The Stevenage Advertiser, 22 July 2014:
“‘Lessons must be learned’ from the death of a Stevenage diabetic who could not afford electricity to keep his insulin cool after his benefits were stopped.
Former soldier David Clapson died aged 59 at his home in Hillside from fatal diabetic keto-acidosis, which the NHS calls ‘a dangerous complication of diabetes caused by a lack of insulin.‘
His jobseeker’s allowance of approximately £70 a week – on which his family says he was reliant – had been suspended three weeks before on June 28, for missing meetings.
According to his family, Mr Clapson was found “alone, penniless and starving” a short distance from a pile of printed CVs, with nothing to his name but £3.44, six tea bags, a tin of soup and an out-of-date tin of sardines.
The coroner found that David – a former BT engineer of 16 years, who had served two years in Northern Ireland with the Royal Corps of Signals during The Troubles – had nothing in his stomach when he died.”
We can’t do any better than that. Vote No, everyone. UK OK!
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State sanctioned murder.
Weep, get angry, keep campaigning and kick this bunch of tories right where it hurts, by voting.
It’s a sad state of affairs, when it’s safer to be in jail , rather than trying to survive on your own, at least in jail you get 3 square meals a warm bed an your medicine will be provided. What has this union come to?? The end of the road I ‘am sure.
Austerity Britain encapsulated.
Draconian Britain laid bare for all to see.
And there are those out there who actually which to remain part of such a society. What are you people thinking of?
Doug has just said it for me. This ‘Union’ is wicked.
Spent the first two years of my life in Stevenage.
Looks like I was lucky to get out when I did.
Poor, poor guy. Heartbreaking.
Sorry – “wish” not “which” .
Scotland’s direction of travel in the event of a No vote laid bare.
Used,discarded,abused,disposed of.The fate of one person mirroring that of whole groups of “inconvenient” human beings in the UK. Surely a free Scotland at its worst will be able to do better than that.But where is the effective outrage down south?
Thats the trouble with modern medicine. Instead of the “glorious dead” of bygone years of our warmongering Westminster, they now survive and become the inglorious damaged, wasting our money on benefits.
I cannot understand why anybody would vote for devo-max and leave offence and foreign affairs in the incompetent hands of Westminster.
Dumb question: What were “Help for Heroes” doing for this ex-soldier?
Since according to the “Big Society” concept being pushed by the current government, charities are responsible for helping people like this, so who do we blame for his death?
The person at the jobcenter who stopped his social security payments?
Actually, that might start a change for the better, if the person who signed off on his payments getting stopped is charged with his murder, it might make them think a bit more.
Yeah, I’m angry and not thinking straight, but because I’m angry and not thinking straight I don’t care that I’m not thinking straight!
Sad. One of thousands no doubt.
The satirical Facebook page ‘ATOS miracles’ can be quite harrowing at times showing the deaths of people deemed ‘fit for work’.
Iain Duncan-Smith has blood on his hands for this (not to mention a certain Mr Brown).
https://www.facebook.com/ATOSM
So this is what the military covenant means
In the greatest nation ever? This sceptred isle, this other Eden? That has to be one of the saddest stories we’ve heard, and there have been many. Let’s get out of this disgusting Union and take care of our people.
test
Presumably he was one of the scrounging bastards the Tories like to vilify?
….are there no workhouses for these people who prefer the sumptuous lifestyle of being unemployed and deserted?
Ex-soldier. Served Queen and Country. Treated like dirt. Land fit for heroes, yeah sure.
That’s …
No, I’m not even going to try to put it in words. What a poor, unfortunate guy and damn the heartless system that is responsible for this tragedy.
test to see if “Boris Johnson” is being blocked.
Well said Pete!
UKOK should be done away with as a campaign name. It basically endorses this type of society by saying everything is okay in our eyes.
Sure, you will never make be able to make everyone rich and happy but we should at least strive to make sure nobody starves to death.
They have a real cheek to say it is the poorest in society that will be hurt by independence when it’s the rich and powerful telling us we’re better together. The ones that benefit from selling weapons, oil and drugs while gambling with other people’s money.
A quoted comment from Albart on the Guardian website which I liked:
“It’s those with the least who would lose the most with independence.”
O really? Lets take a look at that shall we:
– Westminster leans towards the neoliberal model used by America – A country that can barely get its head round food stamps and universal healthcare.
– Holyrood leans towards the social democratic model used by Scandinavia – A place where the unemployed, disabled and disadvantaged are all given some form of help and social mobility is among the highest in the world.
Under which model of government would “those with the least lose the most”? A neoliberal one or a social democratic one – I think we all know the answer.”
Over 10 million people are either unemployed or under-employed with only 600,000 job vacancies.
It is not the fault of the unemployed if they can’t find a job. They are trying to find work but there is none and trying to claim they are a bunch of lazy feckless scroungers living off the state is an absolute lie.
Sadistically punishing the victims of neoliberal economic policies designed to create and perpetuate mass unemployment and sanctioning sick patients, disabled people and single parent families is nothing short of a state campaign of human rights abuses.
Watch the excellent impromptu outdoor interview with the Disabled People For Yes representative at the anti-bias BBC protest outside BBC HQ, Pravda Quay, Glasgow. Starts 48.00, ends 53.00 mins –
27th July 1pm BBC – Bias Protest III
http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive/events/3219220
Remember the crucial aspect of every one of these articles: Labour explicitly plan on being “tougher on welfare than the Tories”. Sobering choice if we vote No.
Ian Duncan Shit
Obama, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” The UK is beyond broke all that we could be proud off has been decimated by giving control to the greedy self serving elites in society. If we can’t fix UK in one go but we can become a beacon for a better way. Just vote YES and let’s get started!
Dear God.
Those heartless bastards.
It appears to have been my reference to a breakfast cereal that was causing the problem. One more test. 🙂
“ground to dust”.
Get the picture. 🙂
New OneNation Labour are going to be even tougher on welfare. Nothing is OK about UK.
Got to be a Yes vote to stop this.
Now we know how the unemployed leave the register. I am not religious,that said a great statement ” there but for the grace of god go you and I”.
So sorry for the man, how many others go unreported!
But the economy is back to 2008 levels, so it’s OK. This union gets unholier by the day.
Good God….a Yes is just SO important in so many ways.
Deepest sympathies to Mr Clapson’s family. It really does make you wonder how long this sort of thing is going to go on for?
At least Scotland will have a choice about how we are to help our vulnerable in society.
In a short conversation with a B/T campaigner in Perth a couple of weeks ago, I was told that running away was not going to solve anything. What more do we need to run away from!
‘A short distance from a pile of printed CV’s’ The poor man never gave up.Yet still died with an empty stomach and £3.44 to his name.Hang your heads in shame unionists.
I’m saddened and disgusted that these deaths have been allowed to happen and continue under Westminster corruption. Make no mistake this is their agenda, progress for the rich and damn the poor and sick.
There was a parliamentary debate back in February, not many mps attended and few stayed till the end.
If my memory serves me Ian Duncan shit did not attend, sent a lackey instead, may have been Gauke
There were some horrific stories presented.
I think this is the debate…
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/backbench-business-committee/news/mps-debate-welfare-reform-e-petition/
So much for Help for Heroes.
Maybe instead of handing out flags they could help those who really need help but aren’t being given it by the state.
I really do wish that we could be part of a progressive UK but where are they south of the border? Is Respect as good as it gets, cos they aren’t progressive.
Maybe they’ll finally learn that Labour are just taking the piss and do something about it.
Going to reblog this if I may. I am assuming his family did not live close enough to keep an eye on him. The really disgusting point is that this man served his country and PAID taxes/NI for much of his life. Now, once you need help from the state, it dumps you as redundant, unproductive – hell – you can starve for it cares, just to save a few pounds for the exchequer.
Well it says it all about the UK and Labour promises even tougher measures and austerity…not that it has a cat in Hell chance of winning the election in 2015…
This is what is driving me onto the streets to canvass for a Yes. Someone who has never campaigned before for anything political.
http://nairnyes.wordpress.com/
Welcome to the 21st. Century
We have 4 submarines loaded with nuclear missiles. Each missile can destroy a dozen cities via multiple warhead capability. Even worse – we are going to spend Billions buying a new set of submarines to ensure our top table standing. We love our force projection toys such as Aircraft carriers and Astute class submarines ( they can only fire small nukes)
Less than 100 people have a combined wealth greater than half the population of the planet.
Our main industry is gambling with factious wealth invented to remove the assets of nation to a handful of people.
We have food banks and our politicians develop systems to punish the poor to recover the funds lost in financial speculation.
We will progress the sale of our NHS to increase the profits of multi national corporations. We will make our poor vulnerable to pay day lenders in order to maintain their profit margin.
The UK will not alter course. In fact it is moving ever closer to the American model.
The story above is tragic but only the latest example of the direction of travel.
You may have a good job, a nice house, a good car etc. This is how the system works – divide the people through work, religion, etc. this is only relative wealth achieved by making a large section of our population paupers.
Look beyond yourself at the wider community and if you think this is the best we can do then nothing is going to get you to vote YES.
I think we can do better, much better as a wealthy nation.
The gap between Rich and Poor is excessive.
Everyone deserves a roof over their head, a warm house, 3 good meals a day and the chance to a worthwhile life.
Despair comes from the lack of the above basics.
Yes the story makes me angry. It is one of the many stories that make me determined to achieve a YES vote.
I wonder if the Herald might cover this story. Perhaps David Torrance could comment on it.
I have noticed a very radical change in the Herald’s readers letter page over the last couple of weeks. Looks as though somebody has sat on the letters editor and made him lead with pro union stuff as it was previously led mostly with pro YES stuff.
It goes to show, following the radio interview yesterday, that you don’t have to live in Scotland to know that successive Westminster governments have failed us and their idea of acceptable standards aren’t good enough.
Things could be worse but with Scotlands wealth it should be a lot better.
The “united” kingdom and its union dividend? No. A disunited kingdom and a union deficit. Vote Yes.
DWP admits its policies will harm the health and well-being of sick and disabled people –
DWP Admit Knowing They Would Cause Harm
Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
25 July 214
Shouldnt be too long before this article is used to paint the Rev and Wings in a bad light. Thats how twisted our better together world has become. The messenger is always to blame.
This needs to be read far and wide.
What sort of person could still vote to stay in the UK after reading this?
Scotland has to win gold on the 18th September!
People who complain about ‘benefits scoungers’ need to realise that, like this poor fella, they are just a run of bad luck from being in the same boat. However, by the demonising the poor the UK establishment have convinced working class people that they have more in common with millionaire businessmen than they have with those living in poverty.
Keeping in mind that Labour are proudly boasting that they are going to be even tougher on welfare than the Tories and it was the last Labour Government that first introduced sanctions for single parent families and disabled people, here is an interesting Guardian comment by “Ephemerid” –
Our social security system was not “broken” until IDS got his hands on it. It worked most of the time.
2010 – number of sick people claiming benefit – 2.6 Million.
Now – 2.6M People are still getting sick at the same rate. Surprise surprise.
2010 – number unemployed and claiming – 2.5 Million.
Now – 2.5M. Work Programme – 1.5 Million people through it – success rate 3%
2010 – number out of work for 3 years or more – 5,090
2014 – number out of work for 3 years or more – 57,340
2010 – people waiting for their ESA assessments – 23,000
2014 – people waiting for their ESA assessments – 712,000
2010 – people waiting for DLA decisions for 6 months or more – 5,000
2014 – people waiting for PIP decisions for 6 months or more – 265,000
2010 – people with cancer waiting more than 10 days for DLA – minimal
2014 – people with cancer waiting more than 6 months for PIP – 4,500
This is what IDS’s “reforms” have done.
This is what IDS’s efficiency means.
People dying in large numbers with no state support.
People going hungry while they wait, ill, with no help.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/04/disabled-independence-iain-duncan-smith-axing-independent-living-fund#comment-37780634
This is why, whenever I see one of those ‘UKOK’ stickers on a car, it almost turns my stomach. I’m not offended by many things, but I’m offended by that.
The British state is a con job from cradle to grave. The conditioning starts in school and is reinforced by a pliant MSM, throughout the rest of one’s life. That is why some think UKOK, even when reality is staring them in the face.
A sort of state sponsored cognitive dissonance.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/perceived-social-mobility-do-we-think-that-money-buys-success/
Anyone like to explain how a Yes vote helps the poor in Stevenage. It does, I suppose, assuage collective guilt by saying it’s their problem not ours.
The most effective action is to vote No and work for a Labour victory in the 2015 general election.
As sick a society as it’s possible for a society to get. It may be a small tragedy on the world stage, but if I sat down to write a political novel about what’s wrong with the world and came up with a plot line like this, no publisher would believe it. For God’s sake, do you need any more reason to vote YES? Even if you can’t stop this kind of thing happening in an independent Scotland, you can at least take some responsibility for it if it does. What’s your excuse now? “We can’t do nothin’ about nothin’ ’cause all the power is in London?”
I caught the end of a John McTernan interview on a news programme last night. He was talking about Ed Miliband being a politician of substance and not one of sound-bites and photo opportunities.
So that was not the gormless Ed Miliband photographed holding up the Sun newspaper, that drones on about ordinary hardworking families, and appears to think that markets can be talked down (or up) without any fundamental change.
Well, this tragedy clearly shows the now and future path of UK politics.I eventually see civil unrest in the not too distant future. Personally I see a revolution on the cards, people cannot put up with ever escalating stuff like this.
All the money + expenses being poured into the un elected House of Lords being just one small example of waste. One thing Westminster does well, is waste.
They need a revolution to alter the system to better serve the people but are “not minded “, to quote their fav saying. Something has got to give.
We are fortunate, we have an escape route which we need to take. However, the rest of the UK has not,which is going to cause huge problems for the Elites, and not before time.
Tory and Labour: guzzling from the same trough.
Phil Robertson says:
For once Scotland needs to look after our own people, not the Westminster way, but in our own way.
We will be magnanimous in the future and will help our friends. Scotland does hardly effect what happens in the UK.
I will also point out that the labour party is to continue the Tories austerity program.
Labour are also the cause of many Scottish problems, they have not helped Scots, look at our present AND projected poverty levels. Yet you say vote no GTF!
In a letter sent by the DWP regarding the case, head of benefit centres – Claire McGuckin – said “I am confident that the correct procedures were followed for the administration of benefit.”
Can’t help but think of the Nuremberg trial response:
“We were only following orders”
Are things really that far down the wrong path?
i have commented several times on how new DWP sanctions system is affecting vulnerable people. If england want to carry on with this victimisation of those on benefit then that’s their choice. We have the chance to things differently.
Some have commented about what ex-service charities were doing. I would suggest that there are many who may be too proud and/or unable to engage with such support.
Lets get out of this mess while we can (in the event of a ‘no’ we’ll get what we deserve)
For the younger audience, read up on the Nuremberg Trials:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_trials
@Phil Robertson
It gives them a beacon of hope. Remember your “Labour” party has promised to be as vicious as the Tories so I will be voting Yes in September and probably SNP in May
Phil Robertson.
Don’t be an idiot. A YES vote might not help anyone in Stevenage but it WILL help the folk in Scotland. We are trying our best to do something about it and we will win this referendum
When are the rUk gonna get off their backsides and do something for themselves.
Labour will not make any difference IF ,and it’s unlikely they will win the next election, will be just as hard on austeruty measures as the tory’s. So why vote for them .
labour in scotland have lied and abused the People they are supposed to represent. They are finished here.
Labour and Tory are two cheeks of the same arse.
This is an utter tragedy it really is, but whats worse is that this is going on all over the UK.
The following link is a report created by West Dunbartonshire Citizens Advice Bureau called “Unjust and Uncaring” which is a report on conditionality and benefits sanctions and their impact on clients, its a good read and highlights the issues that the government and the DWP have implicated on our comunities. We must vote YES and rid ourselves of these criminals.
http://www.wdcab.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Unjust-and-Uncaring-FINAL.pdf
Phill Robertson,
I’ve noticed lately that there is a ‘better’ class of troll trying to disrupt threads on most independence threads.well tried.
Was salmonds fault, everyone knows it.
Just wanted to add that Doug Daniels comment said it all. I wonder how many others will die or have died with the complicity of the State.
Scotland has an out here, time for those who will suffer or may suffer, none of us are immune from the workings of a Government whose main desire it to reverse the gains made by the workers over the past century.
Phil Robertson 11:55 am
Well said sur, you should possibly propose this to the English Labour Party sounds like a plan. Wouldn’t bother with The Scottish branch their very busy just at the moment. Personal business you understand. Nod nod wink wink.
Meanwhile, in Scandinavia, unemployment benefits are over 80% of normal salary. Denmark tops the list at 90% for 2 years (max £1842 per month). But we wouldn’t want to emulate them would we when we can have starvation benefits in the UK!
Did anyone else notice the card crosses taped to the Squinty bridge on the way to PQ yesterday ?
They were for KIA from Afghan & Iraq, as a tribute, tied with a red white and blue ribbon, and covered the north side railing.
Is it only me, or isn’t there something quite sick about using these people, for a second time, to fulfil UKelite.co’s wishes. The crowds at the games are fair game for UKOK’s propaganda.
How can you justify linking an illegal war, and the resultant dead, and then say this is somehow a good reason to vote No ?
Who did this, and in an oh so controlled area at this time, who sanctioned it ? MMMMMathesons mibbees ?
Stay on topic folk…
Bearing in mind that this report is from a smaller, local news outlet, you can guarantee that this will be swept under the carpet by the pro-unionist mainstream media. Let’s face it, the story was published on 22 July, giving the mainstream media ample opportunity to get this story out to the wider public, so you would have to question why it hasn’t been headline news. BT must be secretly loving all the death and destruction in Palestine, enabling them to bury any news story that would reflect poorly on their anti-social policies. Quite possibly another reason why the Red Arrows misinformation was leaked to the press, followed by the Tory-boy Campbell’s nonsense about dirty tricks.
However, with great sadness, here we have a man that served his country, was then punished by his government (for a situation that they and their predecessors created), was denied basic human rights and finally ignored until his untimely death. Then again, should we expect anything else from successive unionist governments that repeatedly ignored the decades-long pleas from those that served in Bomber Command and on the Arctic Convoys?
As for Help for Heroes, perhaps they were too busy preparing their propagandist flags, or marching with far-right extremists to be bothered about the desperate plight of a fellow ex-serviceman.
But don’t worry folks – the economy is growing again, so everything’s all right with the world and life could not be better!
Criticism on here regarding Help for Heroes is misplaced. Like many vulnerable ex services people, this man was far to proud to reach out for help to charity as to him it would have been an admission of weakness. These charities cannot help any one unless they are asked to by the person or relatives or friends. As an ex squaddie I speak from personal experience having heard and seen of many ex comrades who were in trouble, who could have been helped had the legion or other charities known. Erskine, the Legion, HOH, Orchard House all do fantastic work, but cannot help those they do not know of.
What has always been the scandal is that both here and in the USA, countries that have always placed massive demands on their forces, the need for charity work is required at all. We have wintnessed the scandal of equipment shortages in Iraq and Afghanistan. These problems have always existed except that now in this digital 24/7 News arena, with embedded journalism it gets more attention. When you have unleashed the dogs of war, it is incumbent on you to clean up the mess after the war is over, except we never do. It should not be the work of charity to do this vital work. IDS and his cronies make me very angry, they are cold heartless murderers, who never have to account for their crimes and walk away laughing, with tax payers money falling out of their pockets, the bastards.
Just that I’ve noticed more ‘sophisticated’ trolls lately. On the Guardian etc…
… and i agree that a Labour gvt at Westminster would make absolutely no change to current system as they have to pander to the same right wing electorate.
Oh, and finally, i’m off to work now to help mop up the mess of said policies.
So very sad for the poor soul.No one deserves to die like that. Action should be taken against those responsible. Not just the jobsworth who sanctioned his benefits but those at the top who make the jobsworth feel good for saving the uk seventy odd lousy quid.
@ illy, 10.46am
If there was to be a prosecution, I don’t think the charge would be murder which requires malice aforethought. It would be culpable homicide. The person who did the signing-off was indifferent to the consequences.
The circumstances of this death reminded me of a passage from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin when he describes a Coroner’s inquest in 1865 respecting a death of an unemployed man by starvation and I quote
The coroner having remarked upon the painful nature of the case, the jury returned the following verdict, ‘That the deceased died from exhaustion from want of food and the common necessaries of life; also through want of medical aid.
It is disgraceful that a man can die like this in 2014. William McIlvaney talks about the Union chaining the future to the past. It is time to break these chains. Vote YES in September.
Phil Robertson says:
The most effective action is to vote No and work for a Labour victory in the 2015 general election
That, has to be the most stupid suggestion I have heard since The Glasgow Herald (as it was then) suggested voting for Thatcher in 1979.
When people starved to death in China and Russia we laid, quite rightly, the responsibility for those lives at the feet of Mao and Stalin. Cameron, Duncan Smith et al all share the same level of responsibility. They are allowing the vulnerable to be bereft, they are turning their heads and averting their eyes. They know it is happening. Thousands of forced starvations and suicides…
I am voting YES, because I don’t want to live in a country of foodbanks defended by nuclear weapons.
(worth repeating).
And austerity has saved nothing.
Here is the TOTAL MANAGED EXPENDITURE for UK public sector spending:
2008-09 outturn: £634,252m
2009-10 outturn: £672,491m
2010-11 outturn: £693,919m
2011-12 outturn: £694,606m
2012-13 outturn: £675,255m
2013-14 plans : £720,000m
2014-15 plans : £730,400m
Despite the misery of austerity, spending has (and will continue to have to be) increased year on year with the exception of a 2.8% drop between 2011/12 and 2012/13.
Those train sets and WMDs don’t just buy themselves you know.
source: HM Treasury PESA figures 2013.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/223600/public_expenditure_statistical_analyses_2013.pdf
So this is what the Big Society looks like.
Time to end this political farce.
Where greed is dense
and equality sparse.
Where fifty odd “ProudScots”
Just sit on their arse
Pretending to represent you.
Time to end this privileged elite
This sleazy corrupt
Brit haven retreat.
Where subservient “ProudScots”,
spin a web of deceit
Elected to represent you.
vote labour for change ?
Before she lost her Stevenage Constituency in 2010, the local labour MP was Barbara Follet who claimed and got MP`s Expenses for FOOD at £2,540 per quarter.
Over £210 per week from us – to feed her fat fucking face.
This poor man did not die in the depths of a severe winter – he was tortured to death via Malnutrition in the midst of a hot SUMMER ?
£3.44 and and an empty stomach – OMG
BECAUSE LABOUR WRECKED THE ECONOMY only 4 years ago
If ever Scots needed the spur of Freedom, we must broadcast the abject failures of SCAB SLAB TO 2010.
Phil Robertson – Remember that Cameron had a much larger lead in the polls in the run up to the last election than Miliband has now (and he’s not even ahead in every one) and yet still couldn’t secure enough votes for a majority. The best you can possibly hope for therefore is Labour forming a coalition government with someone. Miliband is not a PM in waiting, everyone in the UK can see this, so stop fantasising that Labour will win and make everything hunky dory (that sounds familiar!) Check out Ed Balls comments on future austerity measures that will continue under Labour for starters.
The original article in full:
http://www.theadvertisergroup.co.uk/Daily-News/Stevenage/Lessons-must-be-learned-from-diabetic-former-soldier-who-died-after-benefits-sanction-20140722174205.htm
Many unionists I know will ignore a “wings” URL, so this original link might be better for sharing.
Scottish independence will indeed help people in England.
Once they see that we were paying for everything all along, and were paying for a lot of their stuff too, maybe then they will actually start voting for the right people to run their country.
At the moment that will never happen, as they blame all their ills on “propping up all those freebies in Scotland”.
That is how the British state has operated since day one – divide and conquer.
Scots need to break that to help ourselves and our English cousins.
For those that believe a Labour government will be any different, may I remind them of the part they played during the Poll Tax – yes, many of the activists stood up to Thatcher and her minions, but many Labour-controlled councils were complicit in pushing through warrant sales.
Considering the Labour Party also lied to take us into illegal and costly wars, what makes you believe they will act in a socially-responsible manner next time round?
liheartScotland says:
I’ve noticed lately that there is a ‘better’ class of troll trying to disrupt threads on most independence threads.well tried.
Being a tad sensitive aren’t we. It’s a simple question – what is the relevance of this sad news in the referendum context unless there is an implication that nastiness doesn’t exist north of the border.
I’d worry more about phrases like “Scotland needs to look after our own people” among the replies.
I look forward to a Scotland that cares for its people, and hope that that will show the people of England that there is an alternative.
Phil Robertson
Just for you.
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/perceived-social-mobility-do-we-think-that-money-buys-success/
Surely one sign of a healthy society, is the amount of social mobility it affords?
Do not engage.
Genuine people coming on here with a desire to get answers to genuine questions about the referendum is one thing, these types are a waste of time.
What has a man starved to death by the state in england got to do with the referendum?
If you need to ask you will never understand the answer.
Remember the article on here about sanctions compared to the amount of people on benefits ?
Many people are sanctioned time after time so how many go unreported because they didn’t die or complain too loud ?
IDS is an absolute Scumbag.
We’re all in this together
And this is what happens when you leave sorting out those Hero’s, to the good hearted (normally) in the private sector, and just hope you get away with it.
” A man has admitted stealing £300,000 intended for the armed forces charity Help for Heroes. ”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-28523058
Every westmidden politician who sticks their kneb in up here, should be asked about their voting record on the Iraq war.
@ phil robertson;
today Stevenage, tomorrow Stenhousemuir.
Seriously, if you can’t see the relevance of this to people in Scotland, then you ned to waken yourself up a bit and look around you.
The thought of “looking after our own,” gives you a problem? Well.. let me suggest that it would be much better if we did just that as an alternative to having our people (including me, and maybe even you if you live here)sacrificed on the altar of IDS’s mania. The UK is failing to look after our folk… who the f*** else is going to do it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_War
“An economic downturn after the wars ended brought increasing unrest. Artisan workers, particularly weavers in Scotland, sought action to reform an uncaring government, gentry fearing revolutionary horrors recruited militia and the government deployed an apparatus of spies, informers and agents provocateurs to stamp out the movement.”
“It became evident that government agents had actively fomented the unrest to bring radicals into the open.”
UK OK – The State of ‘things to come’.
The ultimate ignominy – to die alone and forgotten.
A man with diabetes dies because he has no food. In a wealthy country. Utter disgrace.
iScotland can do better and can show rUK it has to do better because neoliberal politics isn’t working for most of us.
Honestly I really feel sick
Loyds has just been exposed as rigging the fecking rates they paid on the dirt cheap feking money we loaned them
SLS were short term almost interest free loans for short periods of time
The banks then use this liquidity to grant people loans / mortgages etc etc at their normal interest rates, something they would have been unable to do had we not been supplying them nearly free cash
So they make their normal interest rate on money we propped them up with and the fecking b*^*^& had the brazen cheek to rig that as well
and yet we have a guy die for the sake of fecking £70.00
Lloyds Banking Group has been accused of unlawful behaviour by the Bank of England after it emerged its traders had manipulated interest rates in order to cut fees for its emergency lifeline at the height of the financial crisis.
This repo rate was used to calculate the scale of the fees paid to the Bank of England for its special liquidity scheme (SLS), which was created in April 2008 to cheapen the prices at which money could be obtained by banks as the credit crisis unfolded.
link below if anyone else feels like raising their blood pressure through the roof
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jul/28/bank-of-england-lloyds-bailout-funding
Britain, a land fit for sod all. A damned disgrace.
May the Lord have mercy on that poor mans soul.
May the devil take those who put their fellow man into such positions without thought for the outcome.
I do not want this for my country, not now not ever, please work for a YES vote like your life depends upon it, because some poor soul’s does.
The present ESA (Employment Support Allowance) consisting of two levels, the Support Group and the Work-Related Activity Group, with the support group gettting a few pounds more and less ‘hassle’ from the DWP and their for-profit private partners, was introduced under Labour when James Purnell (now with the BBC on an obscene salary in a made-up job) was DWP Secretary of State in 2008. It applied to new claims but Purnell, advised by former investment banker David Freud (who later became Lord Freud, now on the Tory benches and still advises the Tories on pensions/benefits) transferred all under-50s then on Incapacity Benefit to ESA, by declaring them all fit, forcing them onto Jobseekers Allowance and then most had to make new ESA applications leading to new-style ATOS examinations.
IDS is demonstrably an evil man unfit for any job except as an assassin, but the horrific ESA and its conditionality, compunction and sanction of the sick and disabled is Labour’s wicked work.