The Struggle for Truth by the most Vulnerable

All of you who read my blogs are well aware of the petition I’ve been working on with Debbie Sayers; and just in case you’ve missed it, here’s the link https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/work-pensions-committee-hold-ids-to-account-for-his-use-of-statistics-2#.At the time of writing 94,223 have signed asking for IDS to be formally held to account for the abundance of Lies, He & his juniors Ministers have repeatedly told regarding DLA and the upcoming changes.

Today we officially learn, the Work Programme is failing the UK’s most vulnerable (i); I say officially because we have known almost from the outset, this would be the case; this is based on scores of blogs, media articles and conversations on FaceBook & Twitter, that have gone on since the programmes inception. Yet, Ministers of the DWP have once again repeatedly stated the Programme is succeeding; more Lies?

Yesterday we discovered the DWP has delayed publication of the official data about how many JSA & ESA claimants have lost their benefits via the Sanctions regime; apparently there are “some significant doubts about the quality of the new regime statistics” and they have refused to say when these figures will be released. (ii) Now I have to wonder why this has happened, is it to allow Civil Servants & IDS time to ‘massage’ this data into a less damaging set of figures?

Above are only three examples, two of which have been publicly announced in the same number of days, of how one Government Department has been found to have mislead the Public, and there are many many more instances, both within & without the DWP. Take a look at Education surveys and benefit statistics: two government departments caught out in one week, if you don’t agree.

All of which have resulted in The Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) releasing a Report  “Public Trust in Government Statistics” (iii) wherein the Committee rebuked the Government for it’s misuse of statistics; in other words, stop telling Lies!

For me this strongly indicates, this government had deliberately mislead the Public on numerous occasions, often to justify their campaign on the most vulnerable in society; they’ve knowingly taken data and moulded it to fit their assertions of Scroungers, Shirkers & Malingerers.

This ongoing, intentional war on disabled, unemployed, underemployed, low paid, people, has been built on the back of Lies; Lies the public at large appear to have swallowed and accepted. This seems apparent from the much publicised  latest report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) which claims, “Fifteen per cent of the public in 1994 thought people lived in need because of laziness or lack of willpower, compared to 23% in 2010” (iv).

However it must be noted the the actual report “Public Attitudes to Poverty & Welfare 1982-2011 (v), was compiled by comparing data collected annually via the British Social Attitudes survey, carried out by NatCen Social Research (vi); which sources it’s information from approximately 3000 people a year. Not doubting the intentions of NatCen or JRF, I can’t help think  this the attitudes of 3000 is an extremely small number of people to create such a furore; or is this another attempt to bemuse the public?

As an avid social networker I’m inclined to disagree with the ‘findings’ of the reports referred to above; everyday I read blogs and articles and engage with far more than 3000 people on various sites who all like me, are campaigning against the rhetoric and Lies produced by the Government and played out by the press & media.

I couldn’t possibly name them all here but if you want more info take a look at  the WOW Campaign fighting for a full impact assessment regarding disabled people, read the  blogs of Kitty Jones, Dawn Willis, VoxPolitical, Juxtaposed & Skwalker, or if you want to get involved in the fight back try ThinkLeft on FaceBook, LeftUnity or the People’s Assembly to name but a few

What I do know is, it is in these people and the 94,223 who have signed our petition I believe, and believe in.

(i) http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/news/wk-prog-rpt/

(ii) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/may/19/benefits-unemployment

(iii) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmpubadm/77/77.pdf

(iv) http://www.jrf.org.uk/media-centre/tough-attitudes-poverty

(v)  http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/1106142/poverty%20and%20welfare.pdf

(vi) http://www.natcen.ac.uk/