Next Stop, the Workhouse

[steepholm]

So, the size of the welfare bill justifies a "crackdown"?. I thought that crackdowns were associated with crime? The word is the BBC's, but it captures the spirit of these announcements perfectly. It sounds as if the Government is confusing the unemployed - a category whose numbers it has been expanding with a zealotry unseemly in a group whose chief members have all been millionaires since birth - with benefit cheats. Perhaps they all begin to merge together when seen from a very great distance.

As many people have pointed out, those forced to do full-time, unpaid "community work" will not be in a position to look for paid work at the same time. But maybe that's the idea? As Christine Burns has noted: "A local authority street sweeper could be made redundant by the public sector cuts and then find themselves ordered to sweep the streets to keep their benefit." What a brilliant way to get the public finances back in shape!