this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
77 points (94.3% liked)

United Kingdom

4062 readers
1 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in [email protected] or [email protected]
More serious politics should go in [email protected].

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 43 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

There are plenty of people living with disabilities who are willing and able to work from home, the problem is the lack of employers willing to accommodate them. Plenty of people without disabilities would benefit from that too.

But making meaningful reforms to improve our society isn't very Tory, so better just call disabled people lazy instead.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The Tories wouldn't know an honest day of hard work or "doing their duty" if it came and bribed them to their faces. Scumbags.

Every time one of them says or does pretty much anything, it makes me wonder how on Earth anybody votes for these soulless freaks and weirdos. Ah well, at least nobody who's put their penis in a dead pig's mouth is in charge of anything, right? That'd be fucking mental.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

There's a delusion that happens with people who are doing well, healthwise, moneywise, career wise, that what they have is possible if you just work hard. It's why people will say to cancer sufferers "Have you tried healthy eating?" or other ridiculous things, they think that those bad things happening to other people must be their own fault.

Those people, the ones that look down on the others, who think their circumstances are their fault, they don't want stuff like the NHS, or benefits, that's just rewarding stupid decisions like getting cancer, becoming homeless, or being born in a warzone.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Spot on. They confuse their privilege with merit. They think they're wealthy because they worked, not because of the advantages they are laden with.

Like Trump with his: "It has not been easy for me, it has not been easy for me. And you know I started off in Brooklyn, my father gave me a small loan of a million dollars."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Trump is the king of missing his privilege!

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“Of course there should be support for people to help them into work but ultimately there is a duty on citizens if they are able to go out to work they should. Those who can work and contribute should contribute.”

There's not a tonne superficially wrong with it phrased in these terms. I think there are plenty of disabled people who are able and willing to work from home and there should be government support to help them get such jobs. There are plenty of non-disabled people who work from home most/all the time these days also.

But I think the thing that pushes it over the edge is the unnecessary double reference to people needing to do their 'duty' and to 'contribute' - it's framing the matter in a way that presupposes disabled people are some sort of burden, whilst seeming superficially reasonable. Classic Tory dog whistle.

I'd rather go after her for that than for the reasonable suggestion that disabled people can work from home when they're able to.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yeah, well said. Though, I do think it's more than just framing--they are stating that disabled people are a social burden, if they're not working when they could be.

Whether you agree with that seems to be beside the point, which to me is that societies should seek to take care of their people. The Tory ethos (much like the Republicans in the United States) is that anyone using social programs or services is guilty of taking advantage of society unless they demonstrably prove otherwise. That's an ugly way to think, in my opinion.

Especially when the people saying it typically benefit in myriad and lucrative ways from the structure of society.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Will the british government grant them Jobs, if no employer is found then?

Ahh no, of course there is no money to finance the government offices and services for citizens turn more and more to shit.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Don't forget the training that they will need to transition in a field that has work from home, I am sure the Torys wont have and that this isn't pointless cruelty designed to appeal to their base while helping to fund yet another huge increase in the state pension.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Nope, they'll just fine them handsomely.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

Typical of tories. To assume all brits have a duty to the nation. But only the rich havea right for the government to protect them.

Basically tories feel fudalism is still how the world should work.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Lol to think I dreamt of one day migrating to the English countryside when I was little. Today you couldn't pay me to move to that shithole.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

With the way the housing market has gone in a lot of desirable countryside areas, you probably couldn't be paid enough to buy a house out there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

What's the countryside got to do with shitty governance and disability policy?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

sounds great. what exactly will you be paying me to do?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (2 children)

“Work sets you free” says the British government.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

They should drop the pretenses and rename DWP to Aktion T4. It does the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Ah yes, wage slavery sets us all free great capitalist overlords. War is peace.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (3 children)

If a job is able to be done fully remotely, a company will outsource it to somewhere like the philippines rather than pay someone UK wages.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not always. Most and more companies are discovering the problems with culture and timezone mismatches. UK work from home still has a place.

The catch is this is generally for better paying roles. The bottom of the barrel ones go abroad. Unfortunately the Tories are likely trying to force disabled people into exactly these roles. 🤬

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

"You have been reported for non-compliance in your working-from-home role as a supermarket shelf stacker. You were offered full and complete training and the opportunity to work from home and yet the Tesco Superstore to which you were assigned reports that you have stacked no shelves. You will be sanctioned - including, but not limited to, your entire benefits entitlement - for a period of not less than 60 months. Those benefits will, instead, be paid directly to the shareholders of Tesco plc.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Outsourcing has been around much longer than the recent trend for home working, but the remote outsourcing apocalypse has still yet to appear. Whenever it's attempted it turns out outsourcing many kinds of jobs is a lot harder than it seems.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

They need folks that can do the work and outsourcing has proven mostly a failure in that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They won't be happy until the sick and poor are back in the workhouses like the 19th century.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

They won’t be happy until the sick and poor are ~~back in the workhouses like the 19th century~~ dead and no longer a burden

Fixed that for you.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

They really are ghouls.After attacking desperate asylum seekers they now move on to the sick and disabled.Cruelty that would make Fred west blush.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Margaret Thatcher 2.0 appears to have been fully activated.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I thought that was May and then Truss

I'm starting to think we're just seeing beta versions rather than the final 2.0 release. Or is this more of a Norton antivirus thing where every subsequent release is less effective than the previous?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

May could have been a good Thatcher but for the lack of balls. Truss could have been a good Thatcher but for the lack of a brain.

The former, a school administrator elevated well beyond her abilities, the latter, a child with a head full of Tory rhetoric but no means to innovate or extrapolate.

In a way, we should be glad we got them and not Maggies mark 2.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Thatcher 2.0 will feature a lot more antipersonnel weapons for direct engagement with the poor.

Imagine a decaying zombie Maggie with one hand replaced with a circular-saw, the other with a gutting-hook, and one eye replaced with a lazer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

And smelling of urine and feces

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

And yet when disabled staff request home working in many organisations (including the civil service) they face a battle.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I sometimes wonder if our ministers have been replaced by soulless void creatures

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Just like the #GOP, the #Tories are hurting as many people on their way out as they possibly can. The cruelty is the point with #fascists.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


People with mobility and mental health problems will be asked to work from home or lose benefits as part of what a government minister described today as doing “their duty”.

The new policy will be set out on Wednesday as part of the autumn statement amid a drive by Rishi Sunak to make changes to the welfare system, which he described on Monday as “unsustainable”.

Hundreds of thousands of people will be told to look for work that they can do from home or face having benefits cut by £4,680 a year, under plans that were first reported by the Times.

Charities have already warned that DWP plans to tighten health-related benefits – which are provided to more than 3 million working-age adults in the UK – could cause “huge anxiety” and mean “sanctions” for disabled people.

Tony Wilson, the director of the Institute for Employment Studies, told the Guardian in September that extra support to help disabled people into work should not come with such stringent conditions.

Speaking on Monday in London about the plans to make changes to benefits, the prime minister said : “We believe in the inherent dignity of a good job.


The original article contains 580 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 66%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Speaking on Monday in London about the plans to make changes to benefits, the prime minister said : “We believe in the inherent dignity of a good job.

Ironic, given what a shit job you're doing as PM, Rishi.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's a harrowing thought, that we won't get a chance to vote this neoliberalist wankstain out for another couple of years.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Some slightly good news. Jan 25 is the latest. As they are unlikely to want an election nr xmas. Less then a year is probable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Here's hoping. I was born in '88 and remember a time when people's worth wasn't tied to their monetary value. What a crazy concept.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

1970 myself. So you missed most of it. Thatcher ideal was well and trully embeded by your time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well it sure would be a shame of this lady had some serious health issues one day and had to experience what is is like to become disabled and have your life taken away from you.

Then some asshole comes along and tells you to get to work while you can't even get out of bed most days.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

'Their duty' from this gaggle ok then

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Zwangsarbeit.