Sunday, October 31, 2010

Opposition oblocutors obscurantism...


Obloquy n. - abuse; disgrace. Oblocutor, n. one who denies or disputes. [Luciferous Logolepsy: 'dragging obscure words into the light of day']

"But the real hypocrisy appears to lie with the Labour Party, who are throwing personal abuse about like confetti and even make the outrageous claim that changes will lead to the 'cleansing' of poor people from the better parts of London."
The 2010 Labour Party manifesto: "Housing Benefit will be reformed so we do not subsidise people to live in private sector accomodation on rents working families couldn't afford"...this manifesto was written by Ed Miliband!

Source: Peter Black
hat-tip: Order-order. ("The barefaced hypocrisy is breathtaking")

Bookmark and Share

6 comments:

The Great Gildersleeve said...

Oh Labour have been doing some equally horrible things or were likely to in the future that have hurt the vulnerable...However your quote...

"Housing Benefit will be reformed so we do not subsidise people to live in private sector accomodation on rents working families couldn't afford"

That would be ok if what they were saying was that more affordable housing was available such as new build or houses already in the Social sector. That possibly private properties and private Landlords would reduce what they charge.

What's wrong with the new idea is they are reducing help to the poorest by capping but then possibly increasing rents to match the surrounding properties so you are squeezed from two sides.

They also need to find a way to help working familes afford decent housing at a decent rent rather than penalising people who are even worse off than they are.

Unfortuantely the UK economy as in many countries depends on jobs that are poorly paid and that keeps many of the population living at a lower level in or out or work.

How many who work may not be getting this benefit but find their income topped up with tax credits and other schemes.

Ideally(it's not going to happen)your wage should be so good that you do not need any of this.

Span Ows said...

I tend to agree Gildy, the rent thing needs MORE revison but I liek what they've started doing, however what they need as well is rent control on the landlords. Rents should fall as landlords realise their money tree of housing benefit is lowered, before they were practically charging the 'normal' rent PLUS what they knew the people were receiving in housing benefit.

Gildy, another point, ALL cities in the world rely on a source of cheap labour: office cleaners, bar waiters etc but I woudln't mind betting NO OTHER cites except for the UK give out benefits that are in themselves higher than the average wage!

The Great Gildersleeve said...

There's the main problem...rents too high, wages too low.

If it wasn't fixed during the good times, what are the chances now?

Paul said...

Good points Gildy, the fact that the housing benefit is going to be capped at £400 a week shows how obscene some of the rents were in the first place. Span's point is spot-on as well, benefits have got silly for some people whilst other people don't even know what they are entitled to in the first place.

The Great Gildersleeve said...

Not hijacking your blog Span...

I assume you've seen how heavy I have gone into this on my blog...trouble is I am not sure that I have the answer. We'll have to see if any of the politicians (or so called experts)have.

I'm getting back into reading blogs and posting again so I hope I'll start responding to your's too...

Span Ows said...

No worries Gildy! Better being heavy than not at all! ..."experts", no there's a degraded word these days if ever there was one.

Gavin kicked you off the station then?

;-)

(I hope you noticed I have it linked btw...)