So far, edit has not been removed
Last month, a scandal broke over a leaked document that Amber Rudd had authorised the use of at least a quarter of a million pounds of public funds for disguised ‘advertorials’ in the Metro newspaper – ads that were described as ‘propaganda’ for the DWP’s hugely-criticised Universal Credit system.
Metro was also heavily criticised for accepting and running the ‘wraparound’ ads, including by the National Union of Journalists.
Disability campaigners were understandably outraged, especially as the leaked letter made much of the fact that the DWP’s ‘branding’ would be omitted to make it less obviously an ad:
The subterfuge and the Metro’s participation were roundly condemned on social media:
Earlier this week, the controversy was also added to the Metro’s Wikipedia page by an anonymous editor, to ensure that casual searchers for information on the paper are informed;
The DWP has previously come under fire for using actors claimed to be benefits claimants praising the Tories’ changes to the social security system. The identities of the individuals in the new wraparound campaign have not been disclosed.
The Metro was involved in controversy after it was paid similar sums by the Northern Irish DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) to run pro-Brexit wraparounds during the EU referendum campaign. Under Northern Irish electoral rules, the DUP did not declare the source of the ‘dark money‘. The ad was not run in Northern Ireland.
At the time of publication, no attempt appeared to have been made to remove the information from the Wikipedia page.
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The ad was condemned by the PCS, was it?
They gonna expel any member found to have cooperated/ taken part in the ads? Are they shite.
Fuck the PCS and that cowardly bastard serwotka.
Why on earth is that your first reaction? This was a media stunt. And what part of the union rule book would they have broken?
Ah, but Simon – to answer your question : God moves in mysterious ways, but is totally outclassed by Toffee in terms of the inscrutability of the revelations perceived by the true seekers after righteousness.
Now you listen here you pair of sadsack little pricks – have YOU been on the wrong end of a grossly unfair benefit sanction, carried out by a vindictive, jumped up, spotty little shit that sees your questioning their ‘authority’ as a crime punishable by starvation?
No. But I have…And so have hundreds of thousands like me. Where was the ‘solidarity’ from serwotka and the pcs? You know? Like the ‘solidarity’ they expected from me when UC rules affected their members, too?
Here’s their version of ‘solidarity’ out of the grid of ndrew lloyd, midlands pcs secretary…
http://docshare.tips/pcs-union-midlands-regional-newsline-summer-2013_58bfc6b9b6d87fc5418b529d.html
Mr Lloyd said Jobcentre workers had threatened to tear up £25 Marks and Spencer vouchers received for getting claimants off benefits as part of a DWP ‘carrot and stick’ approach.
He said: “The carrot is a small one and a number of PCS members from Smethwick were considering tearing up their vouchers in front of IDS to show their feelings over the matter.”Mr Duncan Smith’s Parliamentary office failed to respond to requests for a comment.IDS ducks visit after threat of walk outLincoln TUC “unity against racism—fight the cuts not each other” demonstration 8th JuneAfter Woolwich we will not be dividedWomen chainmakers festival
ALMOST THREATENED TO TEAR UP THEIR £25 M&S VOUCHERS….YES FOLKS – THAT’S WHAT THEY NEARLY DID AT THE PCS…
Makes you wonder how many poor bastards had their pittance of a livelihood snatched away from them so dwp/pcs member could get not just any old pudding…but m&s pudding..
So, until you’ve been on the end of a sanction that saw your ‘work coach’ receive a fucking easter egg for forcing you into abject penury- do shut the fuck up.
I suppose we shouldn’t take the way toffee conducts himself here as necessarily representative of how he would conduct himself at jobcentre interviews.
Maybe it’s only here that he feels the need to parade his ill-temper by writing so loudly and coarsely.
And even if not, why should someone of his quality have to treat some jumped up little clerk with the same consideration he demands of said clerk for himself?
I think he has every right to be angry – don’t they know who he is?
Yeah, right.
I deserved my lifeline cut off because the dwp shut the closest JCP to me without so much as a fucking murmur from illeagle or the pcs; and subsequently the bus I had to catch was held up at a raised bridge which made me six minutes late.
I deserved to have some spotty little bastard, from almost out of nursery school pontificating to me about life’s do’s & dont’s, then stop my mens of feeding meself…Because I’m the Toffee and I might raise my voice and become coararse and vulgar…..with valid fucking reason, mind.
Nevermind the hundreds of thousands of others who’ve had to endure the same or worse than me…They’ve no right to be angry neither, have they?
No, that’s their lot in life, isn’t it?
WELL, ISN’T IT?
What a bunch of fucking useless invertebrate specimens you’ve proved yourselves to be.
May a worse fate befall you and yours.
OK Toffee. I agree that your rage at your treatment is justified. I also agree that it is typical of the persecution meted out to many by the benefits system under the Tories.
But ranting at the clerk behind the desk is beside the point -systems like this have always recruited operatives from the same victim group. So what are those individuals going to do – even if they are union members – after you’ve ranted at them?
Again, just ranting at characters on this blog may be a release – but it gains nothing in terms of changing anything. At best, it just makes you the object of piss-taking, after which people just move on. You write stuff such as :
“What a bunch of fucking useless invertebrate specimens you’ve proved yourselves to be.
May a worse fate befall you and yours.”
… which is unlikely to evoke solidarity, empathy or illumination about what lies behind the ranting.
There’s genuine opposition around without creating some more out of simple disagreement.
‘Ere mcniven…
Let’s see your sarcasm applied to all these poor sods.
Go on, have yerself a good ol’ middle-class sneer at them all. It’s what your likes do best. (Cue the other bromidic bollockite known as rh to enthral us all once again with his social commentary on class, the predictable ignoranus [sic] )
http://falseeconomy.org.uk/blog/a-list-of-completely-ridiculous-benefit-sanctions-people-have-experienced
C’mon lad, tell us all how these people really ought to know their place, too??
Not doing so will make serwotka look positively lion-hearted
“… and my phone died so I couldn’t video the fact of the bridge making me late and the bus driver bastard wouldn’t listen when I asked him for a phone number so the bus company could confirm it and my pen wouldn’t work when I tried to write down the driver’s badge number and why should I have to go to all that trouble anyway? I’m THE toffee.”
I’ve been on benefits myself and never had them stopped for any reason – never had a cross word with anyone at any JC – because I was always careful not to give them an excuse when thatcher was giving out gold stars to the pen-pushers for getting people signed off “for cause” or getting them to sign up for sickness benefit instead to get them off the JC books – which later enabled the MSM to call them scroungers and make the working poor hate the wrong people ALL OVER AGAIN.
If I had been sanctioned I’d have studied their rules and challenged them politely on those. Citizens Advice are very helpful but only if you present with the right attitude – as with most people you want to do something for you.
Pretty sure it was you mentioned flies and honey recently.
Good advice that you apparently prefer to give rather than take.
rh
Just don’t bother. You have no empathy with anyone outside your social strata and policies. Time & again your words have proved so. Everyone familiar with your guff will know it to be the case.
I openly dislike you. Intensely so. I make no secret of it. I make no secret that as long as you (And your colleagues) continue to bait people I will not let your sneering and condescending tone pass without making sure you get at least the same with interest.
Difference is, I have no fear about being direct when I’m doing so. I’ll call a c**t an rh. don’t like it? Oh, that’s just your hard shit, lad.
But you continue to do so – especially going out of your ways to getting a rise outta me. Says more about you than me when you cry foul after my reaction following you & your mates’ deliberate provocation of me.
But you do it because you know none of you can argue the point(s) without showing yourselves up as non-socialist while claiming to be socialist.
You’re not having it both ways, despite your protestations and use of ‘westminsterspeak’ like ‘virtue signalling’ and other such bollocks.
I’ve been on this site a lot longer than clowns like you….I’m still here now – they’re not. I’m going nowhere, so either del with it, or continue with your shithouse ways and be called out on them.
mcniven
‘I’ve been on benefits meself and never gave them a reason; never had a cross word….blah blah blah’
And yet you make up all sorts of arguments why you think I should’ve had my dole stopped?
No mention of the others from that link I provided though. Your logic suggests you think they all deserved their dole stopped or they’d have given a good enough reason, too.
Or perhaps it’s cos they’re not the Toffee?
You’re what’s commonly known as a shithouse, lad. No wonder you never had your dole stopped for something as trivial, just like hundreds of thousands of other people.
Good little boy, is mcniven. wouldn’t surpriseme if you grssed some poor sod up for doing an hour’s graft somewhere, just to try & make ends meet, you’re that type of snake.
Still, even the ‘kapos’ got theirs once the camps had been liberated…
oh and by the way, when I told them the bridge was up – know what the reply was?
”Should’ve got an earlier bus…”
Even though the buses are every 10 mins and the bridge was up for around 15.
But in all honesty it DIDN’T happen…Not to me – But it DID to a family member….Although I s’pose they deserved it for being related to me, eh, mac?
McNiven:
“I’ve been on benefits myself and never had them stopped for any reason – never had a cross word with anyone at any JC – because I was always careful not to give them an excuse”
You evidently haven’t been anywhere near a Jobcentre in the last 10 years or you would know you don’t have to give them a reason to sanction you. They’ll trump the “reason” up for you for free! They’re all heart.
Citizens’ Advice can’t help much these days. Law changes have seen to that. Legal Aid is virtually a thing of the past, in case you hadn’t heard.
Toffee,
Your anger is entirely justified towards patronising pricks who claim to be socialist, but have next to no life experience in common with most socialists, or with anyone at the sharp end of austerity or the hostile environment of the 21st Century Jobcentre.
Because they don’t see much of that sort of thing from their ivory towers, yet still feel the (guilty) need to fake that they do. Their support for Remain is all about preserving their standard of living in full knowledge that it comes at the expense of the millions who would quite like one.
Sanctimonious scumbags!
But you’re one of the four mouthketeers – what happened to one for all and all for one, O Great Defender of the Downtrodden?
If it’s hunger weakening you I can pass the hat around.
If it’s just that your insults taste as stale to you as they do to everybody else I can probably help you out there too.
No charge, just wash my Roller a couple of times a week.
You get everything else wrong, why wouldn’t you believe I drive a Roller instead of my old banger?
timmiekins, no I haven’t been in a JC for more than ten years so I couldn’t possibly imagine today’s level of oppression.
And I’m sure you’re right that hunger & poverty feel different now to when I was poor and hungry.
Maybe you’re both right – maybe shouting the odds at the people behind the bulletproof glass (?) with the plod on speed-dial IS the best way to deal with them – how could I possibly know anything about that?
And Stuffy, I didn’t say you should have had your dole stopped – nobody should – I just said what everyone else was thinking – that you’re an objectionable, mouthy twat here and the odds are you’re the same everyfuckingwhere you go.
“I’ve been on this site a lot longer than clowns like you….I’m still here now – they’re not. I’m going nowhere, so either del with it, or continue with your shithouse ways”
OK, fair enough, Toffee.
You choose to be a self-pitying, incoherent and rambling rantmobile who fantasises about people who you have created in your mind. It’s your choice, and if this is therapy, who am I to argue? Your choice. Your problem.
But being at the shit end of the stick doesn’t make you a hero in the class war.
And being self-described ‘working class’ doesn’t make you a socialist or a coherent advocate for others who know about wading in shit. That requires more than a constant whine.
And none of it makes you very perceptive in the incontinent stream of blather you produce. You are ineed ‘still here’ – but only to vent your spleen to no useful end.
Surprise us. Prove me wrong. Your choice.
McNiven
I never said hunger and poverty feel different now – it’s the way you are treated and spoken to which is so different and shocking and the level of undisguised malice many of the job “coaches” display towards people they are meant to be helping. You’d need to have experienced it to believe it. Very scary.
And I never raised my voice to them, either. It’s not difficult to put them in their place firmly but politely if you know your rights. They’re not very bright, on the whole.
But your words are very revealing. The empathy and compassion just pours out of you, doesn’t it?
UC is part of the solution but
Never under the cheap and nasty Tory party
That is because they dont believe in the safety net
Problem is the hostile environment always ends up costing twice as much, hence national debt now over £2 Trillion
Posh fuckwits
The government has created a ‘hostile environment’ for the unemployed.
Unemployment Benefit became ‘Jobseeker’s Allowance despite the fact that people paid in when they had a job.
‘We must be fair to taxpayers’ as if the unemployed did not pay tax when they had a job or do not still pay taxes. Toothpaste, toilet paper and many food items are subject to VAT.
And. of course, Rachel Reeves said Labour should not represent the unemployed.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rachel-reeves-says-labour-does-not-want-to-represent-people-out-of-work-10114614.html
Tony, it certainly is a hostile environment for the unemployed but the Tories get away with it because enough working class people trust the MSM.
When Tories win elections it’s because more than half of ordinary people have been conned into believing:
1. that the unemployed cause unemployment.
2. that immigrants – not Tory austerity and greedy employers – cause low wages, housing and hospital waiting lists and poor schools.
3. that “Labour overspending” caused a Worldwide banking crash.
4. that Brexit means Brexit.
5. that Theresa May is strong and stable.
6. that only the Tories can be trusted with the economy.
7. that Boris Johnson is a good bloke.
8. that Jeremy Corbyn and Labour are antisemitic.
9. that politicians are all the same.
10. that newspapers might be biased but the BBC reports the news honestly and without fear or favour.
Oh yeah:
11. that Rory Stewart’s completely different to the rest of the Nasty Party… hardly a Tory at all, really.
Good summary David. Though I hope that despite the media’s best efforts the antisemitism smears aren’t gaining much traction.
” the Tories get away with it because enough working class people trust the MSM.”
Contrary to myth, more working class voters actually opted for the Tories than opted for Labour in 2017. The sentimental narrative of class allegiances has no basis in reality, and is plainly a stupidly fictional way of framing political discussion.
Corbyn actually succeeded because of middle class and Remain votes in actuality.
Time to get real.
Timmiekins, you’re correct – I don’t do hugs, cuddles or shoulders to cry on.
What I have provided to family, friends, neighbours and some others in trouble – braggarts and internet tough guys excepted – and in real trouble, not just some transient and easily-reversible sanction – has been advice and assistance in communicating with and otherwise persuading ‘the authorities’ to reconsider the occasional decision.
I’ve been lucky enough to recover some sums some people thought lost, and gained others an extra ‘last chance’ or two they’d been told to forget.
People tend to overcome their pride enough to ask for favours when freedom or penury are at stake.
Some people are just inarticulate in the face of authority and fall into sullen silence, meek acceptance or despondency.
Others are unwilling to consider the possibility that their own actions to date might have contributed to their difficulty and those people get short shrift – the refractory have serial issues and I’m commitment phobic.
So no – the shouty ones in this conversation can expect no empathy from this quarter.
I expect you peddlars of tea and sympathy will be only too willing to take up the slack though, given the trivial cost in time and treasure of virtue signalling.