I have to apologise for the gap in posting as I have been unavailable for the past week or so. I have been pondering what to comment on as I am sure many of you get tired being reminded of how unpleasant life can be in modern Britain and how unpleasant our government is. However, I found this little gem in the comments section of the Independent newspaper from a poster commenting on a piece in the paper and thought how it sums up the typical attitudes of so many people in our society towards the disadvantaged. It also reminded me how successfully the Tories have demonised such people and justified callousness and hatred, because this piece demonstrates both. As I have said before, this is an example of the true legacy of Thatcher.
Why should anyone who is not working have a spare room ... or even a place of their own when millions who work cannot afford either of these luxuries?
Here we have an opinion of someone whom we must assume is educated and has a modicum of intelligence. Yet this person posts in a national newspaper that millions of people in Britain who are in work have neither a place of their own or a spare room! Not hundreds, or even thousands of people in work, but millions. In addition, this person considers a home and a spare room as a luxury that should not be available to the unemployed and thinks that it is a cause for genuine outrage that the unemployed should have a home when someone who is working does not. I know many people who do not work, have a place of their own and have at least one spare room, they're called pensioners. They have worked all their lives, have raised families, and are now on their own, but I assume that this person believes that they should now give up the home they have lived in all their lives and have raised their family in because they have a spare room and that is a luxury that they are no longer entitled to. That thinking actually mirrors the governments position by the way as the bedroom tax is a deliberate government policy to penalise people who are on some form of benefit but have spare capacity in their home.
The last figures I have to hand are from 2010, so forgive me for being a bit out of date, but in 2010 there were 61,000 homeless households in England according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. I shall use the English figures as they make up the majority of the UK population. In the same year, there were 737,491 empty homes in England according to the Empty Homes Agency. Now, assuming that each household consists of the average 2.4 people, that makes the homeless total in England for 2010, 146,400 people. So, not only were there approximately 12 empty properties for every homeless household available, their were approximately 5 empty properties for every homeless man, woman, and child. Why, when there are homeless people, is there such a surplus of accommodation in our country? Why does our noble commentator from the Independent fail to advocate giving the homeless some of these properties? Indeed, why does the government not make such arrangements?
You see, such attitudes are indicative of the poisonous propaganda churned out on a daily basis by people like the journalists from the Mail and the Express, and from government spokespeople, particularly from the departments under Iain Duncan Smith. The problem is that their arguments and opinions have no factual basis. I could go on for hours about such garbage as passes for informed debate in this country today, but the fact that someone would even write such stuff into a national newspaper tells you all you want to know about the modern UK. Britain is indeed a sad society.
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
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