General Politics Thread

[Soapy FFC]

1 hour ago, NotThePars said:

 

As someone who's had to deal with them as a "customer" and as a fellow civil servant, yup. A department that takes its administration from a Kafka novel and is staffed with an alarming number of people who view the people they deal with as subhuman.

That reminds me of a high percentage of people who work in any HR Dept these days. 

[WhiteRoseKillie]

3 hours ago, coprolite said:

If only there was a famous quote of hers to deploy here. … nope, can’t think of anything 

Neither. Can. I.

[Jacksgranda]

4 hours ago, Soapy FFC said:

Given that it can take 5 or 6 weeks to get your first payment from Universal Credit, that means you could could be getting sanctions before you've even received your first payment. You really couldn't make it up.

 

That is ridiculous. Even a fortnight is too long when you've no money coming in.

I suppose everybody is expected to live off the interest off their trust funds...

[Jacksgranda]

On 22/01/2022 at 13:35, NotThePars said:

 

 

Normal thing for a nominally progressive politician to say

 

Easy seen she's a QC. They could argue a black crow was white - and have enough of the jury believing it.

[Florentine_Pogen]

Yet another Tory sell - off of former public sector assets that's turned out to be an absolute disaster for the public purse.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/27/guy-hands-terra-firma-annington-homes-mod-ministry-defence?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

"However, the National Audit Office concluded in a 2018 review that taxpayers were between £2.2bn and £4.2bn worse off as a result of the arrangement. The NAO said the MoD had “lost out on billions of pounds’ worth of increases in asset values, while Annington has made a significantly higher return on its investment than expected”.

[Soapy FFC]

54 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

That is ridiculous. Even a fortnight is too long when you've no money coming in.

I suppose everybody is expected to live off the interest off their trust funds...

From the Govt website
 

Quote

 

Your first payment

It usually takes around 5 weeks to get your first payment.

If you need help with your living costs while you wait for your first payment, you can apply for an advance.

The wait before your first payment is made up of a one month assessment period and up to 7 days for the payment to reach your account.

 

It's almost as if they have made it as difficult as possible to get any money.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Soapy FFC

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Soapy FFC said:

From the Govt website
 

It's almost as if they have made it as difficult as possible to get any money.

My theory is they want to stop the criticism of Windrush etc by expanding the hostile environment policy to everyone except the hedge funders, making Britain great again.

[Detournement]

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n02/wolfgang-streeck/in-the-superstate

A very interesting article about Angela Merkel and 'post democracy' by the king of pessimists Wolfgang Streeck.

Quote

If the hidden agenda of Merkel’s technopopulism was to establish a new bourgeois centre, extending the CDU/CSU vote by adding recruits from the Greens,

This seems relevant to Holyrood. Sturgeon and Harvie are very obviously working together to broaden the parties combined voter base. Any votes she loses due to left wing SNP voters getting fed up with the neoliberalism should in theory transfer to the Greens and the Greens in turn act as an incubator for younger voters who will later move right.

The article explains why Merkel failed but she didn't have the nationalist angle so it may well work here. 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Detournement

[Guest Jedi]

7 hours ago, welshbairn said:

She's getting a constant trickle of bad press, wonder if Sunak's got anything to do with it?

Maybe she was ambushed by a private jet, or we will need an enquiry to find out if she was on board or not....

She really is a charmer, and this is their hope for a 'reboot' of their image:

Truss and three of her staff on a four-night trip to Singapore and Vietnam in December 2020. Originally, the department said that no expenses had been logged, before admitting £4,000 worth of expenses

In 2015, her department faced funding cuts of between 25% and 40%, but Truss insisted that it was “a big opportunity”

Truss also appears to be comfortable with austerity being applied within her new department. The Foreign Office is set to reduce its staff numbers by 20% in four years 

In her first week in office, Truss signed off drastic foreign aid cuts to war-torn states, while reducing funding on the environment and gender equality

In total, overseas aid to Commonwealth countries, under Truss, has been slashed by £500 million, despite claims made during the Brexit campaign that leaving the EU would strengthen our ties with its 53 member states

[welshbairn]

15 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Maybe she was ambushed by a private jet, or we will need an enquiry to find out if she was on board or not....

She really is a charmer, and this is their hope for a 'reboot' of their image:

Truss and three of her staff on a four-night trip to Singapore and Vietnam in December 2020. Originally, the department said that no expenses had been logged, before admitting £4,000 worth of expenses

In 2015, her department faced funding cuts of between 25% and 40%, but Truss insisted that it was “a big opportunity”

Truss also appears to be comfortable with austerity being applied within her new department. The Foreign Office is set to reduce its staff numbers by 20% in four years 

In her first week in office, Truss signed off drastic foreign aid cuts to war-torn states, while reducing funding on the environment and gender equality

In total, overseas aid to Commonwealth countries, under Truss, has been slashed by £500 million, despite claims made during the Brexit campaign that leaving the EU would strengthen our ties with its 53 member states

Don't get me wrong, she'd be truly awful as PM, but why all the stories coming out now, and nothing about Sunak's trips? 

[Guest Jedi]

No question that billionaire Sunak's team are behind stories leaking about Truss, certainly makes him favourite for any take over.

[Father Ted]

6 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

That is ridiculous. Even a fortnight is too long when you've no money coming in.

I suppose everybody is expected to live off the interest off their trust funds...

I'm not aware if anyone has pointed this out. 

I worked in construction for first 15 years of my career, and by its nature I had small periods of unemployment.

In 1995, you applied for jobseekers at your local jobcentre and they processed your claim there and it took a week.

In 2005, you had appointment at local jobcentre, who then sent your claim to someone unknown office in Coatbridge and it took 5-6 weeks ( i was aware of claims running to 8 weeks)and if you had to contact office at Coatbridge, it was as difficult as they could make it, as no one took responsibility and was almost impossible to speed claim up.

Now considering the advancements in technology,; internet, email, etc. It should take less time to process, yet it didn't it was at least five times as long.

Reason given after some investigation , they have very few people processing claims, apparently.

To conclude, DWP know exactly what they are doing and they intentionally slow process down. 

Treating people unfortunate enough to lose their job largely through no fault of their own, as subhuman is a disgrace and making them intentionally wait that long on payment further compounds any financial issues they may have.

DWP are scum and anyone that works for them should be ashamed of themselves.

They say you can tell how well a country is run by how it treats its less fortunate. On that front Britain is an absolute disgrace 

[tamthebam]

On 22/01/2022 at 14:31, BFTD said:

Not only sexual perverts, but also inveterate liars. Clearly not prejudiced, though.

Starting to develop my own prejudice against powerful middle-aged women called Jo, TBH.

Cherry, Swinson, Rowling... You might be onto something there...

[tamthebam]

On 25/01/2022 at 18:54, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

his own politics may not be great but Hislop is so good in these situations, just doesn't give a shit.

 

Private Eye often publishes letters from angry gammons cancelling their subscriptions because "while I enjoy the cartoons the magazine is too left- wing, Anti-Brexit, how dare a satirical magazine take the piss out of the current Government etc"

[Benjamin_Nevis]

10 hours ago, NotThePars said:

 

As someone who's had to deal with them as a "customer" and as a fellow civil servant, yup. A department that takes its administration from a Kafka novel and is staffed with an alarming number of people who view the people they deal with as subhuman.

 

18 minutes ago, Father Ted said:

I'm not aware if anyone has pointed this out. 

I worked in construction for first 15 years of my career, and by its nature I had small periods of unemployment.

In 1995, you applied for jobseekers at your local jobcentre and they processed your claim there and it took a week.

In 2005, you had appointment at local jobcentre, who then sent your claim to someone unknown office in Coatbridge and it took 5-6 weeks ( i was aware of claims running to 8 weeks)and if you had to contact office at Coatbridge, it was as difficult as they could make it, as no one took responsibility and was almost impossible to speed claim up.

Now considering the advancements in technology,; internet, email, etc. It should take less time to process, yet it didn't it was at least five times as long.

Reason given after some investigation , they have very few people processing claims, apparently.

To conclude, DWP know exactly what they are doing and they intentionally slow process down. 

Treating people unfortunate enough to lose their job largely through no fault of their own, as subhuman is a disgrace and making them intentionally wait that long on payment further compounds any financial issues they may have.

DWP are scum and anyone that works for them should be ashamed of themselves.

They say you can tell how well a country is run by how it treats its less fortunate. On that front Britain is an absolute disgrace 

The above posts are pretty much spot on, I deal with DWP every day as a rep and they are a heady mix of vile, judgemental arseholes and hopeless c***s. Over the course of 9 years working in Welfare Rights I think i've dealt with about five DWP staff who were genuinely helpful. There are some absolute psychos working there, folk who actually visibly enjoy sanctioning people. The single worst aspect of them is the total refusal to back down, even when they're absolutely in the wrong. I've lost count of the number of appeals that should have been revised before tribunal, but they'll still refuse to back down and make the appellant wait X number of week for a hearing, presumably in the hope that they'll bottle it and accept the incorrect decision. The terminally ill cannot even escape their utter hopelessness. 

As for UC, there is absolutely no excuse for a five week wait. Legacy benefits such as ESA could be put into payment within days before UC rolled in. It doesn't help that the contact centre staff are largely fucking morons. I've had to explain their own decision making guidance to them on several occasions. They are simply too stupid/lazy/vindictive to apply their own rules properly. Of course the other problem with the 5 week wait is advances. DWP tell us that a single adult over 25 needs £324.84 as a minimum income per month. So the average single claimant, once you chuck on Housing Costs (ie Housing Benefit) say £300 p/m for a council house, will be entitled to monthly UC of £624.84 - when they first claim they can borrow this to see them through the 5 weeks. Obviously with their legacy benefit stopping the second they claim UC, they're going to take it because they're going to be fucking skint. This now means that the DWP have effectively boxed this poor fucker into a corner where they are now getting less than the minimum income levels the government told them they need to live on because of deductions for the advance.

TL;DR UC is fucking shite and the DWP are a collective of absolute worstcunts. 

[NotThePars]

9 hours ago, Day of the Lords said:

 

The above posts are pretty much spot on, I deal with DWP every day as a rep and they are a heady mix of vile, judgemental arseholes and hopeless c***s. Over the course of 9 years working in Welfare Rights I think i've dealt with about five DWP staff who were genuinely helpful. There are some absolute psychos working there, folk who actually visibly enjoy sanctioning people. The single worst aspect of them is the total refusal to back down, even when they're absolutely in the wrong. I've lost count of the number of appeals that should have been revised before tribunal, but they'll still refuse to back down and make the appellant wait X number of week for a hearing, presumably in the hope that they'll bottle it and accept the incorrect decision. The terminally ill cannot even escape their utter hopelessness. 

As for UC, there is absolutely no excuse for a five week wait. Legacy benefits such as ESA could be put into payment within days before UC rolled in. It doesn't help that the contact centre staff are largely fucking morons. I've had to explain their own decision making guidance to them on several occasions. They are simply too stupid/lazy/vindictive to apply their own rules properly. Of course the other problem with the 5 week wait is advances. DWP tell us that a single adult over 25 needs £324.84 as a minimum income per month. So the average single claimant, once you chuck on Housing Costs (ie Housing Benefit) say £300 p/m for a council house, will be entitled to monthly UC of £624.84 - when they first claim they can borrow this to see them through the 5 weeks. Obviously with their legacy benefit stopping the second they claim UC, they're going to take it because they're going to be fucking skint. This now means that the DWP have effectively boxed this poor fucker into a corner where they are now getting less than the minimum income levels the government told them they need to live on because of deductions for the advance.

TL;DR UC is fucking shite and the DWP are a collective of absolute worstcunts. 

Aye anybody who doubts they have blood on their hands either doesn't have experience with the DWP or is at it.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

31 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

Aye anybody who doubts they have blood on their hands either doesn't have experience with the DWP or is at it.

Indeed. Although I'd place them just below nurses who go to work for ATOS Healthcare on utter cretin scale. 

[Jacksgranda]

10 hours ago, Father Ted said:

I'm not aware if anyone has pointed this out. 

I worked in construction for first 15 years of my career, and by its nature I had small periods of unemployment.

In 1995, you applied for jobseekers at your local jobcentre and they processed your claim there and it took a week.

In 2005, you had appointment at local jobcentre, who then sent your claim to someone unknown office in Coatbridge and it took 5-6 weeks ( i was aware of claims running to 8 weeks)and if you had to contact office at Coatbridge, it was as difficult as they could make it, as no one took responsibility and was almost impossible to speed claim up.

Now considering the advancements in technology,; internet, email, etc. It should take less time to process, yet it didn't it was at least five times as long.

Reason given after some investigation , they have very few people processing claims, apparently.

To conclude, DWP know exactly what they are doing and they intentionally slow process down. 

Treating people unfortunate enough to lose their job largely through no fault of their own, as subhuman is a disgrace and making them intentionally wait that long on payment further compounds any financial issues they may have.

DWP are scum and anyone that works for them should be ashamed of themselves.

They say you can tell how well a country is run by how it treats its less fortunate. On that front Britain is an absolute disgrace 

The first time I was on the dole* my former employer held on to my P45 and I waited a good while for my claim to be processed, but at least it was dealt with locally and I was able to talk to someone.

Subsequent spells of unemployment were dealt with fairly quickly but still took at least a fortnight.

I imagine a lot of people are still paid weekly and many literally live week to week, so 5 - 8 weeks with no income is horrendous

* 1986

Edited January 28, 2022 by Jacksgranda

[Clown Job]

 

[strichener]

On 27/01/2022 at 16:40, Jacksgranda said:

That is ridiculous. Even a fortnight is too long when you've no money coming in.

I suppose everybody is expected to live off the interest off their trust funds...

The reasoning at the time was that people on benefits should be paid in arrears similar to the working people who have monthly incomes.

What they didn't tell you is that unlike working people, the first six weeks (as it was when introduced) was not accruing any benefits and therefore when you weren't due anything for the 6 weeks at the start of your claim when you came off UC.

It is an absolute scandal that UC has any period where someone has no money to live on, especially when they have "qualified" for UC through lack of income.