Thursday 25 July 2013

IAIN FAIL DUNCAN FAIL SMITH

By all rights, at the reshuffle of the UK cabinet last year, Iain Duncan Smith should have been fired for incompetence. The Quiet Man is quite simply hopeless.

But he's an ex-leader and therefore a man of some "standing" in the party despite his somewhat dubious past, plus he's a right winger and a possible focus for other, lesser known, right wing nut jobs, so, he was allowed to stay. In short because Cameron lacked the authority to sack him and get away with it.

But he has made an almighty mess of running his department, he has used doubtful statistics, and on several occasions he's just plain lied. 

Liam Byrne (another incredibly unlikeable soul) has summarised IDS's performance in an article for the Telegraph.


And like or dislike Byrne, you have to admit that he is right on this. That said, Byrne is pretty much behind the policies. It's just the way that they are being implemented and the fact that it's IDS and not Byrne himself getting the ministerial salary and perks that bothers him most.

So what does he say?

He points out firstly that the Work Programme has missed every single target that it set itself for the last 3 years. That's a pretty damning indictment. 

Then he moves to Universal Credit. The DWP promised only last year that a million people would be on this credit by 2014. Now they say that it is being rolled out to 10 jobcentres from October... and they are all in low unemployment areas. No one from the department is commenting on the number of people that this will cover, but it seems unlikely to be a twentieth of the number promised.

The Youth Contract has been a failure. It has missed 90% of its targets and the unemployment number for young people remains at around a million. A massive failure to the country and its young people.
Finally the Work Capability Programme has probably been the biggest ever fiasco. 

We had people being taken off benefits only weeks before their death from cancer. There are stories of vulnerable people being told by someone they accept as a doctor (although they may be a nurse or paramedic or hospital cleaner from what I can tell) telling them that they are fit for work, them believing it (some people take what a "doctor" says as gospel), and dying of heart attacks because of over exertion brought on by the belief that they are now well! 

Additionally, we have learned from whistleblowers, that Atos is working to targets and staff are under pressure, trained or not, to fail people to in order to keep to the company's profile. Both the BBC and Channel 4 have made documentaries (Panorama and Despatches) showing this. Of course these claims are denied, but I've never heard of a government department that doesn't work to targets and budgets, and I doubt very much that any outsourcing organisation doesn't have the same.
Atos has been audited independently and found to be failing to work to its contract. Hundreds of cases were found to have been determined without any logic or application of the rules (presumably in an attempt to meet the targets that the DWP and the Atos management swear do not exist). The company has done so badly that its monopoly is being taken away from it.

(It has, of course, only joined a long list of outsourcing companies which have been found to be dodgy, incompetent and stealing from the taxpayers.)

And of course the cost of tribunals and appeals has tripled since 2010.

So basically IDS 0/10.

Will the prime minister take his future in his hands and sack the monstrously incompetent cabinet secretary?

Probably not.  After all, who else has he got to put there?

PS... BBC report that there is a 5% increase in people dying in England and Wales this last year. I wonder if IDS has anything to do with that.

23 comments:

  1. Tris

    I just don't see IDS getting the sack, he is doing the really unsavory , all be it badly, job that the Tories want doing and no one would really want to take on. He is nasty enough to probably enjoy the job and it keeps the media away from the slow but sure privatization of the NHS down south, the lobbying scandal. Most people who pay attention know that the attacks on the unemployed and disabled make up a tiny part of the budget but they are an easy target when the real target are those who get ill, are old and can't afford private care.

    I think he is doing exactly the job they want him to do and I wouldn't be surprised that if the Tories win the next election, which is looks like they will, he will become chancellor or similar.

    Bruce

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  2. Oh lordy. IDS as chancellor. And we though Osborne was a prat!

    Yes, he's doing the job they al want done. They are killing off the sick and presumably they will, next time round, start on the old.

    I reckon that other repugnant slap head Grayling wanted this job when they tried to sack Smith last year. He'd happily take it over.

    I think there is little doubt that the Tories will win next time. Labour is falling in the opinion polls and some of the Ukippers will probably go back to the Tories.

    But I think they will get rid of Eton boy...

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  3. Labour will not abolish, scrap or disembowel that IDS agenda.

    They cannot afford to do as they will lose their target SE England target seats in Westminster. Even Johann Lament is singing from the Tory hymn sheet and still 30% will put their X against their Rosetted monkeys in GE.

    They can't all be D Rectum "readers," can they?

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    1. No, as i said Byrne is only jealous that Smith has the limo, the driver, the salary, the future seat in the retirement home next door and £300+ a day tax free.

      If he gets the job someday, which I doubt, he will be every bit as vile and probably every bit as incompetent!

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  4. Serious question.
    Do these bastards, and i include Labour, ever think about the consequences of their actions, or do they actually believe they are doing good?
    I really struggle to believe that people can be so dismissive of the suffering of fellow human beings.

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    1. I ask myself that.

      They don't see ordinary people as humans is the only answer i can think of.

      It must be that they see the rest of us like we were some sort of subspecies... so that the misery and early death is something that isn't really happening to humans like them.

      I saw a documentary years ago when an ex footman noted that some ex-girlfriend of Charlie Windsor had expressed the opinion that people who were not aristocrats weren't entirely human. It's the way they see things. It is their country and the rest of us are put here to serve them. There's no point in keeping us unless we serve a purpose. Like lame horses, I suppose.

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  5. I still find it hard to believe that they have no humanity Tris. Ok, the public school boys get sent away at 5 year old to have that beaten out of them, but how do you explain the so called 'working class' Labour folk like Murphy?

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    Replies
    1. Maybe because they want to be like the toffs, Jutie.

      Maybe because they see great wealth for themselves in it.

      Maybe because they don't see the sharp end and just what untold misery the cause.

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    2. Because they are developing fascism within the UK under the cloak of a sham electoral system.

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    3. Because they are psychopaths.


      http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/narcissism/psychopathy_checklist.html

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    4. Well, you did ask Jutie :)

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  6. Don't know if you've seen this yet Tris.

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/the-bullshit-files/

    I was going to link to a youtube video taken by someone at the inaugural meeting of Better Together Bathgate but it appears to have been removed by youtube or someone else. I'm sensing another "wee dugs and sausage rolls" moment here. Thankfully Rev Stu has the meeting covered. lol:-)

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Arbroath... On my way there now.

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  7. Once you have survived the demolition of the Bathgate launch "cough" "cough" then you might like to read part 1 of Stu's transcription of last night's "event". lol:-)

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/behind-open-doors/

    As others have said, the Rev Stu is definitely going ABOVE and BEYOND the call of duty in his efforts to transcribe these "events." This man deserves a medal or even a whole series of medals! lol:-)

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  8. President Stuart?

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  9. HELL even I, a Scots royalist (aka Scottish monarchy NOT the Anglo-German crowd down south) could live with that! lol:-)

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  10. C'mon Arbroath, you don't really believe in the god given right to rule, do you?
    Many years ago, i was fishing for salmon on the Isla. A baillif stopped and questioned my right to fish there as it was Lord Fuckwits land. I asked him how Lord Fuckwit got the land, and he said his ancestors fought fot it. I told the bailiff to fetch Lord Fuckwit, and i would fight him for it now. He declined. True(ish) story. :-)

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    1. LOL Jutie...ish...

      I wish I'd seen that.

      I hate privilege that isn't earned. Kinds and nobles are mainly there because they stole more than other people, had more money and killed more of their opponents.

      I just think it's outdated and certainly they way the Windsors live is out of the question. As I've said, I'd settle for a monarchy that went to Marks and Spencers on a bike and caught the bus like the rest of us.

      But I know that some people derive a lot of pleasure from the idea of royalty, and I accept that if that is what the majority wants...then that's what we'll have.

      Just keep the Windsors away from me.

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    2. I have no time for monarchy like the Anglo-German bunch of money grabbing so and so down south, never have and never will.

      I do have an inkling for the return of our own Scottish monarchy. Under no circumstances should any future Scottish monarchy be run along the same lines as that Anglo-German bunch. I believe our monarchy should be run along the Nordic lines, where they are more open to the public and yes Tris I believe our monarchy should use public transport after all they would be monarchs OF the Scots, NOT rulers of the Scots, and as such they should be open and accessible to US!

      What I do not believe is that any future Scots monarchy are "paid" anything like the millions, or is it billions, that the current London mob are paid! Any future Scots monarchy should be prepared to go out and do "normal" work with the rest of the Scots and not expect to "sit at home" in their castles getting loads for nought!

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    3. That seems reasonable to me Arbroath.

      If we end up with the Windsors then at least they only spend a few days here a year and therefore wouldn't cost us a halfpenny for most of the year, as is the situation with the other nations.

      We would, I suppose have to have a governor general, a Scot of note.

      Me maybe?

      Delete
    4. Think you may have to fight the Rev Stu for that privilege Tris. lol:-)

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    5. I'll cede then Arbroath!

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