wonder how many jobs he applied for and not get? Obviously parachuted into a safe Tory seat and his working life mapped out for as long as he wishes. His one business venture was when he set up the Small Business Network to advise the Conservative party on business policy! Hurd was also a member of the Bullingdon Club that prime minister David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson also once belonged to. This is the notorious club that trashes restaurants (where your son or daughter may hope to work) and burns £50 notes in front of homeless people as a stung to be admitted to their club! This is the club that the man who calls himself the prime minister and his friend Boris Johnson the London Mayor and would be PM belonged to, so out of touch are they! Chancellor George Osborne and Boris brother Jo Johnson also belonged to the Bullingdon club, where money is no object and they could smash up as many places of work as they could and mummy and daddy will write a cheque for the damage and sod anyone they actually put out of work while the place was closed down being repaired!
According to Nick Hurd, youth unemployment has nothing to do with the government's failing policies and fiddling of the unemployment statistics and the fact that the number of youngsters not employed or in education or training (neets) has risen sharply to 1.09 million under this government's watch, no, it's all these youngsters fault (and that is your family member they are now aiming their insults at by the way). So next time you see nasty banner headlines screaming something at you from the newsstands, don't be surprised if its the Mail or Sun on their high horses condemning your child/relative, inferring they are nothing but idle feckless scroungers too lazy to get a job, even if you know differently, even if you know it is not the truth, even if you know it is deeply unfair, it won't matter because the damage will be done by this one nasty disingenuous stereotypical banner headline and suddenly it will be your turn to have the finger pointed at your relatives and it will be their turn to be on the end of nasty unpleasant comments from members of the public who just read the headlines and think everyone is the same and think that this qualifies them to pass judgement on your son or daughter or grandchild etc!
Look at the way the Daily Mail write this:
And at a time when there are 529,000 job vacancies – up 56,000 in a year – it is estimated that some 640,000 Neets have never worked at all.
Look at the way the Mail has presented the figures, there are supposedly 529,000 job vacancies and the Mail is suggesting that 640,000 neets are to blame for never [bothering] having a job at all. However there are 1,09 MILLION youngsters chasing 529,000 job vacancies. Of course all the vacancies will not be appropriate, they will be regional, they will be too far from some to travel and be economically viable and some will be in the next county or half way across the country, the majority will be calling for experience which these applicants simply do not have because they can't get a job in the first place. But nevertheless the Mail are subliminally suggesting that its the youngsters who are at fault because they are not applying for jobs! It is typical example of spurious disingenuous reporting. Nick Hurd could not have picked a worse time to make his comments, as tomorrow thousands of youngsters who have worked and studied hard for their GCSEs get their exam results, they and their parents must be seriously worried what the future holds for them and could well do without these despicable comments from this out of touch Tory government minister.
Of course it's unfair, it is seriously unfair, but do remember only 'last week' you were being encouraged by the Tory government, and the right wing press to condemn and to believe that all unemployed northern men bought a flat screen TVs with their benefit cheques and smoke and drank all day instead of going out getting a job and doing a hard days graft *like you*.
Remember the comment George Osborne made about peoples blinds being closed?
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| George Osborne What the hell does he know about working life? |
That was then, this is now and this Tory government is now pointing their collective fingers at your child and casting aspersions on the integrity of your son/daughter/grandson/granddaughter etc! Maybe 'yesterday', it was the turn of immigrants to be singled out and plastered all over the press and unfairly accused of taking all our houses and jobs and not paying rent and using our NHS without paying anything in. It's all completely untrue, these papers find one or two examples and then tar everyone with the same brush, it doesn't matter to these spurious journalists and their editors that the vast majority of immigrants work bloody hard, pay tax, NI and contribute to the British economy, just as long as they can point the finger at them and get away with it, just as they are now pointing the finger at your son or daughter. Who will it be on the receiving end of it tomorrow? Perhaps you personally? Maybe you'll lose your job next week and become unemployed? Maybe you or your wife or your husband or mother or father will fall ill or have an accident and become sick or disabled and the papers encouraged by this government will plaster all kinds of scurrilous nonsense about the sick and disabled all over the front pages and make out that all sick and disabled people are malingerers who could work if they wanted to? The nastiness and unpleasantness of divide and rule has definitely begun, but where will it all end?
Blaming people this government have made homeless for becoming homeless? Blaming unfortunate situations on the people caught in the middle of it all, while allowing the bankers, the shadow bankers and corporations to get away with the problems they created? Incidentally, many of these City bankers and corporations donate to the Conservative party.
We are all witnessing full-scale demonising, undermining and rubbishing the welfare state making it out to be something terrible, when all the while it is one of things that made this country one of the best in the world. Our welfare state and the NHS defined us as a nation , it said, look we are a rich country and we look after our people from cradle to the grave. This is how civilised responsible country behaves towards all of its citizens, rich and poor, sick and well, indigenous or settlers. And we are a rich country and don't let this lying cheating corrupt Tory government tell you differently, despite Osborne losing us a ranking and sliding from 6th richest country in the world to 7th, we remain rich and we should be looking after our people, not bullying them, intimidating them and forcing them to live in fear of their own government and making them feel shamed because despite trying everything, they cannot get a job.
I used to be proud to be British, now I look around me and I worry what kind of society my grandchildren are growing up in, a society that doesn't care, one that forces people to live on a pittance, drives down wages in order to please multi millionaire businessmen and corporations causing poverty and extreme hardship and ever increasing numbers of people relying on food banks? One that blames the poor and ordinary for being poor and ordinary? This country is not going forward it is regressing to a time of poverty and that is nothing to feel proud of.
Now that finger of Tory divide and rule is pointing at you - is this what you really want?
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