It is hard to decide what was more repugnant at the Tory Party Conference recently: the sight of a packed auditorium in Birmingham applauding the prime ministers pledge to cut the benefits of 10million families, or the applause that greeted his pledge to scrap human rights legislation. Trying to fathom the mindset of those who get their jollies at the prospect of reducing millions of their fellow citizens to destitution is quite a challenge. The reality of Britain in 2014 is as stark as it gets. We are now a society that has been dragged back to the nineteenth century in service to a political creed which stands as living proof that not all sociopaths are behind bars. The relentless assault on people guilty of the crimes of unemployment and poverty is something that social historians will record years hence in horror that such a level of injustice could even be imagined, much less countenanced. The truism that We have met the enemy and they are us applies. Never mind ISIS, terrorism, or any external threat to the British people. The real enemy lies within. In response to this fresh round of attacks on welfare and benefit claimants, charities based in Scotland came together to lambast the Tory proposals. Shelter Scotland, Citizens Advice Scotland, Shelter Scotland, the Child Poverty Action Group, SCVO, the Poverty Alliance, Positive Action in Housing, Barnardos in Scotland, the Poverty Truth Commission, the Big Issue and the Trussell Trust have issued warnings regarding the human impact of fresh benefit cuts. They include an increasing reliance on foodbanks, pay day loans, and rising homelessness. With 3.5million children already living in poverty across the UK - surely a badge of shame in any industrialised economy - one can only ponder the warped humanity of those who consider poverty a personal failing rather than a consequence of injustice and inequality. When it comes to the proposal to scrap the Human Rights Act, it is chilling to consider that Nuremberg in the 1930s was probably the last time an audience in Europe cheered a leaders pledge to remove human rights protections. Such historical parallels are lost on those for whom human rights legislation is an inconvenience rather than a necessary check on untrammelled political power, however.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 07:04:24 +0000
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