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Thursday 7 June 2012

The Sun, the alleged scum, and the divide and rule principle.


It is with great sadness that I currently find myself in the position of being able to say I told you so.
I feel no pleasure this morning in bearing the news that the demonization of those claiming benefits has just stepped up a gear.
The loathsome Murdoch rag - The Sun - has finally taken the gloves off and started a full on campaign declaring war on benefit scroungers.
All with the full backing of 'Call me Dave'.
Only the most dense will fail to see this as divide and rule propaganda.
The article itself is one that is barely able to contain a gleeful frothing at the mouth as it denounces one after another claimant of benefits who they have decreed as outrageously parasitical.
The examples they use to bolster their point are all national hate figures plucked from previous headlines that they know inflamed people perceptions of the unemployed, and have very little, if any, relevance to the vast majority of people who rely on the state financially .

So roll up roll up and look at the prime examples of benefit scroungers that they have managed to use to enrage the dim witted.

Do you have a Muslim cleric hate figure claiming benefits?

Yes sirreee bob. Here you go with Anjem Choudary. He isn't only claiming benefits, but he's a terrorist loving fundamentalist who probably – make that allegedly - sleeps on a pillow of semtex with your name on it.
YES. YOUR NAME.
(More Islamaphobia from the Sun)

How about a woman who fraudulently claimed her own daughter had been kidnapped sparking much national hand ringing, and ultimately set herself up as hate figure numero uno when her lies and dysfunctional life was revealed in all its entirety?
You don't have one of those I suppose.

Yep. We have one of those to.
Remember Karen Mathews? Well the common denominator between her and Al Quada is that she, like Anjem, claims benefits, and worst of all is that as she is currently languishing in jail for her heinous crime and we are still supporting her.
Disgusting isn't it?

It is. I didn't realize that it was ONLY the dregs of society that claimed.

Well now you know.
Cast your mind back to when that mentalist Raoul Moat was being buried. Remember a woman called Teresa Bystram travelled 550 miles to attend his funeral to honour his passing?
Well she's on benefits to.
Don't get me started on all those families who have seven, eight and nine kids in their big houses that we pay for.
Oh okay, seeing as I brought it up. 
Here's Kevin and Sharron Bishop and their nine kids, Theresa Winters with her fourteen who are mainly in care and Abdi Nur who has seven remember them from previous headlines?
Apart from them all being featured in previous stories and having loads of kids between them they also all claim benefits.
Shocking isn't it?

Well it would be if I actually knew any unemployed fundamentalist Muslim terrorist loving clerics, a great deal of unemployed dysfunctional criminals, any unemployed individuals who would use their meagre finances to visit the graves of killers, and men and woman who have a need to emulate the Waltons, but strangely enough I don't.

Do you?

Before the knee jerks, and a reader starts to claim that they know someone in their street who is a benefit scrounger could you just think about it for a second.
Are they a cheat or just on benefits?
Tear into the cheat all you want, raise issues about the benefits system at the top of your voice until you are hoarse as it isn't perfect, but don't gloss over that this is a pile of manure from The Sun designed to paint everyone on benefits as a drain on your personal income.

These people highlighted are a minority and by focussing on them the Sun is creating a very loose foundation for those with an axe to grind, and dare I say it the less intelligent, to pile all their prejudices on.
Each of them has little to do with the lives of the very many unemployed who are actually out of work because of a lack of employment opportunities,.lack of training, poor education, shockingly poor inward investments into their communities and more.

The main body of the rant from The Sun is focussed on one young couple who many would recognize as benefit scroungers as they freely admit that they have enough to live on, and neither are particularly interested in seeking employment at the moment.
Of course there are people like that.
Who is denying that, but realistically are these people at endemic levels?
Something that draws the eye in the passage about them is a box urging the reader to shop a benefit cheat with all the details you may require to do so.
Why is it situated within the context of an article that doesn't allege any fraud?
The couple may enrage most due to their apathetic approach to becoming employed, but as far as I can tell they aren't benefit cheats, and by putting that box in the midst of it all sort of muddies the water doesn't it?
Intentionally so I would argue.
This is propaganda.

Meanwhile Daves part does simply focus on benefit cheats as opposed to the lossely termed scroungers, but if he wants to fly with the crows.....................

Strictly speaking there's nothing of balance in what the Sun are doing.
Nothing to raise the issue of static wages that are the reason why the gap between what benefits and a wage brings in is closing, rather than it being rising benefits.
Nothing to do with the global shrinkage of the workforce.
Nothing to do with the lack of investment in job creation.
Nothing to do with a dearth of skills in this country.
AND nothing mentioned about how many tens of billions we lose annually from tax evasion.

Now a newspaper leading with a major story about tax evasion would be a welcome change.
Maybe a campaign to urge the government to claw it all back would be something that I could agree with.
How about an investigative expose on the corporations and mega rich who pay a pittance in tax and their relationships with those in government?
Now that would be beneficial.
However I'll not be claiming that the writing is on the wall for that, or holding my breath in anticipation of it becoming a reality.

Something to end with.
Benefits cheats cost us all just over one billion a year and that is considered a high estimate..
Tax evasion costs us over 15 billion and that is considered a low estimate.
Do we really want to play this divide and rule game?
I don't.

9 comments:

  1. VoiceOfANation7 June 2012 at 13:58

    Anyone with half a brain knows that the problems that this country faces are down to lax immigration laws.
    Look how many of the people mentioned are none white.
    Jobs for brits is the answer.
    The Sun is the only paper to tell it like it is.
    Fuck the scrounging foreigners and send them home.

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  2. Thank you very much for clarifying that you have half a brain.
    It explains so much and your honesty in sharing that is rather refreshing.
    I suppose you feel rather smug about having half a brain when most of your peers are simply brain dead.
    It's gives you an edge doesn't it, and maybe a wee tiny hard on just thinking about it.

    Anyway I am glad that you enjoy The Sun.
    It is after all cheaper than toilet roll, and is covered in as much shit as a roll would be after a night on the vindaloo.

    Okay. A few of points put very simply to aid comprehension.
    Oh sorry. Comprehension means understanding.
    Ooops. Sorry. Understanding means knowing stuff

    There's more white people mentioned in the article than those of a darker hue.
    There's nothing to say that those who aren't white weren't born in this country so could very well be born and bred UK citizens.
    As for jobs for Brits. Some jobs would be nice wouldn't they?
    Not just for brits, but for everyone. Nice well paid jobs that would allow us to look after ourselves and our own.
    That would be lovely.

    Love the name.
    Voice of a Nation. It has a certain ring to it.
    Of course claiming to be the voice of a whole nation is a bit fuckin' nuts though.
    Then again. You very obviously are so it is apt.
    Maybe when they finally accept that racism is a mental health issue you can get a nice big DLA benefit cheque.
    Keep up on providing the evidence for your ATOS assessment mate.
    You are doing a great job of it as it is, but with a wee bit of effort you could do better.

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  3. I have just reread the post from voice of a nation and I'm starting to think it comes from random pish generator.
    It looks like five separate headlines from an EDL/BNP leaflet drop.

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  4. With comments like that it seems that The S*n has won!!
    Divide and rule, it's worked for centuries;
    It's the fault of the __________* (*fill in Irish, blacks, Poles, muslims, disabled etc., depending on your age and particular hatred).
    Well done for exposing the hatred that is fuelled by the media. I just cannot understand why people can't see through it.
    By the way, I'm my disabled wife's carer and despite her having no legs, she was put through a humiliating assessment at (couldn't give)ATOS and was told she was fit for work and our benefits stopped. Luckily we got the decision changed on appeal. But according to The S*n we're scroungers! Well we have to live on less than £400 per month - but I've worked for 30 years and I have no shame in claiming it.

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  5. People really need to wake up to what is going on, and what has always been going on.
    We need to join together and ignore their pathetic, but often successful, attempts at keeping us divided.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry for the poorly spelled, and grammatically awful, initial reply to voice of a nation.
    It's hard to concentrate and type when pissing yourself laughing.

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  7. The undeserving poor eh? Wasn't that the public and political feeling before social researchers such as Seebholm Rowntree and Charles Boothe changed this opinion with their research findings to the contrary back in the late 1800's? People with similar attitudes as The Sun; toward those on benefits should realise that they could well be hours or days away from claiming benefits themselves, as there are more job cuts to come! I am just about to graduate with honours, I have 3 children and the reality is that I will have to claim benefits until I eventually find work. The biggest misconception is that benefit claimants are all languishing on benefits with no intention of working...when the truth is that almost all of us want to work..we want to contribute and we want to prosper!

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  8. Here we are months down the line and it is getting worse.
    Cameron wants to cut red tape, but only if it frees up his friends to trample roughshod over the workers of the UK and lets them do what they damn well please.
    Thank you for the blog. Some interesting posts.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks Kevin.
    It is getting worse isn't it.
    Cost of living increases frozen, wages frozen, a rise in part time jobs that offer very little security or job protection. attacks continue on the sick, disabled and poor.
    Very depressing all things considered.

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