TV on Tuesday: Celebs in the Workhouse

As the Beast points out in this Excellent post, several bloggers (including myself) have considered how the continuing decimation of Social Security via the Infamous Welfare Reform Act will possibly result in Workhouses returning the Britain. Now we have another 5 years of #Tory rule – can anyone disagree?

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The past five Tuesday evenings, the Beeb has been showing the series 24 Hours in the Past. This is pretty much a reality TV show with an historical slant. Instead of being thrown into a jungle and then made to survive, or compete against each other to produce the finest cakes or dishes, each week the programme’s cast of celebrities are required to go back to a certain period in history and do some of the nastiest, dirtiest or most unpleasant work from the period. It’s like Tony Robinson’s 2004 Channel 4, The Worst Jobs in History, but with a crew of six as the unfortunate Baldricks forced to labour and grub for their living like the inhabitants of Victorian slums. Or the rookeries of 18th century London. Or whatever.

This week, however, they reach the very nadir of poverty and desperation: the workhouse. The blurb for the…

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A New Parlour Game: Obsolete Words to Describe Iain Duncan Smith and the Government

How about using #’Wancel’ or #‘Gentleman Ranker’ as new names for #IDS? WHY – find out here https://beastrabban.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/a-new-parlour-game-obsolete-words-to-describe-iain-duncan-smith-and-the-government/ MUST READ & SHARE

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Earlier today I posted up an article about an obsolete term I’d found in the Dictionary of Historical Slang, which I thought pretty accurately described the current head of the Department for Work and Pensions. This was ‘Gentleman Ranker’, which referred to ‘a broken gentleman, serving in the ranks of the army’. In other words, this was a middle or upper class man, who had lost his money. Unable to buy a commission, he was forced to serve in the ranks as an ordinary squaddie.

This indeed suits Iain Duncan Smith, as unfortunately, although he has retained his wealth and landed property, he is rumoured to have been Returned To Unit after failing to pass the officers’ exams at Sandhurst.

Since I posted it, I got this comment from Maxwell 1957. He says that there’s another obsolete term, ‘Wancel’, which also aptly describes IDS. This is 18th century slang…

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The Peoples Government ( a sort of “fantasy football” of politics)

Had to Share this – just because xxx

The lovely wibbly wobbly old lady

What would your alternative government look like?

For a bit of fun, I decided to put together my ideal cabinet and call it the peoples government, along with my reasons for choosing those individuals.

Cabinet of the Peoples Government

Portfolio	Minister
Cabinet ministers
Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Minister for the Civil Service	The Rt Hon.Glenda JacksonMP
Chancellor of the Exchequer First Secretary of State	The Rt Hon. Mike Sivier MP
Secretary of State for the Home Department	The Rt Hon. Jayne Linney  MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs	The Rt Hon. Tom Pride MP
Secretary of State for Defence	The Rt Hon. Johnny Void MP
Secretary of State for Justice Lord Chancellor	The Rt. Hon. Nick Dilnot MP
Chief Whip (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury)	Jonathan Bartley MP
Secretary of State for Education	The Rt Hon. Tristan Hunt MP
Leader…

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What NOW? #TogetherWeCan

There’s seemingly no end of blogs about WHY the Tories ended up back in Government; there also many many posts on social media discussing how disabled people are going to survive when the next round of Welfare Cuts come in; here’s my view…

At the time of writing we don’t yet know Who will be the Work & Pensions Minister, we do now that #McVey, in maybe the only good news of the election, being deselected won’t be there, and Mark Harper has gone as the Minister for disabled people but as for the others, we’ll have to wait?  What I believe is no matter WHO fills their seats (and that of #IDS of course) things will not get any better.

I was SICK of the whole Carbuncle of Welfare Reform before May 7 – now we await with trepidation the announcements of the next round of proposed £12Million of Cuts; we’ve already read of the possible taxation of disabled benefits and making it harder for sick people to claim state aid by introducing “stricter” fit-for-work tests and/or tighter limits on eligibility, what’s next remains as yet unknown.

What I am convinced of is it is time now for ALL of us affected by the discriminatory actions of the Tories, to come together and Fight Back in Unity; we must ensure that whatever campaigns, petitions, demos etc work collectively to complement each other in the Battle for Survival under a Tory Government.

I believe it is time to TALK, for disabled organisations, social media groups, local projects etc, to communicate and work collaboratively; I’m not suggesting we all have to use the same approaches or methods but…we DO have to ensure we support the campaigns of others. Imagine if every Demo was coordinated across the UK – just as we did with ATOS? We KNOW this works and this is why I’m pleading with ALL groups leaders to do this; think -TOGETHER  a petition with ELEVEN MILLION signatures could Not be Ignored?

Then consider what would happen if WE worked with all other discriminated Groups – We’d be Unstoppable

What do you think??        #TogetherWeCan