If you want an illustration of the type of people you are dealing with in this administration, take the case of Mr Gorry and his 3 kids, one of whom has spina bifida and another Down's Syndrome.

The caring folk at the DWP decided that the Gorrys should only receive housing benefit for a three bedroom property, because these 2 could share a room, despite clear evidence that they were not always able to share because of their severe disabilities. mercifully the case was taken up by CPAG but went all the way up to the Court of Appeal, which gave a strong judgment that this interpretation was bollox, and in these circumstances it was ridiculous to penalise the Gorrys.

Did that satisy IDS? Well, no. He launched an appeal to the Supreme Court, paid for of course by me and you. After another several months of no doubt worry stress and strife, IDS has finally dropped the appeal.

Not rolled back far enough. Even if there were suitable properties available for people to move into, it's a mean-spirited, spiteful thing to do.
I hope IDS, who has never had a job that wasn't paid for by taxation, enjoys his two homes.

I'm not fond of Tories as a group, but IDS is an obnoxious, odious, sub-human scumbag. Someone I genuinely wouldn't urinate on if he were aflame.

If there is any justice in the world (something I doubt) then he is due some serious ill fortune.

I'd happily pi[is[/is on him if he wasn't on fire

He does seem to have some anger control issues in his responses to the press when criticised, which is not an endearing feature in someone who is supposed to be making level-headed, well thought out, constructive decisions.

On the other hand this particular party does seem to make a lot of u-turns in its decisions based on their initial press releases, its almost like they're making it up as they go along.

Yet he says it wasn't a climbdown on the news last night. He's full of you know what.

Nye Bevans words are as prevalent today, about the present incumbents, as they were in his.
The burning torch rage of inequality is still embedded in many of us and has to stay that way...
Some people gave their lives, for us all to hopefully work, have a decent roof over our heads, and for there to be enough food on the table to feed all our childrens bellies.
It's 2013!

Nye Bevans words are as prevalent today, about the present incumbents, as they were in his.
The burning torch rage of inequality is still embedded in many of us and has to stay that way...
Some people gave their lives, for us all to hopefully work, have a decent roof over our heads, and for there to be enough food on the table to feed all our childrens bellies.
It's 2013!

And for some of us not still to be able to use mobile phones!

Having just read the report linked to in the OP, one thing has struck me as rather odd about the DWP u-turn on Monday, the issue of adult children who are in the armed services.

Why would they get special exemption ?

Why would you penalise parents of two 16 year olds by telling them that they have to share a bedroom (even though they can't move), or penalise those who keep a spare bedroom for when estranged children stay at weekends, or those for whom illness means that some nights a partner can't share the same bedroom as them - and yet allow a married couple to live in (say) a two bed house keeping a spare room for a son who is serving abroad (even based in Germany for instance) just because he still declares their address as his residence and might come home for two or three weeks in the year ?

I'm not a fan of the bedroom tax at all (keep calling it a tax, it annoys the hell out of cameron), but even so there is an inequality insde the inequality which is blatently spoon-feeding the press a response to their headlines of "brave soldiers mums penalised etc etc".

Because the fetishisation of the armed forces plays well to Tory heartlands and helps salve the conscience of the idiots who keep sending them to die on spurious grounds.



IMNSHO

Yup, thats it.

And the fact that when you're dividing to rule, you don't really want to divide the armed forces or the police from your own side, for the same reason that those heartlands would follow them.

Its much easier to demonise the poor and the chronically sick & disabled, keeping all of these spare bedrooms to themselves and getting us to pay for them, how dare they.

Paddy Ashdown was on a program the other night, The Agenda on ITV. Ashdown was talking about the welfare reforms introduced by IDS and came out with the statement that IDS genuinely cared about the plight of people needing welfare. I was pretty gob-smacked to be honest. He did say that there might be some problems along the way as these reforms were implemented and that was about as tacit an acknowledgement of situations highlighted in this thread as you got from him In other words the Lib Dems are as much to blame as IDS for waving this legislation through.

There was also a case highlighted on North West Tonight only yesterday where a women with epilepsy has had a lift installed by her housing association costing £10,000 because it is too dangerous for her to use the stairs. The lift goes vertically up from downstairs into what was the third bedroom.

The third bedroom is of course unoccupied and can't be occupied due to this but the housing association can't reclassify the house as a two bedroomed property (I think because it affects its value and future use, not sure) and as such she is going to get hit by the bedroom tax because as far as the DWP is concerned it remains a three bedroom property.

So she can either pay the tax or move out leaving the £10K lift behind.

It is ludicrous situations like this that show this was yet another policy thought out on the back of a postage stamp. The fact IDS shows no shame in wanting to persist with is tells you all you want to know about this odious man. Paddy Ashdown ought to be ashamed of himself and his colleagues for facilitating this man's assault on the vulnerable.

IDS has given concessions to the armed forces.

That alone is enough to give Field Marshal Paddy Pantsdown an erection that cuts off the blood to his tiny brain.

This – although not just in Tory heartlands. The whole 'help for Heroes' thing isn't directed at the Tory heartlands.

I don't know what depresses me more: the process of the demonisation or the apparent fact that huge swathes of the country are, frankly, too dumb to understand how they're being played.

Remember Pat Buchanan's comments in Florida during the election count that Dubya stole?

"F*ck the Jews, they don't vote for us anyway".

That's the Coalitions view on those who are on benefits or have low incomes.

Yup.

Just keep em fed, watered and entertained. The newspapers will do the rest. That Desmond Morris explains it all nicely.