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.