James Purnell: pound of flesh time, dole scum
I was in the park walking the dog earlier on this morning when I saw some old bloke who’d slipped and fallen in the mud. He looked quite frail and was clearly struggling to get up so I went over to help. Before I gave him my hand to pull him upright, however, I gave a him a swift, firm boot to the ribs.
Sure, he’ll be quite sore for a few days but the old bastard will think twice before he falls down again.
Which brings us to big-hearted Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and his latest act of unfettered altruism towards the poor and vulnerable.
Emergency state loans given to the poorest people in the UK could cease to be interest free, under changes being considered by ministers.
The social fund currently extends £500m a year in interest-free loans to some 1.2 million benefit claimants.
But the government says in future some loans could be run by credit unions, who it says typically charge annual rates ranging from 12.68% to 26.8%.
How’s that for a nice big dig in the ribs when you’re struggling to get on your feet? How’s that for ‘we feel your pain’? It’s empathy you could only expect from a man who went to fee-paying and public schools, and did bloody Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford before graduating to think-tanker and Blairite special adviser without touching the sides.
But wait, there’s more…
The BBC’s political correspondent Jo Coburn said the reforms were designed to ensure that interest-free loans were not offered to people who did not really need them.
Yep, only the really bloody desperate are going to be screwed. I wonder how many will decide to stay flat in the mud. Why doesn’t Purnell just cut to the chase and get himself a stovepipe hat and a ruddy great knob stick for braying passing urchins?
(Via Harpymarx)
Update 6.45pm: Well that’s got to be one of the fastest retractions of New Labour horseshit in its entire squalid history. Nice to see Purnell pushed understrapper Kitty Ussher out to cop the flak despite it being his signature on the consultation document. What a brave little soldier he is. Much braver when he’s pushing the little guy around, mind.
Posted on December 21st, 2008 at 10:40am under Eye Catching Initiatives, New Labour
Ah…I nearly entirely agree with this, but why is it a demerit that he did PPE at Oxford? I can think of a fair numbers of leftists (of various background) who did likewise.
(Take your pick.)
Purnell, Balls, Cameron, Currie, Dimbleby, Green, Hague, Hitchens, Kaufman, Kelly, Lawson, Mandelson, both Milibands, Murdoch, Roche, Sieghart, Smith (J), Ussher, Widdecombe, Willetts, Young, Young and Young.
It’s one gigantic bastard factory.
Tariq Ali, Tony Benn, Michael Foot, Dennis Potter…
Fallen heroes of a more civilised age, my son.
So, what is Purnell smoking? My bet is a fuming pipe of el primo quality crack, laced with some ego-stoking narcotic. I mean, it’s all of a piece, innit? The abolition of the 10p tax rate, the closing of post offices, the ever-more demeaning benefit qualifying assault course, and now slapping 12-27% interest on loans from the social fund. No question, Brown, Balls, Miliband, Mandelbaum, Purnell and their toad-siblings, are working day and night, and exerting every sinew to keep that money flowing from the poor to the rich. They don’t seem to care that they might get utterly torched at the next election, in which regard they closely resemble coke-sniffing money speculators and investment managers, unable to see further than the current short term benefit. Whatever it might be in this case.
Wasn’t there a Daily Mash headline that went something like – “New Labour Figures Out New Exciting Ways To Lose Votes” – which seems to be spot on.
Mmmm, Jimmy Purnell – if anyone deserved a shoeing, its him.
Are there no fucking prisons? Are there no goddamn, fucking, cocksocking workhouses? Jesus fucking Christ, have a merry fucking, fucking, fucking Christmas! God damn them all to hell!
That’s cocksucking, of course. Teach me not to pay attention to my spellcheck.
See, I look at that PPE list and there really isn’t (apart from the automatic entry into “public life”) much that seems to unite them. It’s almost as though you can get through the PPE course and not actually learn very much…
Incidentally, since I’m raising hell, philosophers are rubbish at dealing with models and that’s one of our biggest problems these days.
It seems like another kite-flying exercise, in that the regime is already distancing itself from the proposals, claiming that it was a result of a ‘poorly-drafted’ paper (what? surely not?) which Purnell had signed without having read.
Even if you believe that bollocks, it makes one wonder what else the bastard has signed ‘without having read’. Orders for the slow extermination of all whose annual income is < £10000 per annum?
One good thing, though: it’s given further collateral for calling John Hutton a crawl-arseing twat:
“But Defence Secretary John Hutton said using credit unions was “a good idea”.”
a result of a ‘poorly-drafted’ paper
Well you have to write really small on the back of a fag packet, I suppose. Things get lost in translation.
You surely don’t mean to imply that there are New New Labour apparatchiks who smoke?
When he announces the interest rate is the same as the Student Loan Company, it’s going to look like good news. This technique of announcing something very very bad to make the real announcement look good is tired – thing is, the red tops and their readers fall for it, otherwise they wouldn’t do it.
To misquote Jack Wander (Forrest Whitaker in Street Kings):
“Fuck him! Fuck Balls! Fuck Cameron! Fuck Milliband! Fuck them all! Fuck them all! They’re a dime a dozen.”
james purnell has got a christ complex,he thinks he’s the fucking messiah,
and the stupid pie faced shit expects us to believe his delusions,yeah ,the
crippled are told ‘pick up thy mat and work’,deaf made to hear,blind made
to see,and the mentally ill told to put their
problems aside and work for their right to be ill, all at his command.
well i’d like to see that smug little twat try walking on water,the deeper the better you pug faced fucking leprachaun.
A PPE and a Zanu Labour politician means that they never had any intention of a real job, but had their eyes on the trough from the age of 18. And by “leftists”, maybe you mean unrepentant Commies like Broon?
Ah, a halfwit
[...] to out-bastard each other. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears goes one step further than even Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and makes a direct comparison between poor and unemployed people and a feckless fictional chav scum [...]
[...] Purnell: pound of flesh time, dole scum http://www.chickyog.net/2008/12/21/j…ime-dole-scum/ "I was in the park walking the dog earlier on this morning when I saw some old bloke who?d [...]
It’s all over for the Labour Party.
They’re finished.
But why are the unions, which supply 90% of the Labour Party’s funding, still financially supporting said party with scumbuckets like Purnell, Flint, Hutton et al advancing policies that will pauperise the most helpless and vulnerable people the unions were created to protect?
The unions should withdraw financial support from a political party that has drifted so very far from its original purpose.
The New Labour Party is over.
Can the last person to leave please turn out the light and slam the door shut?
Goodnight all.
[...] say old boy, any chance you could be a bit more beastly to the great unwashed?’ ‘I. Obey. Master.’ Now he’s gone rogue they must be hoping Brown can dig up another total and [...]