The right wing media and the bash the benefits claimants agenda

By Julian Ware-Lane / @warelane

The state of the economy is still the number one issue at the moment as almost everyone has either a job, mortgage, pension, savings, etc. No-one would be foolish enough to talk of total recovery just yet, but there are some signs that it may be around the corner.

For instance, the rise in unemployment may be slowing. Everyone without a job is a personal story of misery, and the sooner we get back to the situation where there are more vacancies that unemployed the better, although I suspect that this is a few years away. Still, the BBC is reporting that the “Rate of job cutting ‘is slowing'”.

The BBC’s non-partisan reportage is in contrast to some of the print media. I guess this surprises no-one. Yet one cannot read “Labour’s hidden unemployment: 6m on the dole” without wondering whether the sub-editor has been remotely objective. Such headlines are no attempt to do anything except talk Britain down, and bash a few easy targets while they’re at it.

Of course, the six million includes carers, single parents, the disabled, and those who have lost their jobs. Quite unlike those poor millionaires forced to do their civic duty from their death-beds.

Not many lay the recession at the government’s door, so accusations of ‘mismanagement of the economy’ are so wide of the mark that only those who slavishly follow the right-wing mantra or the truly gullible will believe them. If Britain alone was in recession then maybe such views would be credible. As it is, to lay the worldwide recession at the door of the Labour government is to credit us with influence that we just do not have.

I think we all know that the adherents of the Daily Express have a “bash those on benefits” agenda, conveniently ignoring that when we are told that these are the worst figures for twelve years we are actually saying “these are the worst figures since the Tories last wrecked our economy”.

The Tories talk of welfare reform, and reform is needed. But they couch their arguments in terms that suggest that it will be all stick. Whilst issuing a sop to their millionaire friends it seems clear that they see the most vulnerable as being those who will pay for the recovery.

So, are the Tory plans for “bold, radical welfare reform” code for removing benefits from lone parents, carers, the disabled and the bereaved? Are we about to see a return of the Workhouse?