Benefit scroungers

I was going to title this post a different way, but I thought I am going to call them what they are. Some people might think that it is a bit harsh, but I am fed up with the situation this country is in. You have probably realised after reading this blog site that I have very strong opinions, and hopefully you might agree with what I say. But agree or disagree it is important to listen to other peoples opinions, I suppose that is the essence of democracy and a tolerant society. Over recent years, particularly the last 13 years under New Labour a great change has happened within our country, and I believe it isn't good. That does not mean that I think everything Labour did was bad, I just believe that the past 13 years have been an unmitigated disaster for this country. You might think that a bit harsh, but having lived through this period I believe this to be true. You could argue about economic growth under Labour and how good it was, but we only have to look at the situation we are in at the moment to quickly realise that our economy was built on very unstable ground.

Let me give you a quick potted history of Labours economic history; when Labour came to power in 1997 our national debt was £350 Billion and our deficit was £6 Billion. That sounds like a lot of money, but when you look at the size of our economy it isn't, when you look at the amount of debt we are in now, it is minuscule. When Labour left in May our national debt was nearly a trillion pounds and our deficit was £157 billion, basically the Government raised £550 billion in taxes and we were spending £707 billion every year. In the first few years of the Labour Government we had huge economic growth, fueled by a number of different factors. One of the reasons for such rapid growth was the deregulation of the City of London which meant that we had huge inward investment, and London became the premier and largest financial centre in the world. Our economy grew from being the 6th largest to the 4th largest in the world. Instead of paying off our debt and putting some money aside for 'a rainy day' Gordon Brown spent and spent. He also sold 395 tonnes of gold when it was at its lowest price and he took away the dividend tax relief on pensions for private companies (that is why our pensions sector is in such a mess now). Unfortunately for many people this will have a huge affect upon them when they retire and it is all Gordon Browns fault. When Labour came to power 20 per cent of our economy was made up of manufacturing, when Labour left it was less than 13 per cent. I could go on and on, and I might go into greater depth in a later blog, but I want to get to the point of this posting.

One of the things that Gordon Brown did was create a benefits culture. Under the guise of eradicating child poverty he introduced many more benefits for the lower paid. This meant for many, many people they were better off if they didn't work and so many of them didn't. Over the years we have seen the growth of a group of people who have never worked and have no intention of working. Every day I see the same people walking around Diss or sitting in the town centre, and they have no desire to work, they have no work ethic. The main problem is they don't have to work, many of them will argue that there isn't the work out there, but even in these difficult times there is work. Val's cousin is married to a Bolivian man and they have just returned from Ecuador after about 11 years, within a week her husband had a job at a local hotel. I think this sums up the problem, I know it isn't just a black and white issue, I know there are many people who would love to work and there aren't the jobs around, but for an awful lot of people it is a life style choice.

I am fed up with this situation, I am fed up with subsidising these people, I don't see why I should go to work and pay for these people to sit at home. Let me give you two analogies to explain how I feel; if I came up to you and you were working and I asked you for £100, you would ask me what did I want with the money. If I then said I wanted to sit at home and do nothing and I wanted a £100 from you every week, and I wasn't going to work but live off you would you continue to give me the money? I shouldn't think you would. Second analogy; if we all lived in a commune, and we grew our own crops and had livestock, we all pitched in and did the work around the commune; cleaning, cooking, repairing, etc. If every day you did this and someone did nothing but stayed in bed until 11am, sat around watching TV, played on his Xbox, sat down with you and ate the food that you and the rest of the people had toiled for, would you be happy with that situation? I am sure you would soon say something, and if he didn't change his ways you would ask him to leave.

I know people who do not work, for no other reason than they are too lazy. I know a lot of people do not have a work ethic because they have not had a good example from their parents, but I believe unless we change this we are never going to change anything. I believe we have got to stop pussy footing around, it is too easy for people not to work. One of the things I hear people say is that immigrants who come to this country have a very good work ethic, but the only reason they have this good work ethic is because in their country if they don't work they starve.

This is what I would do; I would find all those who are not working and give them a job, even if it meant wandering the streets picking up litter or cleaning graffiti off the walls. If they did not take the job I would take all their benefits off them, and if they could not pay their rent I would kick them out of their home. You might think that is a bit harsh, I don't care. I remember watching a programme which involved a studio audience which was debating a number of issues and one of the issues was unemployment. This programme was aired about 3 years ago, before the recession kicked in, there was a man on this programme who had been unemployed for years, he said he couldn't get a job. Along side him was a lady who was from some Government agency making excuses for him. This man had no mental or physical problems but said he could not find work, the presenter questioned him and asked him why he had not found a job and he could think of no plausible reason. The lady with him continued to make excuses for him.

I think this sums up so many parts of our society. I believe for too long now it has been too easy for people not to take responsibility, I believe our prisons are too easy, I believe we are too easy on those who commit crimes. Only this week I read of 3 men who were given community service for torturing an autistic boy; these men spent 3 days; kicking, punching, jumping on his chest, pelting him with dog mess, they applied adhesive to his genitals, scratched his limbs with sandpaper, forced him to drink gin and vodka until he passed out and did many more things to him. On top of this they videoed the attack on their phones. As I have said above they only received a community sentence. This to me sums up our woolly society.

The majority of people in this country are law abiding; they work hard, care about their children, care about their community, and get on with their lives and don't hurt anyone. There are a percentage of people who do none of this and don't care because they don't have to. I have spoken to many people who feel exactly the same as me. They are fed up with so called travellers (or pikies) doing what they want, they are fed up with anti social behaviour, they are fed up with the behaviour of a group of people and the police doing nothing. I am fed up with watching and reading about people committing crimes and getting pathetic sentences, I am fed up with having to subsidise peoples lifestyles, just because they can't be bothered, and they do not need to be bothered either. What I am fed up with the most is nice people who have never experienced any of these problems making excuses for these people. It is about time the silent majority started to speak up and act against those in our society who do not care.