Britain became a ‘welfare state’ in 1906. Which is so long ago that the Liberal Party, who were then in government, decades before they became a political irrelevance, introduced measures like national insurance and poverty payments for the unemployed and, yes, an early form of disability benefits.

When a Labour government started the National Health Service, to be ‘free at the point of service’ (a phrase which has cursed so many proposals for improvement and modernisation) in 1948, we officially became ‘the’ nation where you were cared for’ regardless of your circumstances.

Which is possibly why boatloads of people, literally, arrive on our shores every day.

But now we have a ‘new Labour’ government (note the lower case ‘n’ in new, because Kier Starmer may be many things, most of them bad, but he’s no Tony Blair) government and they’ve decided that ‘welfare’ is probably a thing better kept in the last century.

All those millions of benefit claimants, so staunchly defended and supported by Labour all through their opposition years, have suddenly, with their ascension to government, become, according to the Chancellor, ‘a total fucking liability. Freeloading, workshy skivers, the lot of them’. (I may have improved her grammar a little). And today they’ve added the disabled to their strategy of raising funds for the army.

NATO have demanded we increase our military spend. Trump has demanded we increase our military spend. Neither have offered to pay for it, so the money has to come from the welfare budget, apparently, because of black holes, immense debt and a complete lack of the promised ‘growth’.

Why don’t we just put all the unemployed and disabled in the army??? Two birds with one stone. It’s a brilliant way to achieve two ends with no added cost. Ok, the disabled may have some physical issues dealing with marches across the Brecon Beacons in full battle gear, but they could be used in the HQ, depending on their disability, or as sandbags, in some extreme cases. You see; you just need to look at the problem from outside the box.

This government are fast becoming the most anti-social socialists since the Russian revolution.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx