Guest 674- Registered: 25 Jun 2008
- Posts: 3,391
It was not a Conserevative Idea, Frank fields himself(which i reported on here many moons ago!!) was asked by Blair to go away and look at the benefits system which he did, he came bck with very radical Ideas, which Blair firmly shelved, although I DIDNT agree with all of Frank's Ideas, he was on the right track, unfortunatly all major parties won;t take this issue on because they know its a vote loser, and no matter how you dress it up, thats what it is, and sadly thats the world we are in.
I'v said before on here th benefits system is costing us over £2billion, and Im aware(as im sure many others are)of people who find it easy just to sit at home.
And why not do community work? whats wrong with that? isn't that putting something back into the community? wouldn't it give people more of a sense of pride rather than just picking up social every week/month?
Wouldn't it show the local community that we don't have a lot of lazy people just picking up dosh every week?
I'm all for protecting those that have problems and need a helping hand, but this situation has got out of hand, its become to easy just to claim benefits, and now i'm hearing people say, well it aint worth working cos they dont pay enough! so they stay on the benefis system
I don't think any major party will take this issue fully, but this community service stuff is a pull in the right direction, lets hope they have the b**** to carry it out, who ever the party is.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
A year or so ago Conservatives made a policy announcement to introduce a system based on the Workfare system in America. It was widely debated at the time with Labour and the left pouring scorn in it. I had a 'conversation' on this forum about it when I was asked to explain it (by DT I think).
I suspect that Labour's focus groups reacted well to the Conservative proposals and as a result they decided they had to try to neutralise this issue. We have seen this kind of approach before, inheritance tax etc etc, in fact over a dozen proposals in Brown's draft Queens speech were based on Conservative policies/ideas.
Remember Labour have had 11 years to do this but only now, after Conservative proposals have been announced, have they adopted it. Indeed, Keith is right about Frank Field, he came up with proposals and was sidelined because Labour could not stomach it at the time. That alone proves my point that this is a matter of political convenience to them not conviction.
We have already seen the response of the left, Polly Toynbee in the Guardian today is evidence of that in one of her usual half baked articles. The Government may well have difficulty in getting these proposals through against opposition from its own left wingers.
It would be churlish indeed for the Conservatives to oppose these proposals as they mirror closely what is a Conservative policy. They are therefore right to support the Government over this and this support may well be needed against the left.
The problem, however, I suspect will be in the detail and implementation. I suspect we will get the usual bodge job and it will need to be significantly amended and toughened up when the Conservatives get into power. I am sure Brown will decide to water it down to mollify his left wing so he does not have to count on Conservative support to get it through. It is this that makes Frank Field so cynical over whether it will 'see the light of day'. Again there is precedence for this.