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| IDS resigns |
Iain Duncan Smith (IDS), self-proclaimed “quiet man of politics”,
former leader of the Tory party, Work and Pensions Secretary and Cabinet member
resigned in an incendiaryletter to the Prime Minister yesterday. He left because the cuts to
benefits announced in the budget just 3 days ago are going to be shelved and
re-worked. He had long opposed these cuts, but been forced to defend them
publicly. In essence IDS like many in his party had started the reform of the
Welfare system with the assumption that people were work-shy, that disability
benefits had been the sinecure of scroungers and that all that had to be done
was to “encourage” and “motivate” people who had become economic malingerers,
through failures in Welfare Policy, to become economically active, taxable
individuals who could contribute to Britain’s recovery. The "BedroomTax" , the re-badging of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to the Personal
Independence (PIP)
and a raft of changes had the net result of hitting the disabled and the most
vulnerable the hardest. When then it became apparent that Chancellor Osborne’s
budget rewarded his political targets - young people, entrepreneurs and the
very wealthy - with benefits in the
context of swingeing cuts against the poor, IDS resigned. He said of these
benefits: “they are not defensible in the way they are placed within a budget
that benefits higher earning tax payers”. He goes on to wonder if: “enough has
been done to ensure we are all in this together”, calling into question the
core Government claim that we really are all in this together.
Related Topic: Plausible Deniability, The Meme That Drives Exclusion
Timing
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| PM and IDS hold opposing views on Europe |
Meanwhile the timing of this resignation at a time when the
Tory party has given a hall pass to its members at all levels to campaign for
or against membership of the EU according to their conscience, makes his
resignation politically deadly. He has thrown The Chancellor’s budget into
complete disrepute and with it the judgement of a key stay in Europe campaigner
and potential leader of the Tory party in George Osborne. This is a double blow
to the PM, the Party and the Stay in Europe campaigners. If the budget of the government
is unsound, what else, one might legitimately ask, is unsound about the
political vision of PM Cameron, his Chancellor and the Stay in Europe cohort?
The answer to these questions do not lie in the alphabet
soup of re-branded benefits or the arithmetical juggling of the Chancellor
benefiting some, hitting others and clearly demonstrating we are NOT all in
this together.
Forget the sizzle, check the steak
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| Assumption: Benefits claimants are scroungers |
The answer does not even lie in our understanding of government
accounts and fiscal policy. To understand what is happening, all one needs to evaluate
is the basic assumptions those who campaign for our votes hold about their
fellow citizens. What view of men and women do they subscribe to? Do they respect
the equal dignity of all, or do they think some are more deserving than others,
no matter how well they spin their message with slogans and brand their policies?
People are the same everywhere. They can be driven by greed,
haughtiness, a contempt for ordinary people, compassion, a sense of respect for
their fellows and a sense of morality that renders some decisions
unconscionable. The question is, which values our political aspirants have at
front of mind. I’d argue that only a delusional person could not see what is
happening in the UK politically now. Whether that person cares is of course
another matter. And what is worse, the media is simply reporting the cosmetic
facts and only joining the dots at the most superficial level. Will voters be
smarter? They need to look beyond the sizzle of the steak and seek the beef to
see how fresh it really is, in spite of the sweet seasoning we all smell and
find so appetising.
