Him, Daniel Blake
We watched Ken Loach’s film last night. Beautifully done but excruciatingly sad. I spent the rest of the evening feeling generally guilty- and selfish, and clueless, and uncaring. It’s something everyone should see, especially before talking about people who receive/live on benefits. This promotion of the idea of poverty as some sort of moral failing really must stop.
My Mazamet 
D’accord!
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Loach’s acceptance speech at the recent Bafta awards was elegantly pungent. In official quarters, to say the least, England has become a very nasty place. The Daily Mail brews a toxic waste of blame, fostering the notion of scroungers. This week on Radio 4 I heard a woman with cerebral palsy and acute anxiety talking about the upcoming cuts/changes in benefits for the physically afflicted. In order to apply for the new assistance she had to fill in a 56 page questionnaire which at first caused her so much anxiety she was rendered speechless, and couldn’t even explain her problems to her social worker, and so access some assistance. These changes are to inspire people to go back to work – so said the Department of Work and Poorhouses in response to a BBC journalist’s enquiry as to what they meant by the changes.
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There are always those who will abuse any system, but by and large they are a very small minority. Nevertheless, every government everywhere [except perhaps Sweden] attempts to cast all welfare recipients as ‘bludgers’. Sadly, welfare recipients will always be a ‘soft’ target whenever a government decides it would like to spend our money on something other than people.
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It sickens me to hear people blame victims like this. I grew up in the welfare system. My mum, widowed with six children and no income had no choice but to go on welfare. I’m glad I did at a time when most people weren’t yet such selfish assholes or I’d never have made it out of the system.
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And considering you turned out to be an educated, professional person who makes a positive contribution to society, it means it’s a social model that benefits all of us.
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Yes.
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