Wednesday 29th October 2014

[rebeccariots2]

O eck - I spoke too soon. It looks as though he may have been got to

PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL was thrown into chaos on Wednesday (Oct 29) when the controversial settlement agreement with Chief Executive Bryn Parry-Jones was ruled UNLAWFUL by the Wales Audit Office. Focussing on the proposal to compensate Mr Parry-Jones for loss of pay supplements he had previously deemed unlawful, Anthony Barnett from the Wales Audit Office, issued what he described as an “unprecedented” note debarring the Council from proceeding with the payment.

However, in a surprising twist, the Council says it has now reached agreement with the Wales Audit Office and the settlement agreement will proceed as scheduled.

A Council spokesperson told The Pembrokeshire Herald that the Council and its legal advisors have been in discussion with the Wales Audit Office since BEFORE the meeting of Council on 16th October and have “reached a consensus with the Auditor”....
http://pembrokeshire-herald.com/wales-a ... bryns-330k

[PorFavor]

Goodnight.

[rebeccariots2]

Goodnight.

Night PF.

[rebeccariots2]

I'll shut up soon - but while I'm still squawking. I love the style of this Pembrokeshire councillor's blog. It's down to him (Jacob Williams) and another equally bumptious and whistleblowing councillor, Mike Stoddard - and the arrival of a really good - no outstanding- new paper / online news outlet in Pembrokeshire - the Pembrokeshire Herald that the shenanigans have been well and truly exposed and reported on.

... Look at the Pembrokeshire Alliance – did Messrs Kilmister, Nutting and Stock tell the people who voted them in that there was a chance they would ditch their badges at the door and form a new political group? What of the talked about Brian Hall splinter group – anybody tell their people they wanted to be in Bri’s gang?

Are we now getting to the point where on nomination papers for candidates instead of putting down Labour, independent, Tory etc they instead just jot down “I’ll let you know once I’m in!”?

Do we really want a council built on quicksand where heads are turned so fast by the promise of an SRA that many Cllrs have to wear neck braces? I hate to coin a phrase from Robocop Rob here but what we actually need are candidates with backbones…
http://jacobwilliams.com/6915/other-peoples-money/

[TechnicalEphemera]

BBC refuses to include Green party in general election TV leader debates
Furious Greens say BBC is a ‘brake on democratic change … contributing to the buildup of disillusionment with UK politics’
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... l-election

Ian Dunt @IanDunt · 14m 14 minutes ago
"@JonathanHaynes: BBC refuses to include Greens in TV debates http://bit.ly/1rSLZzA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; " <incredibly conservative and misguided statement

Not a good move.

I beg to differ, but then I am pretty partisan and entirely focused on stopping the Tories.

[TechnicalEphemera]

Oddly the bulletin that niche radio station Planet Rock laughingly calls news had a single item - an entire quote from Ed Miliband at PMQS nailing Cameron to the wall on immigration.

Very strange as they normally just read government press releases.

[rebeccariots2]

BBC refuses to include Green party in general election TV leader debates
Furious Greens say BBC is a ‘brake on democratic change … contributing to the buildup of disillusionment with UK politics’
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... l-election

Ian Dunt @IanDunt · 14m 14 minutes ago
"@JonathanHaynes: BBC refuses to include Greens in TV debates http://bit.ly/1rSLZzA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; " <incredibly conservative and misguided statement

Not a good move.

I beg to differ, but then I am pretty partisan and entirely focused on stopping the Tories.

I share the latter motive - but also think it will do no harm at all for those watching to see a wider spectrum of left to right. If nothing else - and I mean no disrespect to Greens here - it will make it very hard for Cameron to paint Ed as 'Red Ed' and Labour's policies as off the Richter scale of left wingedness. But beyond that - in the interests of fairness and balance the Greens have certainly earned their place in the debates, at least as much as, if not more than, UKIP.

[rebeccariots2]

Chris Bryant @ChrisBryantMP · 7h 7 hours ago
Cameron swore in 2010 that if he didn't cut net migration to tens of thousands Britain should vote him out in 2015. Over to you, Britain...

Well it's not the reason I'd choose ... but there are plenty of others.

[ephemerid]

Thanks, Ephemerid.

I'll consider all that. One point I can see straight away that I didn't appreciate was how quickly the test kicked in. 13 weeks seems far too early.

The other point about the WCA is the difference at the decision-making stage from the PCA.

When a doctor reported on the PCA, he would also write a prognosis and/or recommend a review. If someone has renal failure and are dependent on dialysis, they may or may not be capable of work, or they may be on the transplant list and could make a full recovery.
No tick-box test can deal with that - but a qualified doctor can make a judgement based on clinical presentation, current and future treatment, functional disability, risk, and will have some knowledge on what is likely to happen.
If he recommended permanent support, DWP would accept it; if he suggested a review in a year's time (someone with a treatable cancer, say, or someone doing well with therapy after a stroke) the DWP would set that up at the appropriate time. It was actually quite rare for doctors to let people off easily - the test was pretty tough.

The WCA is very different - even if it worked according to plan (which it never has), the person who conducts the test does not have access to the medical history, the medical evidence, or the form the claimant completes. They conduct the test using the LIMA algorithm given (Logic Integrated Medical Assessment) and every question is the same for every claimant.
The questions are drawn up with the express purpose of finding out what people can do, not what they say they can't - so you could be the person on dialysis for 4 sessions a week, with immuno-suppression and all manner of other symptoms, but if you can do the physical jerks on demand on the day of the test you will not get any points at all. You're fit for work.
But - the examiner can say on their report that the person will not recover and they are not capable of work in the longer term, but the DWP decision-maker can override this (with no medical knowledge) and put that person in a different category; they can also set the system to recall a person within a specified period of time.

I've got COPD which has caused mild congestive cardiac failure; I am also immuno-suppressed; I've also got spinal stenosis, osteo-arthritis, and a neuroma in keloid scarring following a hospital-acquired infection; I take 9 separate medications at night and 5 in the morning, with 3 others on an ad-hoc basis.
I can do all the things that LIMA tests - to varying degrees depending on how the symptoms are. But I can't do them all the time.
Kate Green would consider that a disability - it isn't. It's chronic illness. Illness which gives rise to debilitation and reduced function, but Green would call me a disabled person.
If I had paralysed legs, that would be a disability - but if I was otherwise fit and well (think Tanni Grey-Thompson) I would need a bit of help to get back to work and I would need that to give me a fighting chance with non-disabled people.
But I am not fit and well - and no employer would even consider me as a potential employee once he saw my records.

This distinction is important, because as time goes on and people a) live longer with health problems and b) can't retire so early, there will be progressively more people who cannot work (or have no realistic chance of doing so) who will need out-of-work benefits.

I have some ideas about how social security could and should be reformed - but when people like Green keep referring to people like me as disabled people who need help to work when we are actually poorly people who really don't, I have no faith in anything else she has to say if she can get that so wrong.

[TechnicalEphemera]

Thanks, Ephemerid.

I'll consider all that. One point I can see straight away that I didn't appreciate was how quickly the test kicked in. 13 weeks seems far too early.

The other point about the WCA is the difference at the decision-making stage from the PCA.

When a doctor reported on the PCA, he would also write a prognosis and/or recommend a review. If someone has renal failure and are dependent on dialysis, they may or may not be capable of work, or they may be on the transplant list and could make a full recovery.
No tick-box test can deal with that - but a qualified doctor can make a judgement based on clinical presentation, current and future treatment, functional disability, risk, and will have some knowledge on what is likely to happen.
If he recommended permanent support, DWP would accept it; if he suggested a review in a year's time (someone with a treatable cancer, say, or someone doing well with therapy after a stroke) the DWP would set that up at the appropriate time. It was actually quite rare for doctors to let people off easily - the test was pretty tough.

The WCA is very different - even if it worked according to plan (which it never has), the person who conducts the test does not have access to the medical history, the medical evidence, or the form the claimant completes. They conduct the test using the LIMA algorithm given (Logic Integrated Medical Assessment) and every question is the same for every claimant.
The questions are drawn up with the express purpose of finding out what people can do, not what they say they can't - so you could be the person on dialysis for 4 sessions a week, with immuno-suppression and all manner of other symptoms, but if you can do the physical jerks on demand on the day of the test you will not get any points at all. You're fit for work.
But - the examiner can say on their report that the person will not recover and they are not capable of work in the longer term, but the DWP decision-maker can override this (with no medical knowledge) and put that person in a different category; they can also set the system to recall a person within a specified period of time.

I've got COPD which has caused mild congestive cardiac failure; I am also immuno-suppressed; I've also got spinal stenosis, osteo-arthritis, and a neuroma in keloid scarring following a hospital-acquired infection; I take 9 separate medications at night and 5 in the morning, with 3 others on an ad-hoc basis.
I can do all the things that LIMA tests - to varying degrees depending on how the symptoms are. But I can't do them all the time.
Kate Green would consider that a disability - it isn't. It's chronic illness. Illness which gives rise to debilitation and reduced function, but Green would call me a disabled person.
If I had paralysed legs, that would be a disability - but if I was otherwise fit and well (think Tanni Grey-Thompson) I would need a bit of help to get back to work and I would need that to give me a fighting chance with non-disabled people.
But I am not fit and well - and no employer would even consider me as a potential employee once he saw my records.

This distinction is important, because as time goes on and people a) live longer with health problems and b) can't retire so early, there will be progressively more people who cannot work (or have no realistic chance of doing so) who will need out-of-work benefits.

I have some ideas about how social security could and should be reformed - but when people like Green keep referring to people like me as disabled people who need help to work when we are actually poorly people who really don't, I have no faith in anything else she has to say if she can get that so wrong.

Given your constant high quality output on these issues, and given your expertise and in depth knowledge have you considered writing to her pointing out the errors in her analysis?

I suggest you point out your substantial on-line profile on these issues when you do so.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I don't see any clear criteria either way on the Greens.

a) Having a certain number of MP?
b) Certain level of support in polls/ previous elections?
c) Standing in a certain number of seats?

A combination of these is perfectly reasonable. But apart from the last (which the Natural Law Party could probably have managed at a push) are the answers

a) 1
b) 6.91% in low turnout EU elections

particularly overwhelming?

[TechnicalEphemera]

I don't see any clear criteria either way on the Greens.

a) Having a certain number of MP?
b) Certain level of support in polls/ previous elections?
c) Standing in a certain number of seats?

A combination of these is perfectly reasonable. But apart from the last (which the Natural Law Party could probably have managed at a push) are the answers

a) 1
b) 6.91% in low turnout EU elections

particularly overwhelming?

Quite, which is presumably why the BBC feels it can exclude them. If they had scored better in the EU elections, maybe 12-15% they would have to be in.

[rebeccariots2]

Frances Ryan @frances__ryan · 8h 8 hours ago
This is a company with a "chilling" record of incompetence, discrimination, and alleged fraud. http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2014/1 ... from-atos/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; … Atos 2, then?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think they have a point that they'd widen the range of political views, and that's a positive reason to include them. But even so, how do you weight that against the less than overwhelming support?

I think Labour ought to be reasonably confident in dealing with them. I mean it should be fairly easy to argue that in practice a government is far more constrained than the Greens think.

[seeingclearly]

So the DWP is letting go of several thousand job centre workers by that magic date June 2015, and while moats in London are garish and lucratively dressed in jingoistic red Cameron's pledges to disabled veterans have just gone 'pfuuutttt'.

Surely PCS should be encouraging it's members to come forward and give a true account and surely the great British public should make spirited and visible outcry about 'our lads'?

Or am I expecting too much.

I thought someone might have posted the fetching pic of Ed in his feminist t-shirt. In my u-bend of the Internet he's just taken a pasting for hypocrisy on Palestine, and what seems like a thousand other things, Labour too. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It seems like nearly everyone has developed a bizarre form of dementia, with clear memories of murdochia, and a total blank on reality.

Of course, the Greens are going to win the election outright, because we can't allow the kippers in.

I couldn't see a smiley for face palm and I can't catch the popcorn eater.

That's without the news that TTIP and TPP are to be merged, and NZ activists will be starting to demonstrate on the 8th. Closer to home the Hungarians already are......

Starting to wonder if this election will take place.

[rebeccariots2]

So the DWP is letting go of several thousand job centre workers by that magic date June 2015, and while moats in London are garish and lucratively dressed in jingoistic red Cameron's pledges to disabled veterans have just gone 'pfuuutttt'.

Surely PCS should be encouraging it's members to come forward and give a true account and surely the great British public should make spirited and visible outcry about 'our lads'?

Or am I expecting too much.

I thought someone might have posted the fetching pic of Ed in his feminist t-shirt. In my u-bend of the Internet he's just taken a pasting for hypocrisy on Palestine, and what seems like a thousand other things, Labour too. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It seems like nearly everyone has developed a bizarre form of dementia, with clear memories of murdochia, and a total blank on reality.

Of course, the Greens are going to win the election outright, because we can't allow the kippers in.

I couldn't see a smiley for face palm and I can't catch the popcorn eater.

That's without the news that TTIP and TPP are to be merged, and NZ activists will be starting to demonstrate on the 8th. Closer to home the Hungarians already are......

Starting to wonder if this election will take place.

Are you alright seeingclearly? Although I'm not sure what I'm laughing about - it's all demented, if I have caught your drift properly ...

[rebeccariots2]

State pension is NOT a benefit but a right, says minister in swipe at Labour plan to include it in welfare cap
Steve Webb said pensioners were driven 'up the wall' by comparison
Claimed it was 'shocking' Labour considered including in future welfare cap
He said the pension was a 'right' earned through national insurance
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ister.html

Flabbergasting. Not sure what else I can say about this ...

[letsskiptotheleft]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... re-new-pcc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Love to stay awake for this, love an election night, sadly not for this crock of shit though. Predict a 7% turnout, and that may be pushing it?

[TechnicalEphemera]

State pension is NOT a benefit but a right, says minister in swipe at Labour plan to include it in welfare cap
Steve Webb said pensioners were driven 'up the wall' by comparison
Claimed it was 'shocking' Labour considered including in future welfare cap
He said the pension was a 'right' earned through national insurance
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ister.html

Flabbergasting. Not sure what else I can say about this ...

Not sure what his point is, Pensions are a huge proportion of state benefit spending.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I can do all the things that LIMA tests - to varying degrees depending on how the symptoms are. But I can't do them all the time.
Kate Green would consider that a disability - it isn't. It's chronic illness. Illness which gives rise to debilitation and reduced function, but Green would call me a disabled person.
If I had paralysed legs, that would be a disability - but if I was otherwise fit and well (think Tanni Grey-Thompson) I would need a bit of help to get back to work and I would need that to give me a fighting chance with non-disabled people.
But I am not fit and well - and no employer would even consider me as a potential employee once he saw my records.

That seems similar (in principle anyway) to a relative of mine with Crohn's and difficult to hard to define mental illness. She isn't often fit to work.

I don't think, beyond getting paid promptly and in the correct account, that she's had problems with out of work benefits though, even under the existing shambles. But I suppose that might be because she hasn't been tested yet.

[Tubby Isaacs]

State pension is NOT a benefit but a right, says minister in swipe at Labour plan to include it in welfare cap
Steve Webb said pensioners were driven 'up the wall' by comparison
Claimed it was 'shocking' Labour considered including in future welfare cap
He said the pension was a 'right' earned through national insurance
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ister.html

Flabbergasting. Not sure what else I can say about this ...

I'd have said JSA was a right if you were meeting the conditions for it. And indeed ESA.

And they haven't paid for what they'll get back in most cases. They paid for what the previous pensioners received.

Where's the link to Labour considering this heresy?

[rebeccariots2]

State pension is NOT a benefit but a right, says minister in swipe at Labour plan to include it in welfare cap
Steve Webb said pensioners were driven 'up the wall' by comparison
Claimed it was 'shocking' Labour considered including in future welfare cap
He said the pension was a 'right' earned through national insurance
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ister.html

Flabbergasting. Not sure what else I can say about this ...

Not sure what his point is, Pensions are a huge proportion of state benefit spending.

For me it's the hypocrisy of criticising Labour for their supposed use of pensions in the benefit label ... when the coalition government has taken just about every opportunity to shout about welfare spending being outrageous and rising all the time whilst they were using the overall 'welfare' spend figures which are - yes, you and he are quite right, proportionately much more for pensioners than the other groups - and not breathing a word about that qualifier.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah, this story is well over a year old.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ending-cap" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are lots of people with very good final salary pensions getting state pensions. I can certainly see a case for targeting pensions more effectively, and arguments against it as well.

[mikems]

Should we not be seeing the BBC's Green party stance in light of Empty's already mentioned veto i.e. if there is no Green there will be no debate. So no debate, just as the tories wanted. Not suggesting BBC/Tory collusion, but the next thing will be Dave emptily rattling on about his prinicples not allowing him to take part without the Greens.

[rebeccariots2]

Should we not be seeing the BBC's Green party stance in light of Empty's already mentioned veto i.e. if there is no Green there will be no debate. So no debate, just as the tories wanted. Not suggesting BBC/Tory collusion, but the next thing will be Dave emptily rattling on about his prinicples not allowing him to take part without the Greens.

Well we have to have the Greens included then. We can't have Dave wriggling off the hook as easily as that.

[seeingclearly]

Frances Ryan @frances__ryan · 8h 8 hours ago
This is a company with a "chilling" record of incompetence, discrimination, and alleged fraud. http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2014/1 ... from-atos/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; … Atos 2, then?

Maximus. Intruding in your life in sickness and in health......
At home and at work, coming to you for a cool half billion, from June 2015.

Is this election going to take place?

[HindleA]

FWIW
The reason you cannot get Carer's Allowance when you are a pensioner is because they are both replacement income benefits.

[seeingclearly]

So the DWP is letting go of several thousand job centre workers by that magic date June 2015, and while moats in London are garish and lucratively dressed in jingoistic red Cameron's pledges to disabled veterans have just gone 'pfuuutttt'.

Surely PCS should be encouraging it's members to come forward and give a true account and surely the great British public should make spirited and visible outcry about 'our lads'?

Or am I expecting too much.

I thought someone might have posted the fetching pic of Ed in his feminist t-shirt. In my u-bend of the Internet he's just taken a pasting for hypocrisy on Palestine, and what seems like a thousand other things, Labour too. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. It seems like nearly everyone has developed a bizarre form of dementia, with clear memories of murdochia, and a total blank on reality.

Of course, the Greens are going to win the election outright, because we can't allow the kippers in.

I couldn't see a smiley for face palm and I can't catch the popcorn eater.

That's without the news that TTIP and TPP are to be merged, and NZ activists will be starting to demonstrate on the 8th. Closer to home the Hungarians already are......

Starting to wonder if this election will take place.

Are you alright seeingclearly? Although I'm not sure what I'm laughing about - it's all demented, if I have caught your drift properly ..
.

References such as the 3600 JC workers who will be voluntarily pushed out of work by june next year and the promises made and broken to ex-servicemen by Cameron are of course true, so is the stuff on TTIP,TPP and huge demos, oddly. Eds pic was probably the best ever of a British party leader, and that leaves the rest!


It's all so mindbogglingly doolally out there. From every point of view.

If they carry on what's going to be left, it's like 'WinnerTakesAll' . It doesn't look like Dave and co are going to want to go, so with a bit of mirth and a fair bit of fear, I suppose I'm saying our democracy has lost the plot badly enough to ask some 'what if' questions.

I keep remembering Gordon and the accusations that were made of him as he awaited the outcome of the last elections bargaining, and thinking,every accusation they made against Labour then they have gone on to do a hundredfold, the debate on it all is utterly incoherent among voters, I'm at the point where I'm wondering where it's all going. It really is getting to be spectator sport.

On top of it all I can't seem to disable a capricious and malicious autocorrect.

[TechnicalEphemera]

Should we not be seeing the BBC's Green party stance in light of Empty's already mentioned veto i.e. if there is no Green there will be no debate. So no debate, just as the tories wanted. Not suggesting BBC/Tory collusion, but the next thing will be Dave emptily rattling on about his prinicples not allowing him to take part without the Greens.

Well we have to have the Greens included then. We can't have Dave wriggling off the hook as easily as that.

Dave won't get away with that, and he knows it.

[HindleA]

"Are critics of Benefits Street Censoring the truth?"

http://mediapovertywelfare.wordpress.co ... shildrick/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[seeingclearly]

Was Cameron's policy on withdrawing funding for migrant sea rescues informed by this? Im not the originator of the question, but remember this well. It was only when I saw the link that I realised why it felt so familiar. I think we must all have had a moment of déjà vu over his pronouncements, there's been mere than a few begged borrowed or stolen moments in his time.


http://www.theguardian.com/politics/200 ... riffin-bnp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ErnstRemarx]

I've always liked Maureen Lipman but have gone right off her.
She will not support Labour any more because of Ed Miliband' s support for a Palestinian state. Never would have thought that of her.
http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/5798/full" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If she's jewish, as she is, then she may well have issue with Labour's stance, but to my mind it diminishes her. Statehood for oppressed people is a goal to aim for, and jewish people - better than most - should understand that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Britain Elects ‏@britainelects 4m4 minutes ago
National Opinion Poll (YouGov):
LAB - 34% (+1)
CON - 31% (-1)
UKIP - 17% (=)
GRN - 7% (+2)
LDEM - 6% (-2)

[HindleA]

Yougov has

Lab 34
Tory 31
UKIP 17
Green 7
LD 6

[HindleA]

Yougov has

Lab 34
Tory 31
UKIP 17
Green 7
LD 6

[ErnstRemarx]

O eck - I spoke too soon. It looks as though he may have been got to

PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL was thrown into chaos on Wednesday (Oct 29) when the controversial settlement agreement with Chief Executive Bryn Parry-Jones was ruled UNLAWFUL by the Wales Audit Office. Focussing on the proposal to compensate Mr Parry-Jones for loss of pay supplements he had previously deemed unlawful, Anthony Barnett from the Wales Audit Office, issued what he described as an “unprecedented” note debarring the Council from proceeding with the payment.

However, in a surprising twist, the Council says it has now reached agreement with the Wales Audit Office and the settlement agreement will proceed as scheduled.

A Council spokesperson told The Pembrokeshire Herald that the Council and its legal advisors have been in discussion with the Wales Audit Office since BEFORE the meeting of Council on 16th October and have “reached a consensus with the Auditor”....
http://pembrokeshire-herald.com/wales-a ... bryns-330k

Nice to get a third of a million payoff when you walk out of your job. Would be nice to know why it's justified in this case. I can't see that many people doing the same elsewhere - perhaps he was good at predicting the winning Lotto numbers?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yougov has

Lab 34
Tory 31
UKIP 17
Green 7
LD 6

Yeah, but do we know what yougov has?

[Tubby Isaacs]

O eck - I spoke too soon. It looks as though he may have been got to

PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL was thrown into chaos on Wednesday (Oct 29) when the controversial settlement agreement with Chief Executive Bryn Parry-Jones was ruled UNLAWFUL by the Wales Audit Office. Focussing on the proposal to compensate Mr Parry-Jones for loss of pay supplements he had previously deemed unlawful, Anthony Barnett from the Wales Audit Office, issued what he described as an “unprecedented” note debarring the Council from proceeding with the payment.

However, in a surprising twist, the Council says it has now reached agreement with the Wales Audit Office and the settlement agreement will proceed as scheduled.

A Council spokesperson told The Pembrokeshire Herald that the Council and its legal advisors have been in discussion with the Wales Audit Office since BEFORE the meeting of Council on 16th October and have “reached a consensus with the Auditor”....
http://pembrokeshire-herald.com/wales-a ... bryns-330k

Nice to get a third of a million payoff when you walk out of your job. Would be nice to know why it's justified in this case. I can't see that many people doing the same elsewhere - perhaps he was good at predicting the winning Lotto numbers?

Contract?

[RogerOThornhill]

Whoops! DWP caught out posting fake tweets

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2014/10/2 ... ke-tweets/

The tweet seems to have been deleted by a DWP Press Office that should be deeply embarrassed (but probably isn’t). The tweeter quoted above is a person who is known to this blog and who may be trusted. It did appear; the DWP did send it.

It seems clear that the intention was, as Tentacle Sixteen sarcastically denies, to put this out from a fake account, complete with fake spelling mistake, to coincide with the barrage of pro-Universal Credit propaganda currently streaming from the @dwppressoffice Twitter account like a sewage leak.

[ErnstRemarx]

"I have some ideas about how social security could and should be reformed - but when people like Green keep referring to people like me as disabled people who need help to work when we are actually poorly people who really don't, I have no faith in anything else she has to say if she can get that so wrong."

Tell us what they are. More importantly, do it as a paper (here) and get it to the Labour party (if necessarily via someone like me who may have better reach).

[HindleA]

Sorry for posting cockups the sites playing up for me.Hopefully this will posted (but only the once)

[Tubby Isaacs]

John Crace, with his wry look at PMQs.

“No,” said Miliband cleverly. “It is his party that should apologise.” Then came his killer line. “This government combines callousness with incompetence. They do not show basic humanity, saying that rescuing drowning people is a ‘pull factor’ for immigration, and they are so incompetent that they cannot deliver their basic promises.”

Cameron seemed confused by this. As were the Labour benches. Had it been a call for more immigration, less immigration or just a plea for a more humane approach to drowning immigrants? Was it a sign that a Labour government would give every illegal immigrant in Calais a bathing suit and say that all those who made it to Britain alive would be allowed to stay? After all, they would have at least demonstrated a willingness to work a 23-hour day for less than the minimum wage.

Tell you what, John. I reckon nobody was confused by silly old Ed.

Because saving people from drowning in the Med doesn't mean a quick pass into the UK.

How about it being a call for saving drowning people, and at the same time sorting out the asylum backlog?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Whoops! DWP caught out posting fake tweets

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2014/10/2 ... ke-tweets/

The tweet seems to have been deleted by a DWP Press Office that should be deeply embarrassed (but probably isn’t). The tweeter quoted above is a person who is known to this blog and who may be trusted. It did appear; the DWP did send it.

It seems clear that the intention was, as Tentacle Sixteen sarcastically denies, to put this out from a fake account, complete with fake spelling mistake, to coincide with the barrage of pro-Universal Credit propaganda currently streaming from the @dwppressoffice Twitter account like a sewage leak.

Yeah.

Any chance of disciplinary processes?

[HindleA]

Whoops! DWP caught out posting fake tweets

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2014/10/2 ... ke-tweets/

The tweet seems to have been deleted by a DWP Press Office that should be deeply embarrassed (but probably isn’t). The tweeter quoted above is a person who is known to this blog and who may be trusted. It did appear; the DWP did send it.

It seems clear that the intention was, as Tentacle Sixteen sarcastically denies, to put this out from a fake account, complete with fake spelling mistake, to coincide with the barrage of pro-Universal Credit propaganda currently streaming from the @dwppressoffice Twitter account like a sewage leak.

Yeah.

Any chance of disciplinary processes?

More here:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/dwp-accused-pl ... me-1472131" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ah so there's supposed to be a real case study?

[TechnicalEphemera]

Crace - Tosser, what people being left to drown isn't funny.

To cheer people up check out the Daniel Radcliffe rap.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicb ... ebrity-rap

And arguably even better, if you haven't seen it the Natalie Portman rap sketch for Saturday Night Live at the bottom of the article; which I find worryingly convincing.

[TechnicalEphemera]

And for the fans of baseball (Just Ed and me then) tonight is only the second time in 12 years that there is a game 7 in the World Series.

San Francisco @ Kansas City.

Which on form this season is the equivalent of a World Cup final between Sweden and Mexico.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Crace - Tosser, what people being left to drown isn't funny.

To cheer people up check out the Daniel Radcliffe rap.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicb ... ebrity-rap

And arguably even better, if you haven't seen it the Natalie Portman rap sketch for Saturday Night Live at the bottom of the article; which I find worryingly convincing.

He's tedious. Weird old Ed. No-one knew what he meant, attacking two different things!

[HindleA]

"Cuts to ESA considered"


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29821696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

"Cuts to ESA considered"


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29821696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So they aren't getting all these people into work, and are just cutting the amount to live on.

I'm shocked and stunned.