Compulsory community work for the unemployed

[Neil Foxlee]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010 ... e-benefits

It's all very well to get four weeks' worth of "community work" (whatever that is) done on the cheap by each jobless person - "jobseeker's allowance", formerly known as unemployment benefit, currently stands at the princely sum of £50.95 a week for those under 25 and £64.30 for those over 25 - but where are the jobs, especially with 500,000 or more due to lose theirs thanks to government cuts?

Is this what Cameron means by the "big society"?

[Jonathan E.]

What? No flogging? I suppose transportation to the colonies is a bit much to ask for, isn't it?

[Neil Foxlee]

Which (former) colonies did you have in mind?

A BBC report on this states that the UK has 5m people on out-of-work benefits and one of the highest rates of workless households in Europe, with 1.9m children living in homes where no-one has a job.

Any responsible government would want to do something about this appalling situation, but cracking down on the supposedly workshy while making at least half a million public-sector workers redundant, with the inevitable knock-on effect this will have on private-sector jobs, hardly seems to be the best way of going about it, to put it mildly.

Indeed, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has predicted the loss of 725,000 public-sector jobs and 900,000 private-sector jobs, which - unless some jobs are also created - will raise the unemployment figures by a further 1.6 million (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11671009 ).

This is the politics (and economics) of the madhouse.

[Adam Blake]

After the Labour party turned out not to be Labour
And the Liberal Democrats turned out not to Liberal Democrat
What a surprise! The Tories ARE Tories after all...

[Neil Foxlee]

And to think that the Tories were attacking Labour before the election for proposing a rise in National Insurance, calling it a "jobs tax". Why tax jobs when you can simply cut them?

And how much will the predicted rise in unemployment cost in lost tax revenues, increased benefits payouts and loss of consumer demand?

[Adam Blake]

Like I said, the Tories are Tories after all. Their gig is to make sure the rich get richer at the expense of the poor. They seem to be getting the job done with great efficiency.