BBC supports the ‘right’ to smoke…
What a delicious pickle the BBC and the left wingers have got themselves into. In a desperate attempt to portray the hardship that the proposed benefit cap will inflict on the most vulnerable in society, they have managed to enshrine smoking in the unofficial list of ‘human rights’ that tax payers must work to finance, and without which the vulnerable will slide into a pit of despair…..
It all started so well. Their researchers had found them a family in deepest Wales who weren‘t living in an eight bed-roomed mansion in Bishops Avenue, but would still be ‘forced to move’ thanks to the benefit cap. So unfair.
The graphics department spent all day conjuring up a natty little diagram showing the hardship they would face if they were forced to cut £4,284.80 a year from their £30,284.80 benefits package to comply with the cap.
Then the project was handed over to a ‘safe pair of hands’, one Julian Joyce, to flesh out the words.
First establish that their reliance on benefits is entirely unavoidable…..why husband Raymond has been out of work for eleven solid years. He’s a software writer. An IT expert. Ah, in Educational software, and for eleven years there has been no call for Educational software in deepest North Wales; he has broadband of course, paid for by the tax payer, and he couldn’t possibly be expected to retrain to write Agricultural software, or any other sort of software could he? He’s an Educational software writer.
Then again, his wife suffers from bi-polar disorder, so she can’t work…..like wot Frank Bruno, Catherine Zeta Jones, Florence Nightingale, Bill Oddie do…need I go on?
Undeterred, Julian ploughs on, proving with every word just why this deserving family shouldn’t have four grand cut from their benefits –
“We have three teenage boys living in one room that barely fits their bunks and a chair-bed in it and two teenage daughters in a smaller room that barely fits their bunks in it.
“In the third bedroom we have ourselves and a five-year-old boy.”
Julian thinks they will have to chose between ‘heating and eating’ next year. Nice soundbite Julian. Pat on the back lad.
Then a sharp eyed reader took a closer look at the graphics – something Julian really should have done.
Turns out the ‘essential food bill’ contains receipts for 24 cans of lager a week, 200 cigarettes, and a large pouch of tobacco.
Which neatly add up to more than the proposed benefit cut…
Cue 1260 comments and rising asking why the BBC are supporting Raymond’s ‘right to smoke’ at our expense. You can’t add to the comments sadly – the BBC have just given in and closed the comments down!
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1
February 2, 2012 at 11:17 -
“We get the Sky Movies package because we’re stuck in the house all week – otherwise we wouldn’t have any entertainment.’”
Perhaps they could save 15 quid a week by watching FreeView instead.
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6
February 2, 2012 at 11:17 -
Fantastic a BBC own goal of the highest quality.
Welfare is a safety net – not a career option.
The cap should be lower than £26k too – Cameron is both cynical and soft – the nation must undo the consequences of Labour’s gerrymandering far quicker.
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7
February 2, 2012 at 11:18 -
It should be fairly obvious that he’s not a software writer. He’s a lazy bugger who wants other people to think he’s a software writer. A trained professional who hasn’t done a stroke of work in 11 years? I don’t think so.
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9
February 2, 2012 at 11:34 -
The best bit about this – it was doing the rounds on Twitter yesterday – was the Left alternately directing their ire at ‘Tory moles within the BBC’ (really? OK, if you say so…) or desperately trying to defend it with ‘Well, poor people are entitled to comforts too, you heartless fiends!’.
Neither approach was really succeeding, though.
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10
February 2, 2012 at 11:42 -
Be fair! It looks as though they have saved money on birth control products.
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11
February 2, 2012 at 11:53 -
Also interesting the graphic fails to mention the cost of the BBC License fee/tax, while detailing the cost of their Sky subscription. One of these is optional…
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17
February 2, 2012 at 11:53 -
The figures are also fabricated or their has been adjustments made that they are not declaring.
8 children – 1 x £20.30 = 7 x 13.40 = £114.10 weekly
8 children on Child Tax Credit £400 per week plus
job seekers £105.95plus council tax & housing benefit = £18.00 + £76.00
Weekly net Total = £714.05 x 52 £37130.60
Assumed earning to get this as net £ 50,000 ( £4k NI plus £9k Income Tax)
£120 per month on mobiles for two people who are at home?
£120 per month on travelling but they get the weekly shop all at the same time?
28 cigarettes per day? plus Large pouch of tabacco?
24 cans of lager? What about money at pub?The average take home pay in the UK is £20k this is a fucking disgrace
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19
February 2, 2012 at 12:08 -
As for the claim that his only skills are in writing software for educational programs this is totally laughable.
You learn a programming language, how to control data input, storage, processing and manipulation. The computer does not care what program you are writing in.
People who work for software companies may specialise in a certain sector based on previous project experience but they are capable of writing software for any occassion.
If he had programming skills and he did not make use of the website building opportunities of the last 11 years I would be highly suspicious.
In fact software programming and internet work are ideal jobs that people are home can do and still claim benefits.
Another one. He blamed the fact his wife has not quit smoking on being cancelled from a course. The courses are free, you simply re-register and go again. I have been on a few of them.
Who is worse? The lefty dipshits that believe these lazy bastards are being oppressed or the lazy bastards who listen to the lefty dipshits telling them they are oppressed.
A pox on all their houses, especially the Lords.
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20
February 2, 2012 at 12:25 -
Yes, the quit course caught my eye too. She can’t give up because she can’t get help? Firstly, help is ubiquitous these days, Lord knows it should be the amount of cash that gets lobbed at it, and how damning of their self-reliance that they are seemingly entirely incapable of doing anything without the state’s help?
Says a lot about the wiring of today’s society, sadly.
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21
February 2, 2012 at 14:48 -
I suspect he knows nothing about programming, its just something he fibs about because of low self esteem.
Its easy to be self taught in programming today. No need for any courses. All the resources are there. Fellow programmers in forums are generally very helpful. All the documentation is free. All the tools & software is free.
Write some free websites, open source software etc and your CV will goto the top of the pile when applying for jobs.
All that is required is plenty of free time.
If he is an “educational software” writer then he should know about Khan Academy. So if he was genually having a 11 yr dry spell then why isnt he spending time with the kids using Khan Academy? Kids get a better education, he get’s experiance in the cutting edge of internet/computing based education.
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22
February 2, 2012 at 12:35 -
Yes, I noticed the article and thoroughly fisked it on my blog. I reckon they could save about £10,000 a year by reducing expenditure down to a more reasonable level, thus demonstrating that the benefits cap is entirely reasonable.
http://tangentreality.blogspot.com/2012/02/benefits-cap.html
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23
February 2, 2012 at 12:45 -
Most responsible parents living in a 3 bedroom house (with little chance of upgrading) would probably think twice before having more than 2 0r 3 children.
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24
February 2, 2012 at 12:51 -
Cut cut cut. That is all!
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28
February 2, 2012 at 13:06 -
What an amazing article. I do wonder what the purpose was to be? It seemed written to say how unfortunate this family were ‘Eating or heating’ choices (lol!)
The amount of children in a 3 bed house is a problem and in their defense the first 5 did come from previous marriages. I have little experience regarding mental health issues and no idea how dibilitating bi-polar can be/is in this case.
That said my sympathy ran out rapidly. 11 years without working or trying to re-train? I do smoke and drink and have sky and a mobile but all these things are luxuries that would be cut – down or out – if things were tight or we lost our income.
This really is a prime example of ‘benefits’ as a real life choice and that is simply unsustainable as well as immoral.
It is worth noting the mention of anxiety related illnesses as a result of not being able to work – I can believe that would happen – which makes this poverty trap of benefits and constantly rising minimum wage, rather than a true tax relief on low earnings all the more sickenning!
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29
February 2, 2012 at 13:16 -
Excellent shot in the foot there for the BBC. Old Raymondo should have retrained as a teacher or other job where there is work in Wales. There’s no excuse for going on the dole for 11 years in this case. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for anyone spending £140 or so on fags plus pounds more on more baccy and booze when it’s me that’s paying for it!
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30
February 2, 2012 at 13:18 -
I have come to realise long ago the BBC has a propaganda purpose, I am 99% sure this was done intentionally in order to gain a reaction. It is far more effective to make a lefty argument badly, in order to get a reaction, than for the BBC to make a “nasty right wing argument” and get complaints.
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31
February 2, 2012 at 13:18 -
String the bastards up!
And then hang our politicians for facilitating this for their own ends.
And then each one of us should kick our own arses for allowing this to happen in the first place.
Fail, fail, fail….
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33
February 2, 2012 at 13:30 -
I love these posts, it’s like throwing chickens into a pool full of hungry crocodiles.
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34
February 2, 2012 at 15:35 -
The BBC’s crocodile pool is, I suspect, much bigger than the 1260 comments suggest – certainly the one I left before they closed it seems to have sunk without trace.
My guess is that the moderators got to 1260 and decided they’d had enough and the pub was the better option.
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35
February 2, 2012 at 14:08 -
I’m surprised that the chap made no mention of the New Deal 25 plus that he would have been put through at least four times or the Flexible New Deal since 2009 or these JobCentrePlus opportunities available now.
I’m surprised that his Job Seeker’s Agreement wasn’t amended ages ago to widen the sort of jobs he had to apply for.
One last thought, I’m surpried that his wife wasn’t called in by the Disabled Employment Advisor at the JobCentre for an interview and placement in flexible work, especially as they would appear to have a joint claim for JSA/ESA Income Support/Incapacity Benefit.Here’s the current vacancies on the JobCentrePlus website for office/admin work within 15 miles of Rhyl in North Wales. I’m sure he would qualify for a bike to get to work.
He’s probably an educational software writer in North Wales because putting the SOC code for shepherd on his JSAg would actually produce vacancies unlike in the rest of the country
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February 2, 2012 at 17:36 -
I notice also that some of the children were hers ‘from a previous relationship’ – where is the father’s contribution, and if not why not?
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February 2, 2012 at 20:17 -
I may be confused but why doesn’t the BBC just issue food debit cards to these people like this. In the US you cant use these debit cards to buy things like alcohol, tobacco and pet food. I’m not saying its foolproof but its better that giving them a check which they can use to buy anything they want including drugs.
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42
February 3, 2012 at 06:59 -
Beveridge’s plan to diminish the five great evil’s of ignorance, disease, want, squalor and idleness seems to have missed by a wide margin. Indeed it could easily be argued that this family suffers from self-imposed idleness, ignorance, want and perhaps disease and squalor. Government review of the plans put in place to achieve Beveridge’s aims are long overdue, entitlements are far to generous and idleness is rewarded.
Were I to compare this family’s situation to our family in the 1950′s they are living in luxury and abundance, we were supported by a single wage (my fathers). Cigarettes, beer or fizzy drinks for us kids, phones, TV even bus rides were remarkable because of their scarcity, we did not know we were poor because all our relations and neighbours lived in similar circumstances.
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