Demonization
The Government and much of the media – sadly with little if any resistance from most of the opposition – have been going to great lengths to demonize the unemployed, the sick, the disabled, and immigrants. Not only is this immoral, it also does the country no good. The only people who benefit are the politicians and the media barons themselves, and their wealthy friends.
Don’t let them Demonize the Sick or Disabled!
It’s not right to starve the 99.3% who are honest, to punish the 0.7% * who are faking it.
Don’t let them Demonize the Unemployed!
It’s not right to starve the 99.3% who are honest, to punish the 0.7% * who are taking the mickey. Also, you can’t blame anyone not wanting to take a job that would leave them no better off, or actually worse off when you consider the cost of travel and other costs of going to work.
The solution is not to reduce benefits. Anyone who’s had to live on them knows they’re far from generous. Wages must be increased by law: you can’t blame employers for not paying, when the government says they don’t have to.
(For an alternative, see Universal Basic Income.)
Don’t let them Demonize Immigrants!
Many immigrants do jobs requiring skills that too few British people have – such as doctors, nurses, dentists and software engineers. That’s the fault of our own government, not providing enough training facilities.
Many immigrants do jobs that British people sensibly don’t want because they pay no more than they get on benefits – also the fault of our government, allowing employers to pay too little. Few immigrants claim benefits, and there are roughly the same number of British people living abroad as immigrants living in Britain.
We shouldn’t even Demonize the Rich!
You can’t blame them for not paying tax when the government makes rules that let them off paying. The rules must be changed. (Of course some rich people are actually fraudsters. Rich fraudsters cost us far more than poor fraudsters do! Correspondingly more effort should go into catching them. In fact far less effort goes into catching them, which really tells you where the government’s priorities lie!)
The Real Demons
The real demons are the establishment politicians and the media barons.
The Tories, LibDems, and, yes, New Labour have all sold off our public services cheap to their rich friends, passed the laws that let their rich friends off paying tax, and given away public money to their rich friends in the form of bank bailouts and “quantitative easing”. (UKIP are Tories with added Demonization of Immigrants.)
The media barons try to make you hate everybody (except the real demons):
- Rupert Murdoch (Sky, the Times, and the Sun),
- the Barclay brothers (the Telegraph),
- Richard Desmond (the Express, and Channel 5), and
- the Rothermere family (the Mail, still demonizing the innocent just as they did when they supported the Nazis before WWII).
Don’t let them divide and rule!
* Official DWP estimates.