The government is not failing, it is succeeding

Every time I see a headline like, ‘Government is failing disabled people’ or as in the Guardian, 1 April 2017, ‘This benefit cut will make youngsters homeless. It’s another Tory failure’, I am immediately stuck by an overwhelming sense of disbelief that either the media simply doesn’t get it, which is unlikely, or this is […]

Living modest lives is the only sustainable future, so why attack them?

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,507 Saturday 30 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, In the relentless campaign against the lives of ordinary people, welfare reforms, loss of legal aid, punitive benefit sanctions and cuts, loss of employment rights, the privatisation of our NHS, housing insecurity/no more lifelong tenancies, and so on, people […]

Cameron is going to let us have an EU referendum, how exc….zzzzzzzz

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,345 Wednesday 17 February 2016. Dear Mr Cameron, I’m fascinated by the upcoming referendum on Europe and all the shenanigans that must go on as you negotiate the terms for our continued membership or our exercising the nuclear option to launch the dread Brexit. In my better […]

Flood defenses cuts, flooding and DWP sanctions to follow?

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,301 Wednesday 30 December 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, Now that you’ve taken advantage of the floods for a photo opportunity and to point at things perhaps you’d like to take the opportunity explain why flood defence spending has been cut year on year since 2010 and why […]

Austerity is just a Tory excuse to dismantle the nation for profit

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,124 Sunday 21 June 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, With up to 250,000 marching in London yesterday and some thousands in Glasgow, plus unknown numbers online helping to spread the word, austerity is an ideological choice opposed by many of the worlds leading economists. With an underwhelming majority […]

Sanctions and the human rights prohibition on torture

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,037 Monday 23 March 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, There are wide spread reports of the indiscriminate use of benefit sanctions and revelations that at the heart of the benefits system is the desire to punish benefit claimants. Despite the constant denials by the DWP the overwhelming evidence […]

Esther McVey: punish the vulnerable and call it support

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,006 Friday 20 February 2015. Dear Mr Cameron, I have been wading through the Oral evidence from Esther McVey and Chris Hayes: Benefit sanctions policy beyond the Oakley Review, HC 814 – Wednesday 4 February 2015. First off let me say that I experienced London pea soupers […]