This year’s Scottish Government budget made available up to
£50m in Discretionary Housing Payments – widely agreed to be the most effective
way of preventing evictions under the Bedroom Tax. However, the Scottish
Government is currently prevented from providing the full level of support as
the DWP has imposed a cap of £22.85m.
The Deputy First Minister wrote to the UK Government’s
Welfare Minister, Mr Freud, five weeks ago to request that the legal
restrictions on the amount the Scottish Government can provide in discretionary
housing payments be lifted – but has yet to receive a reply.
And certainly it's not what we pay him a ministerial salary for. It's not like he was elected by anyone ever. Rather he was a merchant banker known for his ability to find gold in a mound of silage (according to Dominic Lawson). And so he was Labour's man to reform the welfare system.
He jumped ship from the Labour party and joined the Tories so that he was, with absolutely no experience (and by his own admission, no knowledge of social security) whatsoever, able to become a minister in the Tory government with a seat in the House of Lords and a blood transfusion.
Ho hum. Aristocrats just ain't what they used to be...
What is this bedroom tax , Iv'e been paying taxes since 1966 and have yet to receive a demand !!
ReplyDeleteanon
ReplyDeleteThe Torye will get round to you soon enough !!
That's true. Unless of course you have a title or are very rich... or both ...in which case you're safe as houses... or castles ...
DeleteIf you're poor... it's only a matter of time, although it's fair to say they are lamentably inefficient.
Sorry to hear about Bob Crowe Niko. A loss to the Labour movement. Even his most strident enemies couldn't say anything bad about him.
One great compliment was that his people have some of the best terms and conditions in this worker unfriendly country.
That means he was doing his job.
Even his most strident enemies couldn't say anything bad about him
DeleteThere are scum and more scum.
I'm not a great one for political correctness, and I don’t believe rubbish like you shouldn't speak ill of the dead... Load of tosh.
DeleteBut she takes things too far
The best you can say about Hopkins is that she is a nonentity. She has no talent; she has no ability. Her only way of making money is to be insufferably rude on Twitter to the point of utter tastelessness about whatever is happening. I suppose she thinks she’s some kind of female version of David Starkey. She forgets that Dr Starkey is at least pretty intelligent, and considered an expert on English Tudor history.
Whilst she is not. She’s a failed reality tv show person. David Starkey is even better looking than her.
She should join the Tory Party. She's probably repugnant enough to be acceptable.
I bet one day someone will say something really hurtful about her... maybe when her mother dies or something like that… and she’ll go to the press claiming foul.
I hope their answer is …bugger off you vile old hag.
Sorry O/T but
ReplyDeleteListening to Radio 4, off and on as I did my morning ablutions, I heard an interview with a Russian or Ukrainian Professor based in Washington DC.
He said that Russia does not really view Ukraine to be a country. To them, it is an existentialist problem.
I thought, neither does Westmister à propos Scotland.
Yes. I think that is true. It was obvious when that Labour MP spoke out about Lamont's proposals for tax raising powers for Edinburgh. He more of less ais that they couldn;t agree toi that because "we are a UK Party".
DeleteI realise that one interpretation of that is.... if we give them more powers, my job, already less that half of an English MP's job, will become even more part time, and they may decide to pay me less... or cut the numbers drastically and extend the constituencies.
But the other interpretation is... Why would we give Scotland tax raising powers? = Why would we give Bradford or Yorkshire tax raising powers?
"we are a UK Party" always means, to me "We need to go chasing the south-east for votes, because all we actually want is to sit in the high chairs and steal the government's money, we don't really care about anything else"
DeleteThat is an excellent definition.
DeleteIt also means... no big jobs here. No fantastic money to be earned. never gonna go down in world history. Never going to become an aristocrat.
Nope.... The union for me.