Ian Duncan Smith is often described as a "compassionate conservative". He is said to have put a lot of thought and research into reform of benefits and to know a lot about the subject. All of this is nonsense, and if you have any doubt about that then this report of his attitudes should help dispel your illusions
www.express.co.uk/posts/view/318425The Express, I hasten to add for those who do not know, is a right wing paper. They do not normally attack the tories, though just lately it and The Daily Mail have been saying some things I agree with (this does worry me a little, but there it is)
As you can see from the article, the issue is the closure of Remply factories. Those are factories which employ disabled people and they have been in existence since shortly after the second world war. They recognise that disabled people find it hard to get work, and it is true that some changes to discrimination legislation have tended to make that slightly less of a problem than it was when they were set up. But by no means no problem at all. Some of the factories have already been closed on the back of that supposed improvement: and now the government wishes to close the rest.
According to the union concerned 90% of the people made redundant in the last round of closures have not found work. There are 2.7 million people unemployed in the UK according to the governement: much more in the real world. What are the chances of people in wheelchairs or with cerebral palsy getting mainstream jobs in this climate?
It is interesting to note that the idea is to give them help to find work using the private companies the government favours: companies like A4E, who have been subject to investigations of fraud (see other thread). More money funnelled to their pals, then.
But what is really interesting is the exposure of IDS's true attitudes. According to him disabled people in remploy factories do nothing but put the kettle on. This man is the kindest face conservatism has to offer.
