IDS and "reforms"

Personally I feel that the constant stress of having to apply, justify, inform etc for ESA, DLA, HB, CTC etc is a major factor in keeping ill people ill. If I could have a full year of not being inundated with paperwork, not having to chase mistakes, not having to worry about which benefit will be mucked up by one department giving another some inaccurate information on top of having to look after a 3 year old with special needs I'd probably be able to get myself well enough to go back to work - probably not as a high-flyer, I don't think I'll ever cope with that again but at least enough to regain some vestige of the independence I used to enjoy. As it is I feel less than hopeful, I think the longest I've gone without a new crisis arriving in a brown envelope over the last year is probably 2 weeks.

Perhaps IDS should be forced to spend a month as a wheelchair user with splints on his hands that prevent him doing things for himself, prescribed medication that would leave him in permanent pain, anxious and brain-fogged, on benefits, without a carer and forced to deal with all the ******** paperwork and attend ATOS medicals and successfully appeal before he is allowed to take up his post and make any decisions?

By going on TV and paraphrasing 'Arbeit Macht Frei', he's pretty much on the way to becoming a caricature - every time he sticks his head up (assuming Rupert Murdoch doesn't own everything media related now), people will have an image of him and the Germans in 'Allo 'Allo.

Doesn't he remind you of General von Klinkerhoffen?

He's lost credibility with a lot of people already just from the one stupid phrase.

Its their own fault for trying to adopt the American Right wing phraseology - Jobs Tax, Death Tax, Welfare, etc - they may be expected from Republican Senators, but certainly not Tory MPs.

I think they'll go for single, fit people on ESA first, then single mums, then the sick, then the disabled then the pensioners. All in increasing order of likelihood to vote.