DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

The Derby fire conviction will take this off the front pages of most of the tabloids anyways, and the father's position as a benefit claimant with loads of kids is hardly going to help if they do want to make a point, which they probably will.

the timing of that story and its unsympathetic protagonists is so unfortunate

yeah it's a real tragedy how he's not a tory huh

... not all bad then is he? I don't see how even the Daily Mail could use that guy and his singularly weird lifestyle as a justification for welfare reform.

Oh they could.

the mail would still be milking the protocols of the elders of zion if they thought there was mileage in it.

The Sun mentions the benefits thing pretty high up and gives a lot of prominence to the video of this guy on Jeremy Kyle. It's pretty safe to say they're not above making a political point with it.

They're not above anything but I don't see it having much traction with yer average Joe

http://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/319193925019643904/photo/1

I don't see how even the Daily Mail could use that guy and his singularly weird lifestyle as a justification for welfare reform.

― Step not on a loose unforgiving stone on a pyramid to paradise (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 2, 2013 4:46 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:(

The saddest thing is that thousands of people, tens of hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, will lap this up and froth at the mouth like the Daily Mail want.

oh they barely needed the front page to do that - it was in the mail online comments within minutes of the piece going up (without such an inflammatory headline online)

that mail front page... seriously fuck this. that is so vulgar.

all of this is so depressing and maddening it's hard to know what to do

That's an otm everyone can agree on

http://www.psmag.com/magazines/pacific-standard-cover-story/joe-henrich-weird-ultimatum-game-shaking-up-psychology-economics-53135/

I don't see how even the Daily Mail could use that guy and his singularly weird lifestyle as a justification for welfare reform.

― Step not on a loose unforgiving stone on a pyramid to paradise (Tom D.), Tuesday, April 2, 2013 4:46 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ who was that hopeless hapless naïf?

surely child benefit (hello welfare state) would be the thing that stops you from wanting to kill your kids?

http://www.themediablog.co.uk/the-media-blog/2013/04/the-sun-backpedals-on-state-funded-manslaughter.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-22017567

"I asked GCHQ to shorten a link and it magically turned into porn!"

lol ok

330,000 people signed a petition urging Mr Duncan Smith to try living on £53 a week.

He dismissed this as a "complete stunt"

Funnily enough I would use almost the same phrase to describe IDS

VG

http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/abnormal-behaviour-affect-welfare-policy-debate/20212

Jon Snow otm. This child killing madman being held up as an example of all that is broken about Britain is clearly an outlier by any measure and his actions and circumstances should form no part of any debate on welfare reform.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/67826_10151527200569162_284759461_n.jpg

Sometimes the optics speak for themselves...

As if the Daily Mirror could ever be trusted on anything. Why was Piers Morgan sacked, again?

A GOOD STORY

it's been confirmed on the BBC, Osborn playing the "unaware" card:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22035985

Really who fucking cares.

Clearly not you.

Agree btw (xp). Him jumping on the Daily Mail bandwagon over the Philpotts is seriously despicable but the Mirror don't have the balls to say so.

Quite. Also the general tendency to blow up minor mistakes and lambast people for not leading an entirely pure and noble life. You know, like Robert Maxwell did.

omg what even is the header on the daily mail online right now i can't

"This week the Mail was slated for making the perfectly reasonable point that arson killer Mick Philpott was a product of the benefits system. Today it is George Osborne's turn. Now tell us what YOU think. But, beware, the Left WILL try to hijack the result"

beware

Pretty sure the systematic dismantling of the welfare state will end up killing more children than Mick Philpott managed.

^ hijacking imo

Did the systematic dismantling of the welfare state have any bearing on the 5,000 extra deaths in an unseasonably cold March?

I'm sure the government would feel terrible if it did, despite it freeing up a few disabled parking spaces and single occupancy houses.

Quantitative freezing

I think crap weather might have had more to do with it. The weather at the moment is definitely anti-competitive and anti-aspirational.

You don't think one's ability to cope with crap weather when in fuel poverty maybe a slight factor?

It'll be interesting to see verifiable evidence of that.

It's impossible to prove but there's no doubt money is a factor in keeping yourself alive in difficult conditions.

Significant increase in suicide rate since Condems got in, amirite innit?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/fuel-poverty-deaths-three-times-higher-than-government-estimates-7462426.html

The suicide rate is at its highest since the middle of the Thatcher years.

tbh the issue there is whether a lab/ld gov would have kept all welfare payments at pre-2010 levels despite yknow world economic collapse

No it isn't

There's no doubt anyone in power would have had to make huge cuts - the question imo is where the pain is targeted. This government seems more willing than any I can remember to take from those who already have least.

They seem to have let Osborne off the leash on the issue too, to deafening silence from the Lib Dems

There's also a difference between cutting to balance the books (although some would argue this doesn't ever work) and cutting out of ideology/naked spite. Plus ratio of tax rises to spending cuts, timing of cuts, where they're targeted etc. "Labour would have cut anyway" is true but doesn't equate to "they would be doing exactly the same things".