BBC’s Anti-Welfare State Programmes Attacked.
Posted by Andrew Coates | Posted in BBC, Cuts, Liberal Tory Coalition, TV Shows on Unemployed, unemployment, Welfare, Welfare Reform, Welfare State, Work Programme, Workfare | Posted on 29-10-2011
Tags: Ipswich Unemployed Action, Unemployment, Welfare, Workfare
“We are outraged that the BBC is joining the propaganda war aimed at destroying the welfare state, Britain’s most civilised and civilising legacy (Last night’s TV, G2, 28 October). In the 1940s, after years of depression and slaughter, working-class people who had sacrificed so much felt entitled to a life without the constant threat of war and poverty. Family allowance, income support, unemployment and housing benefits, disability benefits, a state pension, the NHS and free education have assumed that everyone contributed and deserved to be looked after “from the cradle to the grave”.”
Selma James Global Women’s Strike
John McDonnell, MP
Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS
Bob Crow General secretary, RMT
Nina López Legal Action for Women
Kim Sparrow Single Mothers’ Self-Defence
Claire Glasman WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities)
Marie Lynam Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group
Prof Peter Beresford Chair, Shaping Our Lives
Noel Lynch Chair, London Green Party
Dave Skull Mad Pride
Johnny Void Benefit Claimants Fightback
Sam Weinstein Member of Utility Workers Union of America
Alan Wheatley Green Party Trade Union Group
Joanna Long Boycott Workfare
Anne-Marie O’Reilly London Coalition Against Poverty
More in the Guardian Saturday Here.
For the well-expressed views of one of our readers see this.
See also Left Foot Forward – here.
The BBC has also sent its well-paid staff to produce this:
Panorama Special(Documentary) Thursday, November 3rd, 2011 on BBC 1 from 8:00pm to 9:00pm
Britain on the Fiddle.
It’s estimated that twenty-two billion pounds of taxpayers’ money is effectively stolen or lost every year through fraud and error – a sizeable chunk of that is benefit fraud – money that could end up being taken out of the pockets of those in genuine need. In this Panorama Special, Richard Bilton uses undercover cameras to expose people on benefits sailing yachts and driving Bentleys. And he follows fraud investigators as they tackle the rising tide of benefits cheats using fake identities to steal millions.
