Alec Massie is a pretty mild-mannered writer. So it is a
shock to read
this:
I wonder how many poor people, far less people on welfare, Mr Shelbrooke encounters. Some, presumably. But, my, what a vile little authoritarian he is. It has evidently escaped his notice that the reason many poor people spend a disproportionate quantity of their meagre resources on gambling is that they have such limited resources in the first place. It may not be an advisable or profitable policy but it is at least an understandable one.For that matter, cigarettes and alcohol are not necessarily luxuries. They might instead be considered small pleasures that make life a little less ghastly. Especially when you lack means.I notice, mind you, that Mr Shelbrooke makes no comment on whether it is OK for middle-class mothers to spend their child benefit on gin.
It may well be
that Mr Shelbrooke has some support in these proposals. They are just the sort
of saloon bar policy – I can picture him, G+T in hand at some golf club do,
holding court with ways to make the unemployed behave properly. And it is this
image rather than the policy that causes the problem. It is the moralising,
patronage of the ruling classes to those less fortunate. We kindly provide
these indigents and unfortunates with the means to sustain themselves and they
promptly toddle off and spend it on cheap lager and superkings.
I lose count of
the times when I’ve described the circumstances of the poor and why this leads
to – almost requires – the consumption of small pleasures: booze, fags, sex and
TV are what sustains these folk in what is a crap life. But people like Mr
Shelbrooke from their blazered comfort choose instead to try and order the
choices of the poor since, in his view, they are unable to make such choices
without his help
and direction.
"When hard-working families up and down the country are forced to cut back on such non-essential, desirable, it is right that taxpayer benefits be only used for essential purposes."
This approach describes entirely the problem facing the
Conservative Party. People support benefits reform – the objective of making
working financially more attractive that a life on the dole is admirable and
overdue. But this is not about condemning the lifestyles of the poor, it’s
about the practicalities of allowing these people to live while they –
hopefully – sort their lives out. Patronising and judgemental policies such as
this “welfare card” idea (and other idiocies that include minimum pricing for
booze) just get people’s backs up.
Put simply, it isn’t the government’s job to judge other
people’s lifestyle. And when a wealthy MP does this, the ordinary person looks
up, shakes his head and mutters obscenities under his breath. If people like Mr
Shelbrooke want to get re-elected in their marginal Northern seats they’d do
well to take heed of this and start talking instead about responsibility rather
than about dictating the choices for people with the misfortune to need
benefits.
....
