I think it's a pretty clever title...for a horrific outcome.
I had tried to anticipate the worst. Hope for the best, gird your loins for the worst. But no mental simulation can substitute for the nightmare of the reality.
It's now bargain basement hard brexit hard right Britain. Whatever greatness we have enjoyed has evaporated in a thatch-haired wiff waff of smoke. We are alone in a cage; gilded no longer it is a rusty prison. Cold and damp under the cosh of a jailer that profits from our internment. Thirty years of my forty six have I lived under these bastards; now in their true form. We see the Tory heart at last. Exposed and evil.
Where did it all go wrong?
The wailing centrists are clamouring for the flayed skin of a fundamentally decent man, ravaged by a highly partisan media. They'll get it too, the only problem is they want it now.
I don't think he was leadership material for the simple reason that he is not built, being a fundamentally decent man, for the type of scrutiny he faced. No charity was afforded and certinly no benefit of the doubt. If he did not perform to their script he was cast down - and cast down he was: architect of antisemitism and master of the gulags.
Yet Labour's policies are popular. They aren't the issue. Certainly the messaging could have been clearer, but that points back to the media as they are the medium controlling the means of transmitting that information. Instead we have a partisan media facilitating a campaign of lies unwilling to scrutinise the Tories.
Brexit is the factor. Labour voters turned away from their own interests because they felt Labour had betrayed their one shot at true democracy. Their voice was being extinguished and so a message had to be sent. "If you won't deliver, then we'll vote for those that will."
The tragedy is that this, too, is a lie. The Tories will not deliver it. A hard brexit is now a certainty, but that will be a slowly unfolding calamity. The 'deal' isn't, it's the beginning. The genesis of a long painful process that the Tories lied about. Trade deals take years, perhaps even decades. We haven't even begun despite thre years of lies and falsehoods perpetrated on a working class that have been divided and let down by the political class (including Labour) - and face being betrayed again as the coming period will truly reveal the Nasty Party in all its dark glory.
This is a terrible result. We have the spectre of serious division in our communities. Racists and bigots have won the vote. In Hastings the newly minted Tory was exposed during a hustings advocating the exploitation of working people with learning disabilities. Disgusting. Another was elected despite also being exposed for his pig ignorance on both payday loans and poverty. Just borrow money from a loan shark! These are those that trade on economic responsibility. This is nothing of the kind; in fact it is the financial crisis in a cold microcosm. Get yourself into crippling debt. Is this deliberate, one wonders? Is this the form Universal Credit will mutate into in the coming period: a serious of loans that the poor canot possibly repay. Charity no more.
Whatever is coming, you can be sure it will be bad. I fear the working class will be turned against each other as they have been for the past decade. Blame foreigners, blame students, blame the old, blame the young, blame the bloke you think is unemployed but owns an xbox probably, the woman with the disability scooter (the lazy cow!). On it goes. That is a symptom of fascism; a manifestation of late stage capitalism. A manipulated working class lacking in vital class consciousness, that we must provide, turning inward. Jingoism 'national pride' in lieu of an understanding of their own exploitation. The tragedy is that in trying to impart that knowledge (and I claim no expertise here) one will be cast down as either a lefty snowflake socialist or an arrogant elitist.
Unfortunately Corbyn seems to have been hit with both by those who have, sadly, smashed themselves in the face of their own class interests with the most expensive hammer they could find (no doubt given at a huge APR by a friendly Tory loan shark).
Good luck Britain!
Saturday, 14 December 2019
Sunday, 17 November 2019
Your Guide To Voting
Some people believe that voting is a waste of time. Many of those people are anarchists.
I don't think that's true. One doesn't need to support the system or those within it to use it to effect whatever changes can be wrought. My goal is to see class consciousness grow within society because without it meaningful social revolution is impossible. Until that time voting is the only tool we have. This is important for one fundamental reason:
If we don't vote, the Tories remain in power (though of course there are no guarantees and a ton of caveats). It is a shit situation.
Class consciousness cannot rise while people are battered by Universal Credit, disarmed by WCA tests and generally atomised by the cruelty of deliberate and ideologically driven impoverishment. People are too busy trying to put food on their table to worry about structural problems. Who can blame them?
So if Jeremy Corbyn can ameliorate some conditions - why on earth would you not support that when it's plainly in our interest to do so? You don't have to believe he's the second coming, you just have to vote out the Tories. This is also important because it sends a message to society; it puts them, as a ruling class, on notice. They and the values they represent are not welcome.
So why would you not do this?
It makes no sense to me: if you're putting ideology above the working class then your ideology is just a pile of ashes and you're the smartest person in the workhouse.
I agree with the ideology, by the way. They will use our vote for their own ends. They will try and propagandise it. But what is the alternative - simple answer: another term under an increasingly and shockingly hard right Tory party led by the most self entitled and egregiously buffoonish clown I have ever seen. This guy's bullish stupidity makes Theresa Mayhem's standoffishness look like warm embrace from Santa fucking Claus!
That's the alternative. That's what not voting achieves. We are where we are and we cannot move forward with ideology alone. There isn't sufficient revolutionary impetus and, if all that's required (and certainly all that I ask) is that you take five minutes to cast a vote, is that really too much to ask?
Labour has a chequered history for sure. It also currently has some (not all) members in councils engaged in violently damaging policies of social cleansing and gentrification. This is awful. but ask yourself: is that more or less likely to continue under a renewed Tory government? There is a good reason to believe that, under a Corbyn Labour government, the ground for that kind of behaviour will be much less fertile. Again there are no guarantees, we just have to do the best we can.
But to argue that Labour is as bad as the Tories because of things like this, which I hear often, is just facile. Clearly and demonstrably false; simply compares policies. Labour has plenty, many of which are reasonable and tolerable improvements, if not ideal. Conservatives have...? So far nothing - though we know what will happen: welfare entitlement will continue to be strangled, the NHS will be sold to the private insurance market, likely the US (something they have sought to do for decades), and Brexit will impoverish our economy turning us into a one party state and a tax haven benefiting no one in the working class, despite what they have misguidedly chosen to believe (that's a discussion for another day).
This is a period of shit choices, but they are still choices. We can make them, we can use what little power we currently have as part of the struggle to move forward. While these are shit choices to us and far from ideal. However, to the ruling elite, that power is something they would want us not to have and would seek to diminish as much as possible - why else do they want to introduce voter ID?
Look I despise jingoism and the "poppy fascism" brand of vote propaganda. But we don't need to buy into that to use our power against them. That power is precious though, regardless of whether you believe in said propaganda. Use it or lose...everything.
I don't think that's true. One doesn't need to support the system or those within it to use it to effect whatever changes can be wrought. My goal is to see class consciousness grow within society because without it meaningful social revolution is impossible. Until that time voting is the only tool we have. This is important for one fundamental reason:
If we don't vote, the Tories remain in power (though of course there are no guarantees and a ton of caveats). It is a shit situation.
Class consciousness cannot rise while people are battered by Universal Credit, disarmed by WCA tests and generally atomised by the cruelty of deliberate and ideologically driven impoverishment. People are too busy trying to put food on their table to worry about structural problems. Who can blame them?
So if Jeremy Corbyn can ameliorate some conditions - why on earth would you not support that when it's plainly in our interest to do so? You don't have to believe he's the second coming, you just have to vote out the Tories. This is also important because it sends a message to society; it puts them, as a ruling class, on notice. They and the values they represent are not welcome.
So why would you not do this?
It makes no sense to me: if you're putting ideology above the working class then your ideology is just a pile of ashes and you're the smartest person in the workhouse.
I agree with the ideology, by the way. They will use our vote for their own ends. They will try and propagandise it. But what is the alternative - simple answer: another term under an increasingly and shockingly hard right Tory party led by the most self entitled and egregiously buffoonish clown I have ever seen. This guy's bullish stupidity makes Theresa Mayhem's standoffishness look like warm embrace from Santa fucking Claus!
That's the alternative. That's what not voting achieves. We are where we are and we cannot move forward with ideology alone. There isn't sufficient revolutionary impetus and, if all that's required (and certainly all that I ask) is that you take five minutes to cast a vote, is that really too much to ask?
Labour has a chequered history for sure. It also currently has some (not all) members in councils engaged in violently damaging policies of social cleansing and gentrification. This is awful. but ask yourself: is that more or less likely to continue under a renewed Tory government? There is a good reason to believe that, under a Corbyn Labour government, the ground for that kind of behaviour will be much less fertile. Again there are no guarantees, we just have to do the best we can.
But to argue that Labour is as bad as the Tories because of things like this, which I hear often, is just facile. Clearly and demonstrably false; simply compares policies. Labour has plenty, many of which are reasonable and tolerable improvements, if not ideal. Conservatives have...? So far nothing - though we know what will happen: welfare entitlement will continue to be strangled, the NHS will be sold to the private insurance market, likely the US (something they have sought to do for decades), and Brexit will impoverish our economy turning us into a one party state and a tax haven benefiting no one in the working class, despite what they have misguidedly chosen to believe (that's a discussion for another day).
This is a period of shit choices, but they are still choices. We can make them, we can use what little power we currently have as part of the struggle to move forward. While these are shit choices to us and far from ideal. However, to the ruling elite, that power is something they would want us not to have and would seek to diminish as much as possible - why else do they want to introduce voter ID?
Look I despise jingoism and the "poppy fascism" brand of vote propaganda. But we don't need to buy into that to use our power against them. That power is precious though, regardless of whether you believe in said propaganda. Use it or lose...everything.
Sunday, 10 November 2019
The Bitter Taste of Victory
Warning: this might sound incredibly ungrateful.
Yesterday the brown envelope arrived. It's been three months since my WCA. During that time I have prepared myself, as best I could, for failure. However it appears I have, again, succeeded. At least in respect of the Work Related Activity Group. The upshot of this is that I continue to attend compulsory biannual (at least for now) Work Focused Interviews. In fact my last one was a week or so after the WCA appointment. It was also a complete waste of time for reasons I've mentioned before. These interviews cannot help since they, essentially, are about victim blaming.
By my calculations I anticipate the next will be in January. It could even be next month. Failure to attend will affect a claim so passing the WCA is no guarantee of piece of mind at all. I am still having to watch the pennies in case the DWP pulls the rainy day button. It's insane really, that money has to be saved and not spent accordingly. Putting it back into the economy would be a better situation all round you'd think.
Believe me I could spend it!
It's a bitter victory because for three months I've institutionalised myself to the possibility of failure. Now that hasn't happened I'm still no better off in terms of freedom. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad not to have failed. I consider myself desperately lucky in that respect. But the arrival of success as a reality is a more mundane reality that imagined. I thought about what I might like to do with the money. That I might treat myself, but of course that just brings back the concerns about money, something that's forever been a source of guilt in my life.
I have never been a rich person, though, fortunately again, my circumstances are better than many. I'm lucky that I have a decent enough roof over my head and don't need to use a foodbank. But these are such basic concerns that, in 21st century Britain, surely no one should have to worry about their basic needs being met. Yet we know that isn't the case.
The amount paid on benefits really is such a pittance that you can't make informed choices at all. With enough money I could make significant changes and at least try to move forward. Yet the mindset of our leaders is such that it is best to keep people near poverty. Depressingly they criticise benefits as being a trap without realising the trap comes from the pittance they begrudgingly offer. Something that's merely a political football.
Yes I've succeeded. I'm damned lucky to have done so. But the reality of that success is just the realisation you are not any better off than before. In fact I have no idea when the next WCA call up will be. It 'should' be a year or so. But it could be anytime, though much likely to be later. It took them two years to organise this one and even that wasn't conducted properly (perhaps that was for the best!). Meanwhile I'm forced to attend work focused interviews and be dazzled with the dearth of opportunities that are on offer. Sooner or later my claim will be migrated from ESA to Universal Credit, or so I'm told. Won't that be fun.
What I need this system cannot provide. It is administered by people who see you as weapons in the political war for votes. Not people to invest in.
I hope this doesn't make me sound too ungrateful. I've won a prize. I just don't see how it changes my life. Things should be better than this. No one should have to deal with this rotten system to begin with. It's only a victory because the alternative is so terrible. The prize of not starving for an indeterminate period - until your next assessment. Round and round it goes
Yesterday the brown envelope arrived. It's been three months since my WCA. During that time I have prepared myself, as best I could, for failure. However it appears I have, again, succeeded. At least in respect of the Work Related Activity Group. The upshot of this is that I continue to attend compulsory biannual (at least for now) Work Focused Interviews. In fact my last one was a week or so after the WCA appointment. It was also a complete waste of time for reasons I've mentioned before. These interviews cannot help since they, essentially, are about victim blaming.
By my calculations I anticipate the next will be in January. It could even be next month. Failure to attend will affect a claim so passing the WCA is no guarantee of piece of mind at all. I am still having to watch the pennies in case the DWP pulls the rainy day button. It's insane really, that money has to be saved and not spent accordingly. Putting it back into the economy would be a better situation all round you'd think.
Believe me I could spend it!
It's a bitter victory because for three months I've institutionalised myself to the possibility of failure. Now that hasn't happened I'm still no better off in terms of freedom. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad not to have failed. I consider myself desperately lucky in that respect. But the arrival of success as a reality is a more mundane reality that imagined. I thought about what I might like to do with the money. That I might treat myself, but of course that just brings back the concerns about money, something that's forever been a source of guilt in my life.
I have never been a rich person, though, fortunately again, my circumstances are better than many. I'm lucky that I have a decent enough roof over my head and don't need to use a foodbank. But these are such basic concerns that, in 21st century Britain, surely no one should have to worry about their basic needs being met. Yet we know that isn't the case.
The amount paid on benefits really is such a pittance that you can't make informed choices at all. With enough money I could make significant changes and at least try to move forward. Yet the mindset of our leaders is such that it is best to keep people near poverty. Depressingly they criticise benefits as being a trap without realising the trap comes from the pittance they begrudgingly offer. Something that's merely a political football.
Yes I've succeeded. I'm damned lucky to have done so. But the reality of that success is just the realisation you are not any better off than before. In fact I have no idea when the next WCA call up will be. It 'should' be a year or so. But it could be anytime, though much likely to be later. It took them two years to organise this one and even that wasn't conducted properly (perhaps that was for the best!). Meanwhile I'm forced to attend work focused interviews and be dazzled with the dearth of opportunities that are on offer. Sooner or later my claim will be migrated from ESA to Universal Credit, or so I'm told. Won't that be fun.
What I need this system cannot provide. It is administered by people who see you as weapons in the political war for votes. Not people to invest in.
I hope this doesn't make me sound too ungrateful. I've won a prize. I just don't see how it changes my life. Things should be better than this. No one should have to deal with this rotten system to begin with. It's only a victory because the alternative is so terrible. The prize of not starving for an indeterminate period - until your next assessment. Round and round it goes
Monday, 4 November 2019
Mental Health - Tesco remix
In which I attempt to explain the lived experience, at least mine, of mental health. Let us paint a picture using...black...black like the crows eyes mother!
Ahem...
So I was going to talk more broadly. But having just returned from Tesco I have more succinct example of living in capitalist society with stress, suitably mundane. I'm short £3.58 (taunted by a receipt and my own ineptitude) because, caught by the stress of shopping and dealing with those godforsaken self service machines, I forgot to collect my change. The staff couldn't help. Of course that can't: it's a fact of capitalism that would lead that person, not Mr Tesco, to take the blame if they refunded my the money - which Mr Tesco could easily afford - and found I'd scammed them. So they have to assume I'm not being honest.
That's what capitalism does to people. People who aren't Mr Tesco. People like me and I'm sure thousands of others struggling every day with not enough of anything except stress. Those machines are a nightmare and of course the shop itself is large loud and full of equally stressed people.
Although I can afford this, it doesn't mean it isn't a loss. I'm lucky in that I've saved my income for the inevitable (yet still distant as of writing) cancellation of my ESA and the forced migration onto UC.
I was just buying food and yet it has, thanks to capitalism and stressed mental health (as if the two aren't connected), become onerous and difficult. Automated checkouts rarely work leaving the user to impotently rage at its programmed (and thus false) politeness while the minimum wage staff are replaced. No one wins here (except the lucky fucker who walked off with my change no doubt unawares).
There is no forgiveness for your mistakes. This system and the society it has bred cannot tolerate mistakes. Instead it labels you as at fault - which is technically true but the emotional weight is unnecessary. You are thus seen as a failure. Society shouldn't divide people like this, we all make mistakes, it's just some of us can't afford to endure that.
That's what it is to live in crisis, and, thanks to the Tories and their reforms, increasing numbers are having to.
Ahem...
So I was going to talk more broadly. But having just returned from Tesco I have more succinct example of living in capitalist society with stress, suitably mundane. I'm short £3.58 (taunted by a receipt and my own ineptitude) because, caught by the stress of shopping and dealing with those godforsaken self service machines, I forgot to collect my change. The staff couldn't help. Of course that can't: it's a fact of capitalism that would lead that person, not Mr Tesco, to take the blame if they refunded my the money - which Mr Tesco could easily afford - and found I'd scammed them. So they have to assume I'm not being honest.
That's what capitalism does to people. People who aren't Mr Tesco. People like me and I'm sure thousands of others struggling every day with not enough of anything except stress. Those machines are a nightmare and of course the shop itself is large loud and full of equally stressed people.
Although I can afford this, it doesn't mean it isn't a loss. I'm lucky in that I've saved my income for the inevitable (yet still distant as of writing) cancellation of my ESA and the forced migration onto UC.
I was just buying food and yet it has, thanks to capitalism and stressed mental health (as if the two aren't connected), become onerous and difficult. Automated checkouts rarely work leaving the user to impotently rage at its programmed (and thus false) politeness while the minimum wage staff are replaced. No one wins here (except the lucky fucker who walked off with my change no doubt unawares).
There is no forgiveness for your mistakes. This system and the society it has bred cannot tolerate mistakes. Instead it labels you as at fault - which is technically true but the emotional weight is unnecessary. You are thus seen as a failure. Society shouldn't divide people like this, we all make mistakes, it's just some of us can't afford to endure that.
That's what it is to live in crisis, and, thanks to the Tories and their reforms, increasing numbers are having to.
Wednesday, 23 October 2019
I'm Still Alive!
Where have I been? Is anyone even out there still? I can't blame you if you aren't, although how would you be reading this if that's the case!?!
It's been 11 weeks and two days since I had my WCA. An appointment that took two years to arrange and ultimately failed to test the problem presented that necessitated taking so long. I say two years, you can tack an extra twenty minutes to that as the assessor was late. A reality that, were the shoe on the other foot, would have very different consequences, if you follow me.
I have consdiered making a complaint to that end, if I fail the test. I'm still certain that is the outcome.
In the meantime public services dwindle. Our local bus service has cut so much that, had I not changed jobcentre (and it was within the DWP's gift to decide not to allow that), my journey to the subsequent Work Focused Interview would have cost just over £14! This is a consequence of a soceity governed for profit not for need. This is a simple premise that fundamentally is killing us.
That appointment, weeks ago now, was an utter sham. In fact, by the time the decision is made, I could be facing my next as they are every 6 months. I anticipate a new years present.
The interviewer was himself a damaged human, unfortunately one also fully conditioned by DWP propaganda. He invoked the spectre of the feckless parent claiming for things they allegedly don't need. A phone, for example. This is a classic example of the ignorance these people are fed: people need a phone these days. But instead of recognising the reality of modern life things like phones (and computers, for example) are disingenuously still classed as luxuries. You won't get help or a job without either if not both.
Why do I say he's damaged: he told me that, as a former paramedic, he ended up with PTSD. I can believe it; paramedics can get seriously abused - not least of all by a system designed to profit not care. The tragedy is that it has led him into the clutches of the capitalist paradigm setting him not against the architects of his abuse, but his fellow plebs.
Despite all the talk abot how wonderful the DWP is and how many schemes and opportunities there are, all he could pull out was another feeble self help/social enterprise course. This one is called Changes For Life. The problem is that these courses are ineffectual; because they cannot (will not?) address the reality behind the problems faced by the unemployed and impaired they can only offer simplistic services - don't get me wrong, these are find for those that ned them. Numeracy and literacy (along with citizenship tests!) are vital for some, just not me. I was told they could diagnose neuro diverse conditions when i mentioned I had tried to get an Asperger diagnosis. I knew this was a lie, but the Changes people confirmed it. They didn't seem terribly bothered I was getting misinformation from the DWP. I guess that's the norm.
So in the end it's a whole load of nothing. It's all talk, papering the ever widening cracks of a system and a society on a hot course to hell. I do not foresee things getting better any time soon, but I wont' mention the B word, for now. I'm not even sure I understand it, just that it's wrecking society and a transparent right wing xenophobia fuelled power grab.
One thing I did notice, while in the office (a journey from door to seat that required 3 security guards and two flights of stairs), the amount of Universal Credit propaganda is dizzying. The walls are covered. Goebbels would be proud (Godwins!).
Insidiously, and worryingly, on the wall of the cubicle was a sample UC jobsearch; a weekly diary that looked harrowingly involved. They seem to expect you to involve yourself in activity from 8 till late with scant breaks. If only I could have taken this home, but I didn't dare whip my phone out for a picture (probably would have been sent to Guantanamo for breaching DWP secrets or something). Now while the idea might be reasonable, expecting people to look for work or whatever, the relentlessness of it in the face of lived reality is problematic. We all know what happens when people have to miss appointments for genuine reasons, so the greater the conditionality the greater the likelihood this will happen. Then it's down to the 'Work Coach's' discretion.
This is what it comes down to: damaged brainwashed people making decisions on my behalf. People who, while I don't mean to sound disrespectful, just seem oblivious to the reality they are operating within. He himself is on Universal Credit!
Need I say more?
(PS If anyone still reads this, thanks, but I'd love to know... blessing all round)
It's been 11 weeks and two days since I had my WCA. An appointment that took two years to arrange and ultimately failed to test the problem presented that necessitated taking so long. I say two years, you can tack an extra twenty minutes to that as the assessor was late. A reality that, were the shoe on the other foot, would have very different consequences, if you follow me.
I have consdiered making a complaint to that end, if I fail the test. I'm still certain that is the outcome.
In the meantime public services dwindle. Our local bus service has cut so much that, had I not changed jobcentre (and it was within the DWP's gift to decide not to allow that), my journey to the subsequent Work Focused Interview would have cost just over £14! This is a consequence of a soceity governed for profit not for need. This is a simple premise that fundamentally is killing us.
That appointment, weeks ago now, was an utter sham. In fact, by the time the decision is made, I could be facing my next as they are every 6 months. I anticipate a new years present.
The interviewer was himself a damaged human, unfortunately one also fully conditioned by DWP propaganda. He invoked the spectre of the feckless parent claiming for things they allegedly don't need. A phone, for example. This is a classic example of the ignorance these people are fed: people need a phone these days. But instead of recognising the reality of modern life things like phones (and computers, for example) are disingenuously still classed as luxuries. You won't get help or a job without either if not both.
Why do I say he's damaged: he told me that, as a former paramedic, he ended up with PTSD. I can believe it; paramedics can get seriously abused - not least of all by a system designed to profit not care. The tragedy is that it has led him into the clutches of the capitalist paradigm setting him not against the architects of his abuse, but his fellow plebs.
Despite all the talk abot how wonderful the DWP is and how many schemes and opportunities there are, all he could pull out was another feeble self help/social enterprise course. This one is called Changes For Life. The problem is that these courses are ineffectual; because they cannot (will not?) address the reality behind the problems faced by the unemployed and impaired they can only offer simplistic services - don't get me wrong, these are find for those that ned them. Numeracy and literacy (along with citizenship tests!) are vital for some, just not me. I was told they could diagnose neuro diverse conditions when i mentioned I had tried to get an Asperger diagnosis. I knew this was a lie, but the Changes people confirmed it. They didn't seem terribly bothered I was getting misinformation from the DWP. I guess that's the norm.
So in the end it's a whole load of nothing. It's all talk, papering the ever widening cracks of a system and a society on a hot course to hell. I do not foresee things getting better any time soon, but I wont' mention the B word, for now. I'm not even sure I understand it, just that it's wrecking society and a transparent right wing xenophobia fuelled power grab.
One thing I did notice, while in the office (a journey from door to seat that required 3 security guards and two flights of stairs), the amount of Universal Credit propaganda is dizzying. The walls are covered. Goebbels would be proud (Godwins!).
Insidiously, and worryingly, on the wall of the cubicle was a sample UC jobsearch; a weekly diary that looked harrowingly involved. They seem to expect you to involve yourself in activity from 8 till late with scant breaks. If only I could have taken this home, but I didn't dare whip my phone out for a picture (probably would have been sent to Guantanamo for breaching DWP secrets or something). Now while the idea might be reasonable, expecting people to look for work or whatever, the relentlessness of it in the face of lived reality is problematic. We all know what happens when people have to miss appointments for genuine reasons, so the greater the conditionality the greater the likelihood this will happen. Then it's down to the 'Work Coach's' discretion.
This is what it comes down to: damaged brainwashed people making decisions on my behalf. People who, while I don't mean to sound disrespectful, just seem oblivious to the reality they are operating within. He himself is on Universal Credit!
Need I say more?
(PS If anyone still reads this, thanks, but I'd love to know... blessing all round)
Tuesday, 13 August 2019
After the Test
Why is keeping a blog so difficult? When you find doing things difficult then doing a thing is difficult. Procrastination is temptation. It is no solution. Filling in the ESA50 is a lot like this. I can do it, but I sure as hell can't do it all at once - and I don't want to.
Last Monday (the 5th) was the date for my latest WCA. Uncharacteristically, it actually happened. There was no postponement, although the doctor himself (assuming that he is properly qualified) was late. This, last, irony has blown my mind. I'm now left so ambivalent by all this that I just feel nothing. Of course this will change whence cometh the inevitable outcome. I'm told to expect this within 4-6 weeks. That, however, is a statement with no content whatsoever. It could arrive today. I have no way of knowing. In fact this is one of the defining features for people living on ESA. You cannot make arrangements nor plan. I have saved the majority of my income for precisely that reason. Consequently it has deprived me of the opportunity to use that income practically. Or even frivolously. How does that make any sense.
I arrived on time. If I hadn't there would have been consequences the least of which would have been a very extended spell in the dismal waiting room. When the doctor arrives late it's just a fact of modern life (public trains) and I have to lump it. No sanction for him of course.
I have no idea what the guy's qualifications were or are. I have no idea if he has any experience as an optician or eye doctor. However that is the reason why I had to be seen by him; a process that has taken two years and numerous lies (which have netted me a grand total of twenty five whole pounds in compensation! Generous, no?) to get to this point. Ultimately it didn't matter because, despite the presence of testing material (various eye charts), not once did he bother to test me. Wait, that's not true: he did test whether my legs work ok. They do. At no point in my claim have I ever reported mobility or lower limb problems. Ever.
It is pretty clear that the reason I, and presumably others, need a particular flavour of assessor is to cover their own arses. It's insurance. That way the inevitable (because the testing process is still shit) complaints about skating over reported issues can be met with a firmer response: your assessor was properly qualified in optometry/sight. Maximus (the corporation running these tests) calls this 'government training'. At least that's what they told me. Clearly that's bullshit because that implies the process would involve testing the relevant area of contention. But since that didn't happen, anyone - including the first person I saw at the outset of this nonsense - could have have tested me. It's a standardised process. However the particular person that did has government training allowing Maximus to cover their backside against a complaint I might (inevitably have to) make regarding them not actually testing my eyes.
I could go on, but really all there is to say is that this standardised test is such a simplistic tool. It is administered, not by actual doctors, but by a profit making corporate entity. They cannot - they are functionally incapable - of delivering the kind of process that's needed. You might as well ask a blind person what the sky looks like. This is just a procedure, a revenue stream, to these people. Doctors should be running this, if it must exist at all, but they all refuse. They don't want to get their hands dirty. I find that pretty damning really; a doctor is OK with life or death situations and diagnosing incurable diseases, but they draw the line at reporting whether someone is fit for work. That implies they, the BMA for instance, believe the likes of Maximus are better at it than they. That is nonsense.
Ultimately this standardised test is simply to outline what you do on a typical day. When do you rise, do you put your socks on, do you make your breakfast, what time do you feed the dog? It's intended to determine what you can or can't do. This is an approach that is devoid of any meaningful context. Whether or not you experience difficulty is ignored, it's disastrously binary. Either you can go to the shop and buy a pack of eggs (in other words, you can go to any shop, anywhere, at any time, and buy anything, no matter the conditions), or you can't. The nature of the shop, it's familiarity, distance, and ease of use, is ignored. I go for a walk during the day, out in the quiet country;I might as well have confessed to being capable of running the London Marathon or handling bustling Times Square at News Years Eve.
This is how we examine whether or not people can function in society. It gives no indication of anything and just exists because of bootstrap bullshit magic thinking. If you have issues they are ignored because if you can put on a pair of socks at some point during the day, you can hold down a full time job consistently. No matter what the job is, whether its worthwhile or well paid.
This is the life.
Last Monday (the 5th) was the date for my latest WCA. Uncharacteristically, it actually happened. There was no postponement, although the doctor himself (assuming that he is properly qualified) was late. This, last, irony has blown my mind. I'm now left so ambivalent by all this that I just feel nothing. Of course this will change whence cometh the inevitable outcome. I'm told to expect this within 4-6 weeks. That, however, is a statement with no content whatsoever. It could arrive today. I have no way of knowing. In fact this is one of the defining features for people living on ESA. You cannot make arrangements nor plan. I have saved the majority of my income for precisely that reason. Consequently it has deprived me of the opportunity to use that income practically. Or even frivolously. How does that make any sense.
I arrived on time. If I hadn't there would have been consequences the least of which would have been a very extended spell in the dismal waiting room. When the doctor arrives late it's just a fact of modern life (public trains) and I have to lump it. No sanction for him of course.
I have no idea what the guy's qualifications were or are. I have no idea if he has any experience as an optician or eye doctor. However that is the reason why I had to be seen by him; a process that has taken two years and numerous lies (which have netted me a grand total of twenty five whole pounds in compensation! Generous, no?) to get to this point. Ultimately it didn't matter because, despite the presence of testing material (various eye charts), not once did he bother to test me. Wait, that's not true: he did test whether my legs work ok. They do. At no point in my claim have I ever reported mobility or lower limb problems. Ever.
It is pretty clear that the reason I, and presumably others, need a particular flavour of assessor is to cover their own arses. It's insurance. That way the inevitable (because the testing process is still shit) complaints about skating over reported issues can be met with a firmer response: your assessor was properly qualified in optometry/sight. Maximus (the corporation running these tests) calls this 'government training'. At least that's what they told me. Clearly that's bullshit because that implies the process would involve testing the relevant area of contention. But since that didn't happen, anyone - including the first person I saw at the outset of this nonsense - could have have tested me. It's a standardised process. However the particular person that did has government training allowing Maximus to cover their backside against a complaint I might (inevitably have to) make regarding them not actually testing my eyes.
I could go on, but really all there is to say is that this standardised test is such a simplistic tool. It is administered, not by actual doctors, but by a profit making corporate entity. They cannot - they are functionally incapable - of delivering the kind of process that's needed. You might as well ask a blind person what the sky looks like. This is just a procedure, a revenue stream, to these people. Doctors should be running this, if it must exist at all, but they all refuse. They don't want to get their hands dirty. I find that pretty damning really; a doctor is OK with life or death situations and diagnosing incurable diseases, but they draw the line at reporting whether someone is fit for work. That implies they, the BMA for instance, believe the likes of Maximus are better at it than they. That is nonsense.
Ultimately this standardised test is simply to outline what you do on a typical day. When do you rise, do you put your socks on, do you make your breakfast, what time do you feed the dog? It's intended to determine what you can or can't do. This is an approach that is devoid of any meaningful context. Whether or not you experience difficulty is ignored, it's disastrously binary. Either you can go to the shop and buy a pack of eggs (in other words, you can go to any shop, anywhere, at any time, and buy anything, no matter the conditions), or you can't. The nature of the shop, it's familiarity, distance, and ease of use, is ignored. I go for a walk during the day, out in the quiet country;I might as well have confessed to being capable of running the London Marathon or handling bustling Times Square at News Years Eve.
This is how we examine whether or not people can function in society. It gives no indication of anything and just exists because of bootstrap bullshit magic thinking. If you have issues they are ignored because if you can put on a pair of socks at some point during the day, you can hold down a full time job consistently. No matter what the job is, whether its worthwhile or well paid.
This is the life.
Tuesday, 9 July 2019
This is the End, beautiful friend...
I fear this will be long. That's not my only fear, of course. But I will attempt brevity. Me um word good.
Last week I received the first of two letters from the DWP. Instantly I knew. Senses honed through years of dealing with the DWP have taught me to know. Something about the particular shape or shade of the envelope; the sound it makes on the doormat through the letterbox. Even the time of day the postman arrives. These are all tells. You just know.
I have what will now be attempt #4 at a WCA on the 19th at 9am. I also have a WFI (work focussed interview) on the 23rd. The latter is at the jobcentre, a place no longer served by a direct bus route. Not that such facts are taken into consideration of course. These appointments are booked without consultation on your behalf.
In the case of the former I was supposed to get what would be the second attempt at a home visit. This was agreed after WCA attempt #1 failed due to the correct 'healthcare professional' wasn't on hand. I was, they weren't. Of course their system simply cannot process the consequences for the subject in such a circumstance. They are of course apologetic, as statite requires, but it means nothing when you have to go through it all again. I asked instead for a home visit to be considered.
At first that wasn't the case, until it was. They sent me another assessment centre-based appointment and then told me, upon arrival, I wasn't supposed to be seen there and that I was to get a home visit. that visit didn't happen until over a year later, this March. That's when the fun begins, so it would appear.
They were supposed to rebook the appointment. When I contacted them to find out why they didn't arrive the human facsimile I spoke to passively aggressively gave me two choices: either rebook (it's all so simple, just like a minor calculation, no emotion required), or have my case referred back to the DWP. Clearly the former, in the context of a Hobson's choice, was preferable.
Only that didn't happen. It turns out that, despite my preference, they chose the latter. The DWP received it in April and sent it back to the WCA people in May with one exception. They attached what I've just discovered is a "PV marker". What's that you ask? It means "potentially violent"! At the risk of virtue signalling, this has left me gobsmacked. Not once have I ever behaved that way to the DWP nor the WCA. (Of course they themselves operate through violence: the violence of poverty.)
The DWP have, for some reason, decided that home visits are now verboten because of this marker. It didn't exist before when a home visit was meant to happen. It cannot happen now. They won't tell me why this has been attached without a written letter of request (I need to request a "Dataprint"). The WCA won't tell me why they referred it back claiming that the DWP know why, but they don't. When pushed (because they are obviously caught in a lie) they said that they can choose to refer cases back to the DWP instead of rebooking regardless of the subject's preference. What I wanted didn't matter and, as a result of their decision, I now cannot get the home visit they agreed and indeed booked two years ago. Had they even bothered to attend (and I still don't know why that never happene) this would all have been done and dusted. I have lodged a formal complaint.
Unfortunately none of this changes the fact I am compelled to attend. If I don't I will need to give satisfactory reasons and if they aren't satisfactory enough, my benefit will be stopped. Likewise if I don't attend the WFI.
The WCA people have screwed up royally and cost me the preferred method of resolving this for no good reason. Or at least no good reason they are willing to offer. The only explanation I can find for why this PV marker exists is because, on my ESA50 form, among the mental health issues outlined was an expressed tendency to frustration and upset in situations I find difficult (such as getting the royal runaround from the DWP/WCA). But that wasn't enough to warrant this marker being placed at any point prior. At least not to my knowledge. If it had I wouldn't have gotten a home visit in the first place.
It doesn't really matter. This process isn't about support. How can it be when people that have violent tendencies are automatically denied the right kind of assessment? What if such a person has other conditions (prevailing Psychosis of Schizophrenia for instance) that preclude a centre based assessment? Are they supposed to just turn up and that the staff are ok because Big Dave the security guard will protect them if the subject kicks off? What does that say about how we are still treating people with severe mental health issues of the kind just described? It's akin to institutionalising them.
Then of course there is the power disparity; one of the biggest failings of this system. Our entire system, not just benefits, is predicated on it. The ruling class versus the 99%. The working class versus the capitalists, and the latter are in control with a system modelled on archaic notions and concepts. A person in a corporate suit with a clipboard determines the validity of your experience on the basis of a tick box exercise, one they can deploy as they see fit with no accountability. Sure I can make a complaint (and have done), but to what end? What compels them to honour that? If our system doesn't encourage good honest and moral (in the sense we don't let the poor struggle) conduct, then black and white rules mean nothing. Not when the subject has no power but to implore to the party he's accusing to abide by them. They police themselves with no interest in jeopardising their position. I might get an apology, perhaps even a couple of quid. To them it will mean nothing, just a few expenses they can write off. To me it will mean nothing because I can't live on it.
This power disparity must be challenged and dismantled. It cannot be justified. Mental health is experiential in my view. It isn't like a broken leg: something that, while painful, can be seen and measured in a very real sense. You can't see emotional distress, tension, frustration, psychosis nor schizophrenia. You can't measure paranoia. You can't weigh the struggle a person feels at the 'wrongness' he experiences in his life. You have to listen to that person, accept them, and work with them. That starts with building a society that accepts an honours that experience and makes it part of the social fabric. Not a society that marginalises and denies them participation in the most fundamental and necessary of ways.
Last week I received the first of two letters from the DWP. Instantly I knew. Senses honed through years of dealing with the DWP have taught me to know. Something about the particular shape or shade of the envelope; the sound it makes on the doormat through the letterbox. Even the time of day the postman arrives. These are all tells. You just know.
I have what will now be attempt #4 at a WCA on the 19th at 9am. I also have a WFI (work focussed interview) on the 23rd. The latter is at the jobcentre, a place no longer served by a direct bus route. Not that such facts are taken into consideration of course. These appointments are booked without consultation on your behalf.
In the case of the former I was supposed to get what would be the second attempt at a home visit. This was agreed after WCA attempt #1 failed due to the correct 'healthcare professional' wasn't on hand. I was, they weren't. Of course their system simply cannot process the consequences for the subject in such a circumstance. They are of course apologetic, as statite requires, but it means nothing when you have to go through it all again. I asked instead for a home visit to be considered.
At first that wasn't the case, until it was. They sent me another assessment centre-based appointment and then told me, upon arrival, I wasn't supposed to be seen there and that I was to get a home visit. that visit didn't happen until over a year later, this March. That's when the fun begins, so it would appear.
They were supposed to rebook the appointment. When I contacted them to find out why they didn't arrive the human facsimile I spoke to passively aggressively gave me two choices: either rebook (it's all so simple, just like a minor calculation, no emotion required), or have my case referred back to the DWP. Clearly the former, in the context of a Hobson's choice, was preferable.
Only that didn't happen. It turns out that, despite my preference, they chose the latter. The DWP received it in April and sent it back to the WCA people in May with one exception. They attached what I've just discovered is a "PV marker". What's that you ask? It means "potentially violent"! At the risk of virtue signalling, this has left me gobsmacked. Not once have I ever behaved that way to the DWP nor the WCA. (Of course they themselves operate through violence: the violence of poverty.)
The DWP have, for some reason, decided that home visits are now verboten because of this marker. It didn't exist before when a home visit was meant to happen. It cannot happen now. They won't tell me why this has been attached without a written letter of request (I need to request a "Dataprint"). The WCA won't tell me why they referred it back claiming that the DWP know why, but they don't. When pushed (because they are obviously caught in a lie) they said that they can choose to refer cases back to the DWP instead of rebooking regardless of the subject's preference. What I wanted didn't matter and, as a result of their decision, I now cannot get the home visit they agreed and indeed booked two years ago. Had they even bothered to attend (and I still don't know why that never happene) this would all have been done and dusted. I have lodged a formal complaint.
Unfortunately none of this changes the fact I am compelled to attend. If I don't I will need to give satisfactory reasons and if they aren't satisfactory enough, my benefit will be stopped. Likewise if I don't attend the WFI.
The WCA people have screwed up royally and cost me the preferred method of resolving this for no good reason. Or at least no good reason they are willing to offer. The only explanation I can find for why this PV marker exists is because, on my ESA50 form, among the mental health issues outlined was an expressed tendency to frustration and upset in situations I find difficult (such as getting the royal runaround from the DWP/WCA). But that wasn't enough to warrant this marker being placed at any point prior. At least not to my knowledge. If it had I wouldn't have gotten a home visit in the first place.
It doesn't really matter. This process isn't about support. How can it be when people that have violent tendencies are automatically denied the right kind of assessment? What if such a person has other conditions (prevailing Psychosis of Schizophrenia for instance) that preclude a centre based assessment? Are they supposed to just turn up and that the staff are ok because Big Dave the security guard will protect them if the subject kicks off? What does that say about how we are still treating people with severe mental health issues of the kind just described? It's akin to institutionalising them.
Then of course there is the power disparity; one of the biggest failings of this system. Our entire system, not just benefits, is predicated on it. The ruling class versus the 99%. The working class versus the capitalists, and the latter are in control with a system modelled on archaic notions and concepts. A person in a corporate suit with a clipboard determines the validity of your experience on the basis of a tick box exercise, one they can deploy as they see fit with no accountability. Sure I can make a complaint (and have done), but to what end? What compels them to honour that? If our system doesn't encourage good honest and moral (in the sense we don't let the poor struggle) conduct, then black and white rules mean nothing. Not when the subject has no power but to implore to the party he's accusing to abide by them. They police themselves with no interest in jeopardising their position. I might get an apology, perhaps even a couple of quid. To them it will mean nothing, just a few expenses they can write off. To me it will mean nothing because I can't live on it.
This power disparity must be challenged and dismantled. It cannot be justified. Mental health is experiential in my view. It isn't like a broken leg: something that, while painful, can be seen and measured in a very real sense. You can't see emotional distress, tension, frustration, psychosis nor schizophrenia. You can't measure paranoia. You can't weigh the struggle a person feels at the 'wrongness' he experiences in his life. You have to listen to that person, accept them, and work with them. That starts with building a society that accepts an honours that experience and makes it part of the social fabric. Not a society that marginalises and denies them participation in the most fundamental and necessary of ways.
Sunday, 2 June 2019
A Very British Antisemitism, Day, er, 5?
Racism is shit. Racists are shit. Antisemitism is racism. Antisemites are shit.
It seems required of us, those that aren't right wing apologists, to mention this. It's like an ideological ID check. Just run the anti-Semitic credentials through the computer to see how they shape up to the definition. Does that sound trivial? It ought not, but what other reaction can one have when these accusations are bandied about so freely? Do those doing so not realise the danger; that haphazard accusations are threatening to become transparent and risk trivialising the very real problem of racism?
Then of course there is the elephant in the room: the state of Israel. A state that, clearly and demonstrably, engages in racist murderous behaviour.
Perhaps I shouldn't say this, antisemitism isn't a joke. Racism isn't a joke. We are seeing a rise in fascism as capitalism collapses. It has no answer to structural challenges but to double down on divisive ideologies: us and them. Usually along national lines.
But...I am fed up with the pearl clutching from the establishment. The rhetoric surrounding Labour and Corbyn is so toxic that discourse is impossible. Of course it's ridiculous to assert Labour are institutionally antisemitic. By what proof? If that were true then it would have been true for a lot longer than the period Corbyn has been leader. Thus it is abundantly clear that this is being used now to oppose him, which tells me the motives of those deploying these claims. It is political.
Now that isn't to say that there aren't people in the Labour party and wider movement who are or at least have used antisemitic rhetoric. That of course should be challenged and dealt with. I would hope such people can be approached and educated. Much of it, I think, stems from the characteristically defensive underdog position that the left is on. It is not in a position of authority and power whereas ideas such as Zionism - specifically Israel - are inexplicably bound up with the systems of power in the world. It is an ally of the capitalist imperialist, and largely white christian, west. It has interest groups throughout the western world, including within the Labour party. There is thus a response to that which, inchoate and raw, isn't without some justification.
However we must of course be careful. It is too easy a step to make from this defensive, almost conspiratorial (see 911 truthers), mindset into amplifying dangerous stereotypes, for example propagating the notion that the "jews run the world". These are beloved of the right, particularly fascists, for a reason. They help cement that "us and them" narrative that entrenches late capitalist state power. "Jews are the problem": the perennial bogeyman motif into which Jews have sadly historically been placed.
Things currently though are not so simple. While fascism is on the rise and while antisemitism is part of its DNA it, in the sense of opposing the left, is also happy to use claims of antisemitism to beat its political opponents. This is largely opportunistic and of course quite hypocritical, but no less dangerous. We must recognise this, but at the same time not give succour to those that deploy antisemitism incorrectly, smearing people on the left unjustly for political gain. Of course as an anarchist I reject the political dichotomy that capitalism supports (though you'd be foolish not to call me a lefty, in broad terms :D). That way lies division, and it will never truly free us.
It seems required of us, those that aren't right wing apologists, to mention this. It's like an ideological ID check. Just run the anti-Semitic credentials through the computer to see how they shape up to the definition. Does that sound trivial? It ought not, but what other reaction can one have when these accusations are bandied about so freely? Do those doing so not realise the danger; that haphazard accusations are threatening to become transparent and risk trivialising the very real problem of racism?
Then of course there is the elephant in the room: the state of Israel. A state that, clearly and demonstrably, engages in racist murderous behaviour.
Perhaps I shouldn't say this, antisemitism isn't a joke. Racism isn't a joke. We are seeing a rise in fascism as capitalism collapses. It has no answer to structural challenges but to double down on divisive ideologies: us and them. Usually along national lines.
But...I am fed up with the pearl clutching from the establishment. The rhetoric surrounding Labour and Corbyn is so toxic that discourse is impossible. Of course it's ridiculous to assert Labour are institutionally antisemitic. By what proof? If that were true then it would have been true for a lot longer than the period Corbyn has been leader. Thus it is abundantly clear that this is being used now to oppose him, which tells me the motives of those deploying these claims. It is political.
Now that isn't to say that there aren't people in the Labour party and wider movement who are or at least have used antisemitic rhetoric. That of course should be challenged and dealt with. I would hope such people can be approached and educated. Much of it, I think, stems from the characteristically defensive underdog position that the left is on. It is not in a position of authority and power whereas ideas such as Zionism - specifically Israel - are inexplicably bound up with the systems of power in the world. It is an ally of the capitalist imperialist, and largely white christian, west. It has interest groups throughout the western world, including within the Labour party. There is thus a response to that which, inchoate and raw, isn't without some justification.
However we must of course be careful. It is too easy a step to make from this defensive, almost conspiratorial (see 911 truthers), mindset into amplifying dangerous stereotypes, for example propagating the notion that the "jews run the world". These are beloved of the right, particularly fascists, for a reason. They help cement that "us and them" narrative that entrenches late capitalist state power. "Jews are the problem": the perennial bogeyman motif into which Jews have sadly historically been placed.
Things currently though are not so simple. While fascism is on the rise and while antisemitism is part of its DNA it, in the sense of opposing the left, is also happy to use claims of antisemitism to beat its political opponents. This is largely opportunistic and of course quite hypocritical, but no less dangerous. We must recognise this, but at the same time not give succour to those that deploy antisemitism incorrectly, smearing people on the left unjustly for political gain. Of course as an anarchist I reject the political dichotomy that capitalism supports (though you'd be foolish not to call me a lefty, in broad terms :D). That way lies division, and it will never truly free us.
Thursday, 30 May 2019
A Very Owen Jones Armageddon, Day 3
So everyone's favourite lefty, Owen Jones, wrote an article today saying, unbelievably, that Labour needs to recalibrate by getting Ed Miliband back!
Now, I may have misread the article. Perhaps it's a level of satire that has eluded me.
But Miliband? The sap that lost Labour the election in 2015 after five years of misery under the coalition? How does that happen? By the way, Miliband has yet to face a tenth of the grief that Corbyn receives for scoring an own goal like this. There's no reason at all for him to have lost other than the fact he's a neoliberal. That is the absolute last thing we need!
Also, to be fair, Jones posits an alternative in the form of Laura Pidcock. A better choice by leagues to be sure, but there's now way that will happen given that she's still too green. Even so...
What is Owen Jones thinking? This is his position following the EU elections. So in truth, he's just another centrist. I think he's pretty feeble to be honest. I pointed out earlier, when discussing his meetings with the Brexit party crowd, that he was completely out of his depth. When they responded to his presence he just bumbled and dodged. Why couldn't he ask more probing questions than "why are you here?". What did he think the answer would be? They are here to "take the country back" to react to the "brexit betrayal". He's face to face with proto fascist thinking, hyperbole and jingoistic bluster (the use of terms like betrayal and treachery), and he has nothing he can think of better to ask?
How about putting to these people the rank hypocrisies of their leader? How about pointing out the hypocrisy of wanting to take the power...only to hand it over to the aristocracy in Westminster? Do they want the NHS privatised? Do they want people starving and living on the streets? We will never know unless people ask.
I just don't get this at all. Of course the real answer is to reject all these politicians. Corbyn's a decent guy, I don't think he's a millionaire psychopath happy to sell guns to warmongers or starve children, but he's also beholden to a system he errantly beleives can be reformed. This won't, can't, and mustn't happen. Instead capitalism should be dismantled. It is the only answer. He will soon find, if he takes office, just how sharp the knives of the capitalist class will be when they cut his ability to achieve anything. Then it wilbe the Tories who swoop back in to 'save' the country from another Labour 'mess'. Mark my words.
Now, I may have misread the article. Perhaps it's a level of satire that has eluded me.
But Miliband? The sap that lost Labour the election in 2015 after five years of misery under the coalition? How does that happen? By the way, Miliband has yet to face a tenth of the grief that Corbyn receives for scoring an own goal like this. There's no reason at all for him to have lost other than the fact he's a neoliberal. That is the absolute last thing we need!
Also, to be fair, Jones posits an alternative in the form of Laura Pidcock. A better choice by leagues to be sure, but there's now way that will happen given that she's still too green. Even so...
What is Owen Jones thinking? This is his position following the EU elections. So in truth, he's just another centrist. I think he's pretty feeble to be honest. I pointed out earlier, when discussing his meetings with the Brexit party crowd, that he was completely out of his depth. When they responded to his presence he just bumbled and dodged. Why couldn't he ask more probing questions than "why are you here?". What did he think the answer would be? They are here to "take the country back" to react to the "brexit betrayal". He's face to face with proto fascist thinking, hyperbole and jingoistic bluster (the use of terms like betrayal and treachery), and he has nothing he can think of better to ask?
How about putting to these people the rank hypocrisies of their leader? How about pointing out the hypocrisy of wanting to take the power...only to hand it over to the aristocracy in Westminster? Do they want the NHS privatised? Do they want people starving and living on the streets? We will never know unless people ask.
I just don't get this at all. Of course the real answer is to reject all these politicians. Corbyn's a decent guy, I don't think he's a millionaire psychopath happy to sell guns to warmongers or starve children, but he's also beholden to a system he errantly beleives can be reformed. This won't, can't, and mustn't happen. Instead capitalism should be dismantled. It is the only answer. He will soon find, if he takes office, just how sharp the knives of the capitalist class will be when they cut his ability to achieve anything. Then it wilbe the Tories who swoop back in to 'save' the country from another Labour 'mess'. Mark my words.
Wednesday, 29 May 2019
A Very British Armageddon Day 2
Let us turn now to Mr Alistair Campbell. He has recently, by which I mean yesterday, been evicted from the Labour party. Firstly a couple of considerations:
1. Corbyn doesn't get to decide this.
2. Labour must go further. If it only picks on Campbell, however deserved (and it is), then it looks weak in my view.
So by the standards applied here there are few from the old days of New Labour who don't deserve the chop. Of course they are now encircling the wagons. They don't want their seat on the gravy train to be troubled. This means that sooner or later, hopefully the former, Blair has to go. If the standard is voting for a rival party (a reasonable excuse surely) then where does that leave Blair who has openly called for such, perhaps not in so many words.
This of course doesn't begin to address the war crimes of both men. Campbell has, in my view, serious questions to ask. Remember Dr Kelly? Now I don't want to entertain lurid conspiracy theories, but at the very least the pressure exerted on that man, at a time when Campbell was implicit in banging the drum for war, drove him to suicide. That's the best case scenario! Should I speculate on anything further?
However, Campbell, despite his protestations of loyalty (which don't mean much when you're voting for a rvial party), was never elected. He represents no one but himself. He's a spin doctor. He was the inspiration for Malcolm Tucker for god's sake! This man has no business in an organised group supposed to be representing the working class. What part of that does he represent? Elected by whom?
Isn't the era of the spin doctor now over? The media lies so much in general and across the board that these people are largely out of a job now anyway. Youtube propagandists, twitter loons, and facebook groups filled with the dregs of humanity seem to have replaced them. That and the everyday bias shown by the politician class at the BBC. Surely there are better representatives for the Labour party than Alistair bloody Campbell!
1. Corbyn doesn't get to decide this.
2. Labour must go further. If it only picks on Campbell, however deserved (and it is), then it looks weak in my view.
So by the standards applied here there are few from the old days of New Labour who don't deserve the chop. Of course they are now encircling the wagons. They don't want their seat on the gravy train to be troubled. This means that sooner or later, hopefully the former, Blair has to go. If the standard is voting for a rival party (a reasonable excuse surely) then where does that leave Blair who has openly called for such, perhaps not in so many words.
This of course doesn't begin to address the war crimes of both men. Campbell has, in my view, serious questions to ask. Remember Dr Kelly? Now I don't want to entertain lurid conspiracy theories, but at the very least the pressure exerted on that man, at a time when Campbell was implicit in banging the drum for war, drove him to suicide. That's the best case scenario! Should I speculate on anything further?
However, Campbell, despite his protestations of loyalty (which don't mean much when you're voting for a rvial party), was never elected. He represents no one but himself. He's a spin doctor. He was the inspiration for Malcolm Tucker for god's sake! This man has no business in an organised group supposed to be representing the working class. What part of that does he represent? Elected by whom?
Isn't the era of the spin doctor now over? The media lies so much in general and across the board that these people are largely out of a job now anyway. Youtube propagandists, twitter loons, and facebook groups filled with the dregs of humanity seem to have replaced them. That and the everyday bias shown by the politician class at the BBC. Surely there are better representatives for the Labour party than Alistair bloody Campbell!
Tuesday, 28 May 2019
A very British Armageddon, Day 1
My last post was over two months ago. This is pathetic.
I actually find it genuinely difficult doing this, which isn't a good look for someone who wants to do this and thinks he's good at writing. But that's the nature of mental health and how it can affect people. It doesn't inhibit their aspiration, but their function. When that fact goes up against the prevailing culture, it's values of effort and particular work ethos, there is a disconnect. This doesn't help.
Anyway, if you're reaidng this then I'm very grateful.
Where are we now? Something big just happened, what was it again?
Oh that's right. Britain and the world continues its shift to the right. The collapse of capitalism seems historically commensurate with the rise of fascism. Or fascism and crisis are intertwined. A simplistic analysis to be sure, but one look at the Guardian video of Owen Jones' encounter with the Brexit Party shows this. Unfortunately Owen handles this poorly: he's easily rebuked (by idiots, to be sure) and doesn't really ask any insightful questions. Louis Theroux (or even Louis Thorough) he is not. But that's not really the issue: I'm pointing to the attitudes of these people. Their sense of oppression and highly emotive angular responses point to the same kind of attitudes you saw in Germany. Perhaps we aren't quite that bad, but the point is made. These people see 'the left' as a monolith, they all but use the phrase 'cultural marxism' (a code for anyone opposing their views). They feel beleaguered. The EU wants to do them down. The left wants to do them down. They can't speak their mind (say racist/regressive shit)?
These are not reasoned positions, they are the product of propaganda and coercion. The Brexit Party campaign was based around hysterical tropes, and the Brexit campaign was fought using lies and racism. There's no easy way out of this, but surely we don't have to support and give succoour to these deeply embedded roots. This very English racism.
I see this as a new start. Not perhaps in the positive way one normally associates with that phrase, but something has shifted. Not perhaps Brexit itself, which is still a monorail to disaster. I don't think we can realistically leave, despite recognising how dis-empowering the EU is. It's a bosses club - but look who we give power to if we leave. Look who it will be now that professional scarecrow and compassion-free reactionary, Theresay May, is on the way out; her demise greaased by a sudden, uncharacteristic moment of tears. Something must have gotten into her withered eye sockets, dust in a Dalek's eyestalk, because she found nothing similar when working class people were burned to death, nor at the plight of child poverty, nor Windrush. You get the (horrific) picture.
It's a new start, hopefully for this blog, and me. That's weird, but I'm trying to put words to a feeling. It's a bit like turning off the main road and coming on to the motorway. The final stretch you mght say. I'm alluding to Brexit, but also, perhaps, the demise of not just the Tories (please god), but our horrific political system. Something has shifted with these election results and it may get worse before it gets better. The centre is evaporating (which is amusing if you're a CUK schadenfreude enthusiast like me). Unfortunately though that does mean, it seems, an emboldening of fascism, of the rise of the far right.
It's happening in Italy it seems (where the EU has fucked over their budget, the sort of politics that plays into fascist notions of sovereignty and oppression). Here it manifests with the darkly fascinating rise of the Brexit Party. Specifically, who is funding them. I have no doubt Farage is being funded by some throughly dodgy specimens, one of which we surely know about, Arron Banks. A grotesque little tyrant. The sort that can only exist under capitalism.
We must resist. We must recognise that neither Westminster nor the EU are desirable options, and we must not give our power over to tyrants from either side. It's only the working class - the people - who can save us now. I think what Labour needs to do is fight for working class internationalist interests, a lexit. A second referendum will not produce a decisive result and further deepen an already wounded working class.
I actually find it genuinely difficult doing this, which isn't a good look for someone who wants to do this and thinks he's good at writing. But that's the nature of mental health and how it can affect people. It doesn't inhibit their aspiration, but their function. When that fact goes up against the prevailing culture, it's values of effort and particular work ethos, there is a disconnect. This doesn't help.
Anyway, if you're reaidng this then I'm very grateful.
Where are we now? Something big just happened, what was it again?
Oh that's right. Britain and the world continues its shift to the right. The collapse of capitalism seems historically commensurate with the rise of fascism. Or fascism and crisis are intertwined. A simplistic analysis to be sure, but one look at the Guardian video of Owen Jones' encounter with the Brexit Party shows this. Unfortunately Owen handles this poorly: he's easily rebuked (by idiots, to be sure) and doesn't really ask any insightful questions. Louis Theroux (or even Louis Thorough) he is not. But that's not really the issue: I'm pointing to the attitudes of these people. Their sense of oppression and highly emotive angular responses point to the same kind of attitudes you saw in Germany. Perhaps we aren't quite that bad, but the point is made. These people see 'the left' as a monolith, they all but use the phrase 'cultural marxism' (a code for anyone opposing their views). They feel beleaguered. The EU wants to do them down. The left wants to do them down. They can't speak their mind (say racist/regressive shit)?
These are not reasoned positions, they are the product of propaganda and coercion. The Brexit Party campaign was based around hysterical tropes, and the Brexit campaign was fought using lies and racism. There's no easy way out of this, but surely we don't have to support and give succoour to these deeply embedded roots. This very English racism.
I see this as a new start. Not perhaps in the positive way one normally associates with that phrase, but something has shifted. Not perhaps Brexit itself, which is still a monorail to disaster. I don't think we can realistically leave, despite recognising how dis-empowering the EU is. It's a bosses club - but look who we give power to if we leave. Look who it will be now that professional scarecrow and compassion-free reactionary, Theresay May, is on the way out; her demise greaased by a sudden, uncharacteristic moment of tears. Something must have gotten into her withered eye sockets, dust in a Dalek's eyestalk, because she found nothing similar when working class people were burned to death, nor at the plight of child poverty, nor Windrush. You get the (horrific) picture.
It's a new start, hopefully for this blog, and me. That's weird, but I'm trying to put words to a feeling. It's a bit like turning off the main road and coming on to the motorway. The final stretch you mght say. I'm alluding to Brexit, but also, perhaps, the demise of not just the Tories (please god), but our horrific political system. Something has shifted with these election results and it may get worse before it gets better. The centre is evaporating (which is amusing if you're a CUK schadenfreude enthusiast like me). Unfortunately though that does mean, it seems, an emboldening of fascism, of the rise of the far right.
It's happening in Italy it seems (where the EU has fucked over their budget, the sort of politics that plays into fascist notions of sovereignty and oppression). Here it manifests with the darkly fascinating rise of the Brexit Party. Specifically, who is funding them. I have no doubt Farage is being funded by some throughly dodgy specimens, one of which we surely know about, Arron Banks. A grotesque little tyrant. The sort that can only exist under capitalism.
We must resist. We must recognise that neither Westminster nor the EU are desirable options, and we must not give our power over to tyrants from either side. It's only the working class - the people - who can save us now. I think what Labour needs to do is fight for working class internationalist interests, a lexit. A second referendum will not produce a decisive result and further deepen an already wounded working class.
Thursday, 14 March 2019
Strike Three?
Where to begin: it's amazing how nothing happening can produce such tension and thought.
So yesterday I was supposed to have a home visit from the WCA people - supposed to, guess what didn't happen.
This would have been their third attempt after initially telling me -at the assessment centre - I needed to be seen by a doctor because I presented with eyesight issues. No one showed up. It was only after I rang them I learned the assessor had called it a day for 'personal reasons'. In other words, we ain't telling you shit. That they knew this and hadn't bothered to let me know says it all really.
Imagine treating people like that. Imagine dealing with people with conditions severe or less so; people that suffer anxiety, stress, etc, and this is the best you can manage. Is that not unacceptable? It should be!
So let's unpack this. First some context: my first go was Autumn of 2017 Despite a summons, the assessment was cancelled on the spot; because I had reported eyesight issues a doctor was required. Of course there wasn't one available and nobody had bothered to read the case notes. I then asked for a home visit and mentioned that this would need to be carefully arranged due to my living arrangements.
I was summoned back just before Christmas. I just assumed they'd ignored my home visit request, but in fact I wasn't booked in at all: I was on the list for a home visit. Only no one saw fit to actually inform me. Dealing with the assessment centre is stressful. Not least of all because everyone else present is a mirror reflecting your own stress, while tinpot Hitlers press home minute issues. One poor guy was threatened with being sent back because he'd said the wrong thing in respect of being made to wait. And wait you will. Even the security guard ended up taking his side. Persuading the receptionist, a veritable human emotional Medusa, was like pulling teeth it seemed.
This is no place for the infirm.
So I've been waiting, suffering traumatic post stress disorder invoked by the sound of a letterbox. What could be more absurd? No idea when or where I'd be seen except a fortnight prior to the appointment. That's the notice you're given of an impending assessment at a time of their choosing. The appointments are block booked a month or so at a time (or so I was told). You are not a part of that process and yet you are the focus. We have no say in our fate today.
I got a phone call at 9-30am from the assessor asking if I'd like to be seen an hour early because her first appointment had already finished. I said no because I only had the house to myself from 11. She agreed and said she'd see me then. I then spend the entire morning stressing like a beast, climbing the wall and staring out the window like a caged animal or a kid on Christmas eve. This isn't a good place to be. In these situations your own home becomes a different place. It was only at 2pm that I rang them and discovered what I mentioned above.
I find myself sceptical about that phone call. Again, I don't know what happened, but had she seen me at 10am - as she requested - it's very possible that appointment would have had to be abandoned for the same reasons. What a mess. It's entirely possible of course her phone call was genuine, but my mind is racing and I'm joining the dots!
I mentioned above that I needed to be seen by a doctor. On the letter it tells me the name of the person that's coming to visit me. There is no prefix to that indicating a title of any kind. Now again this may be my racing mind, but I checked online to see if that person was registered as either a doctor or an optician (you can actually do this). I'm not going to mention her name here but it's not an uncommon name. I got zero results. I know the search facility works because I double checked using other names. Now this is hardly conclusive but I'm not convinced this person actually meets their own criteria for this process! I suppose there's little I can do about this.
So I'm having a conversation with their office about all this. Naturally this is an officious conversation; you can sense the attitude of the staffperson. They imperceptibly bristle when you raise a problem. You can hear it in the tone when they inform me that they can't inform me of what exactly has happened - not even in general or vague terms (if possible). They offer a perfunctory bureaucratic not-sorry apology. It's officious it isn't informative and it certainly isn't caring.
My only option is for them to rebook the appointment; to them I'm just a piece of dry cleaning. I have no more emotions than a dirty piece of formal attire. I'm a wedding gown with spilt wine. I'm not a human being repeatedly undergoing a situation I find very stressful. Let me also be clear: there are people far worse off than I that, in a similar situation (and there will be people in similar situations), will just shatter. The booking process is similarly mechanical: they seem to 'block book'. Staffperson tells me that all their 'doctors' are booked until April, so I don't anticipate (probably a mistake) hearing until the start of next month. But who knows? It's back to dreading the sound of the letterbox.
I tried explaining just how stressful this is and, in a supreme example of aforementioned superciliousness (beat that dictionary corner!), am asked: "so you want us to close your case and refer it back to the DWP?".
That is passive aggressive and disingenuous. They know exactly what happens them and I try to prise an admission of that from them. Of course their reply is equally non-committal: "it's up to the DWP what happens, we don't know". Yeah you do: if a claim gets referred back it will certainly be closed - who knows what reasons they will give the DWP for their actions? I tell the staffperson that three attempts is too stressful I can't deal with another (I doubt it'll be a year before they write back!), but that falls on deaf ears. What would the DWP make of that reason? What can they?
And that is the problem. What can they do? It's a machine. It cannot understand human capacity or feeling. That you find it stressful is totally irrelevant. You either go through it or you close your claim - thereby tacitly admitting you are work-capable anyway (proving the point in their eyes). This system does not work because it cannot work. It is inimical to the problems it's designed to highlight. In fact so far gone is this broken system that to even describe it thus is to imply it can be fixed - it can't. It must, immediately, be completely and utterly scrapped. Dropped like a hot plate.
Also, don't forget these assessments are carried out on the public purse. We already know that the cost is more than the savings in terms of means testing people's benefits. But the reality is that a large corporate entity receives hundreds of millions. A portion of that, called profit, is immediately trousered, beyond the minimum they are prepared to spend to run the scheme.
This is a perfect example of capitalism's failings: in order to maintain their bottom line, they will only invest the minimum they feel necessary to provide this service. I don't even know if they pay the assessor's mileage for home visits! It's a giant corporate scam, and the worst part is that the staff, all of whom will have some connection with the medical sector perhaps in a previous life, could be working for the NHS. They could actually be doing some good, but instead they are economically persuaded away. That is outrageous; it's gutting the health service to fund ideological means testing.
This post is already long enough, more on this as my mindpsace congeals into something resembling coherency.
So yesterday I was supposed to have a home visit from the WCA people - supposed to, guess what didn't happen.
This would have been their third attempt after initially telling me -at the assessment centre - I needed to be seen by a doctor because I presented with eyesight issues. No one showed up. It was only after I rang them I learned the assessor had called it a day for 'personal reasons'. In other words, we ain't telling you shit. That they knew this and hadn't bothered to let me know says it all really.
Imagine treating people like that. Imagine dealing with people with conditions severe or less so; people that suffer anxiety, stress, etc, and this is the best you can manage. Is that not unacceptable? It should be!
So let's unpack this. First some context: my first go was Autumn of 2017 Despite a summons, the assessment was cancelled on the spot; because I had reported eyesight issues a doctor was required. Of course there wasn't one available and nobody had bothered to read the case notes. I then asked for a home visit and mentioned that this would need to be carefully arranged due to my living arrangements.
I was summoned back just before Christmas. I just assumed they'd ignored my home visit request, but in fact I wasn't booked in at all: I was on the list for a home visit. Only no one saw fit to actually inform me. Dealing with the assessment centre is stressful. Not least of all because everyone else present is a mirror reflecting your own stress, while tinpot Hitlers press home minute issues. One poor guy was threatened with being sent back because he'd said the wrong thing in respect of being made to wait. And wait you will. Even the security guard ended up taking his side. Persuading the receptionist, a veritable human emotional Medusa, was like pulling teeth it seemed.
This is no place for the infirm.
So I've been waiting, suffering traumatic post stress disorder invoked by the sound of a letterbox. What could be more absurd? No idea when or where I'd be seen except a fortnight prior to the appointment. That's the notice you're given of an impending assessment at a time of their choosing. The appointments are block booked a month or so at a time (or so I was told). You are not a part of that process and yet you are the focus. We have no say in our fate today.
I got a phone call at 9-30am from the assessor asking if I'd like to be seen an hour early because her first appointment had already finished. I said no because I only had the house to myself from 11. She agreed and said she'd see me then. I then spend the entire morning stressing like a beast, climbing the wall and staring out the window like a caged animal or a kid on Christmas eve. This isn't a good place to be. In these situations your own home becomes a different place. It was only at 2pm that I rang them and discovered what I mentioned above.
I find myself sceptical about that phone call. Again, I don't know what happened, but had she seen me at 10am - as she requested - it's very possible that appointment would have had to be abandoned for the same reasons. What a mess. It's entirely possible of course her phone call was genuine, but my mind is racing and I'm joining the dots!
I mentioned above that I needed to be seen by a doctor. On the letter it tells me the name of the person that's coming to visit me. There is no prefix to that indicating a title of any kind. Now again this may be my racing mind, but I checked online to see if that person was registered as either a doctor or an optician (you can actually do this). I'm not going to mention her name here but it's not an uncommon name. I got zero results. I know the search facility works because I double checked using other names. Now this is hardly conclusive but I'm not convinced this person actually meets their own criteria for this process! I suppose there's little I can do about this.
So I'm having a conversation with their office about all this. Naturally this is an officious conversation; you can sense the attitude of the staffperson. They imperceptibly bristle when you raise a problem. You can hear it in the tone when they inform me that they can't inform me of what exactly has happened - not even in general or vague terms (if possible). They offer a perfunctory bureaucratic not-sorry apology. It's officious it isn't informative and it certainly isn't caring.
My only option is for them to rebook the appointment; to them I'm just a piece of dry cleaning. I have no more emotions than a dirty piece of formal attire. I'm a wedding gown with spilt wine. I'm not a human being repeatedly undergoing a situation I find very stressful. Let me also be clear: there are people far worse off than I that, in a similar situation (and there will be people in similar situations), will just shatter. The booking process is similarly mechanical: they seem to 'block book'. Staffperson tells me that all their 'doctors' are booked until April, so I don't anticipate (probably a mistake) hearing until the start of next month. But who knows? It's back to dreading the sound of the letterbox.
I tried explaining just how stressful this is and, in a supreme example of aforementioned superciliousness (beat that dictionary corner!), am asked: "so you want us to close your case and refer it back to the DWP?".
That is passive aggressive and disingenuous. They know exactly what happens them and I try to prise an admission of that from them. Of course their reply is equally non-committal: "it's up to the DWP what happens, we don't know". Yeah you do: if a claim gets referred back it will certainly be closed - who knows what reasons they will give the DWP for their actions? I tell the staffperson that three attempts is too stressful I can't deal with another (I doubt it'll be a year before they write back!), but that falls on deaf ears. What would the DWP make of that reason? What can they?
And that is the problem. What can they do? It's a machine. It cannot understand human capacity or feeling. That you find it stressful is totally irrelevant. You either go through it or you close your claim - thereby tacitly admitting you are work-capable anyway (proving the point in their eyes). This system does not work because it cannot work. It is inimical to the problems it's designed to highlight. In fact so far gone is this broken system that to even describe it thus is to imply it can be fixed - it can't. It must, immediately, be completely and utterly scrapped. Dropped like a hot plate.
Also, don't forget these assessments are carried out on the public purse. We already know that the cost is more than the savings in terms of means testing people's benefits. But the reality is that a large corporate entity receives hundreds of millions. A portion of that, called profit, is immediately trousered, beyond the minimum they are prepared to spend to run the scheme.
This is a perfect example of capitalism's failings: in order to maintain their bottom line, they will only invest the minimum they feel necessary to provide this service. I don't even know if they pay the assessor's mileage for home visits! It's a giant corporate scam, and the worst part is that the staff, all of whom will have some connection with the medical sector perhaps in a previous life, could be working for the NHS. They could actually be doing some good, but instead they are economically persuaded away. That is outrageous; it's gutting the health service to fund ideological means testing.
This post is already long enough, more on this as my mindpsace congeals into something resembling coherency.
Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Return of What Is Help?
It is pretty clear that what passes for support is nothing of the kind. It's nothing more than bootstrap mentality bolted onto American self help guru buzzwords granted the gift of funding from the likes of the EU Social Fund. I guess that won't be happening anymore!
Schemes that have go-getting names like 'Aspire', or use numbers instead of words, like 'Aim 2 Succeed'. It just sounds like self reassurance rather than actual positive support. Like an affirmation: say it enough times and you'll start believing it. That, at least, is the theory.
In practice it just amounts to industrial scale gaslighting. If you do not fit in with very narrow definitions of what support actually amounts to then expect to be held responsible: "we just don't know how to help you". Then why are you spending public money? Why aren't you addressing fundamental structural problems rather than blaming the individual for their circumstances when those circumstances are largely dependent on the environment?
For example, Second Step, another local provider, has been caught in lie. I applied to their Peer Employability Programme. In fact I met with the person running it. I explained my circumstances, but ultimately they had nothing to offer other than the usual vague talk of action plans and 'confidence building', which I think is their euphemism for everything else. I've no idea how that would address structural unemployment problems nor the conditions of the labour market that people out of work with mental health issues would have to face. How can it? It's the employer that will decide not to hire the person with such a 'colourful' history and there's nothing you can do about it.
So I complained a month or so ago that the scheme wasn't delivering what it was purported to offer. Subsequent to that the line manager for the person running it told me, emphatically in two separate emails, that the scheme wasn't intended for people with mental health problems. Something they neglected to tell me either at first contact or during the meeting I had with them. If you don't cater to that then surely you'd say something, right?
Last week I contacted Second Step's North Somerset provision (the scheme was run in Bristol - separate office, the usual nonsense). They said they had nothing comparable but might I be interested in something called the Peer Employability Programme being run in Bristol - because it caters to mental health sufferers! Here's what they told me:
Schemes that have go-getting names like 'Aspire', or use numbers instead of words, like 'Aim 2 Succeed'. It just sounds like self reassurance rather than actual positive support. Like an affirmation: say it enough times and you'll start believing it. That, at least, is the theory.
In practice it just amounts to industrial scale gaslighting. If you do not fit in with very narrow definitions of what support actually amounts to then expect to be held responsible: "we just don't know how to help you". Then why are you spending public money? Why aren't you addressing fundamental structural problems rather than blaming the individual for their circumstances when those circumstances are largely dependent on the environment?
For example, Second Step, another local provider, has been caught in lie. I applied to their Peer Employability Programme. In fact I met with the person running it. I explained my circumstances, but ultimately they had nothing to offer other than the usual vague talk of action plans and 'confidence building', which I think is their euphemism for everything else. I've no idea how that would address structural unemployment problems nor the conditions of the labour market that people out of work with mental health issues would have to face. How can it? It's the employer that will decide not to hire the person with such a 'colourful' history and there's nothing you can do about it.
So I complained a month or so ago that the scheme wasn't delivering what it was purported to offer. Subsequent to that the line manager for the person running it told me, emphatically in two separate emails, that the scheme wasn't intended for people with mental health problems. Something they neglected to tell me either at first contact or during the meeting I had with them. If you don't cater to that then surely you'd say something, right?
Last week I contacted Second Step's North Somerset provision (the scheme was run in Bristol - separate office, the usual nonsense). They said they had nothing comparable but might I be interested in something called the Peer Employability Programme being run in Bristol - because it caters to mental health sufferers! Here's what they told me:
Caught in a lie. Writ large: for people with experience of mental health problems. I emailed back and told them this. Their reply was to abrogate responsibility:I have just found this service that we have which you may find useful please contact them using details below:For people with experience of mental health problemsWe understand that it can be daunting to return to work after having time off because of mental health problems. That's why we're working with the Rank Foundation - a grant-giving charitable trust - to look at the barriers faced by unemployed people with mental health problems to get back to work.The result of this partnership is a new project called the Peer Employability Programme which will support people who have experience of mental health problems to get ready to enter the job market once more.The project is open to people who have used health and social care support services and have been unemployed for at least three months. The idea is to work closely and collaboratively to help you become job-ready and maximise your potential for paid work.Participants will be offered a combination of one-to-one support, employability workshops and help to explore work goals. Our highly personalised approach will mean we can work on the barriers people come across and do our best to overcome them together.To find out more about the programme, which runs until September 2019, please contact
I have forwarded your previous email to our complaints officer. Please direct any future correspondence that you may have to her.This is help. The ability to take no responsibility once caught in a lie. All while dealing with vulnerable and potentially vulnerable people. Such as those suffering with mental health issues to one degree or another.
Friday, 1 March 2019
Brown Letter Day
Is there any other shade of envelope? Is there any shade more terrifying?
Yes, it's that time again.
You just know. You see the envelope and there is some barely perceptible quality your senses latch on to with predator-like accuracy. The summons from the Department for Work and Pain.
You will be assessed. And assessed. And assessed. Never helped. Always assessed.
This time it is a little different. Long time readers may dismally recall that last time I was told that I would be getting a home interview after they screwed up two appointments at the Misery Centre.
You might think that's a victory, but of course it isn't. My appointment is for sometime between 11am and 1pm on the 13th. They can't be accurate of course, but I guess that's to be expected. The problem is that I'm going to somehow either contrive to get the house to myself, which will be fun, or I will have to beg for a replacement appointment. Something that will not be easy. "Why?" they will demand - as I'm sure the phone will be answered by the hawkish old mare that works in the Misery Centre. Maybe it's the job that just leeches joi de vivre from your bones like rotting meat in the desert, or maybe they just have a knack for finding the most joyless officious miserable creatures and hiring them. But that woman is...not the sort of face you want greeting you when you're rocking up to be assessed by the DWP.
So that just happened. Nothing else to say really; I'm just venting. I don't expect to pass. That will mean having to deal with Universal Credit or somehow finding work before my savings expire. I've got £1300 in the bank. I've kept it back fearing that rainiest of rainy days. Sooner or later, in the welfare state, it always rains, if you catch my drift. What's sad is that I could have put that money to good use. Some people are very good at just buying a travel tick and buggering off and having adventures. Not me though, I've no idea how they manage.
Perhaps I should try it; leave a sign on the door telling the assessor "gone fishing"!
Yes, it's that time again.
You just know. You see the envelope and there is some barely perceptible quality your senses latch on to with predator-like accuracy. The summons from the Department for Work and Pain.
You will be assessed. And assessed. And assessed. Never helped. Always assessed.
This time it is a little different. Long time readers may dismally recall that last time I was told that I would be getting a home interview after they screwed up two appointments at the Misery Centre.
You might think that's a victory, but of course it isn't. My appointment is for sometime between 11am and 1pm on the 13th. They can't be accurate of course, but I guess that's to be expected. The problem is that I'm going to somehow either contrive to get the house to myself, which will be fun, or I will have to beg for a replacement appointment. Something that will not be easy. "Why?" they will demand - as I'm sure the phone will be answered by the hawkish old mare that works in the Misery Centre. Maybe it's the job that just leeches joi de vivre from your bones like rotting meat in the desert, or maybe they just have a knack for finding the most joyless officious miserable creatures and hiring them. But that woman is...not the sort of face you want greeting you when you're rocking up to be assessed by the DWP.
So that just happened. Nothing else to say really; I'm just venting. I don't expect to pass. That will mean having to deal with Universal Credit or somehow finding work before my savings expire. I've got £1300 in the bank. I've kept it back fearing that rainiest of rainy days. Sooner or later, in the welfare state, it always rains, if you catch my drift. What's sad is that I could have put that money to good use. Some people are very good at just buying a travel tick and buggering off and having adventures. Not me though, I've no idea how they manage.
Perhaps I should try it; leave a sign on the door telling the assessor "gone fishing"!
Monday, 25 February 2019
What is help?
Over the last week I made a complaint to Second Step whose Peer Employability Programme I had joined last October. A programme that seems to offer very little.
What is telling about this process is the response. It was almost patronising. You think something has gone wrong, we MUST listen to you, we MUST learn. Tell us all about it! Sit down, tell us, tell us! It was over the top.
My issue was that, after ignoring three emails expressing my dissatisfaction, they didn't respond to me at all, just passed them on to the person running the course. I objected to that because I felt that would be construed as a personal attack. I have no wish for her to have her confidence undermined. At the very least surely you talk to me first to understand the issues. But, as they say, whatever.
The consequence of all this is that today her line manager has emailed to discuss whether I want to continue. The problem is that I don't know what I'm continuing with. I asked her what this course was meant to offer. That was the root of my complaint: I have no idea what this Programme is there to do.
I know what they say. They give me the sales spiel; we can work with you, we can do all the usual stuff (like print out cv's), and we can boost confidence. This is a familiar pattern to me. It's the same kind of programme that all these organisations offer. It's exactly the same.
The fundamental problem is that it isn't meant to challenge the status quo while ignoring the reality that the status quo, the economic system the nature of the society within which we find ourselves, are the cause.
People don't have low self esteem because they are lazy. They have it because their society and their environment beats it out of them. The confident people that I've known have all come from strong unified healthy family and social backgrounds. You cannot 'teach' self confidence; that just amounts to fakery. A few simply 'team building' exercises, we've all seen the sort, are not a replacement for a healthy environment. That's how we, as social creatures, are meant to live. Unfortunately the world doesn't work out that way.
Of course social enterprises can't single handedly change the world and I don't expect them to, but I am not interested in buying into the "only you can change your world" mantra. That's a severely simplistic worldview. By all means engage in healthy introspection - just don't believe that your problems are always or totally your fault. That is gaslighting. It also absolves the people who have power in our society - the psychopath ruling class - of their behaviour.
What these organisations should be doing is affiliating. They should link up and present a united front on behalf of the people. That at least would be a start. But instead they affiliate with the likes of the DWp and just end up further damaging and dividing people. For this reason I remain completely unclear as to what this Peer Employability Programme offers, nor whether it's worth my time continuing. What would I be continuing with? I don't want to just toss them aside because organisations like this are the only game in town. However what connections do they have with the labour market? Can they find actual decent jobs? Do they have any real influence. What good is confidence building if it thus leads nowhere?
What is telling about this process is the response. It was almost patronising. You think something has gone wrong, we MUST listen to you, we MUST learn. Tell us all about it! Sit down, tell us, tell us! It was over the top.
My issue was that, after ignoring three emails expressing my dissatisfaction, they didn't respond to me at all, just passed them on to the person running the course. I objected to that because I felt that would be construed as a personal attack. I have no wish for her to have her confidence undermined. At the very least surely you talk to me first to understand the issues. But, as they say, whatever.
The consequence of all this is that today her line manager has emailed to discuss whether I want to continue. The problem is that I don't know what I'm continuing with. I asked her what this course was meant to offer. That was the root of my complaint: I have no idea what this Programme is there to do.
I know what they say. They give me the sales spiel; we can work with you, we can do all the usual stuff (like print out cv's), and we can boost confidence. This is a familiar pattern to me. It's the same kind of programme that all these organisations offer. It's exactly the same.
The fundamental problem is that it isn't meant to challenge the status quo while ignoring the reality that the status quo, the economic system the nature of the society within which we find ourselves, are the cause.
People don't have low self esteem because they are lazy. They have it because their society and their environment beats it out of them. The confident people that I've known have all come from strong unified healthy family and social backgrounds. You cannot 'teach' self confidence; that just amounts to fakery. A few simply 'team building' exercises, we've all seen the sort, are not a replacement for a healthy environment. That's how we, as social creatures, are meant to live. Unfortunately the world doesn't work out that way.
Of course social enterprises can't single handedly change the world and I don't expect them to, but I am not interested in buying into the "only you can change your world" mantra. That's a severely simplistic worldview. By all means engage in healthy introspection - just don't believe that your problems are always or totally your fault. That is gaslighting. It also absolves the people who have power in our society - the psychopath ruling class - of their behaviour.
What these organisations should be doing is affiliating. They should link up and present a united front on behalf of the people. That at least would be a start. But instead they affiliate with the likes of the DWp and just end up further damaging and dividing people. For this reason I remain completely unclear as to what this Peer Employability Programme offers, nor whether it's worth my time continuing. What would I be continuing with? I don't want to just toss them aside because organisations like this are the only game in town. However what connections do they have with the labour market? Can they find actual decent jobs? Do they have any real influence. What good is confidence building if it thus leads nowhere?
Sunday, 3 February 2019
I Hate The Cold!
I can't get on with this time of year. There's no getting away from it. The freezing temperatures are only a part of it. There is something that sinks during winter and for three months you feel like drowning. I don't like it at all. It's like the very world is conspiring against you; the hostile cold. It is very hard to stay motivated and energetic during this period, and currently I am neither. Bring on the Spring on, says I.
Thus have I been lax in posting here.
It's been almost a month since my Work Focussed Interview. Fortunately I was able to request a telephone interview, though why that should ever be an issue is beyond me. Typically DWP bureaucracy makes requesting one a pain in the arse; you contact your 'work coach' but you can't because they don't give you the details. Instead you have to keep ringing the call centre to finally get through to someone that will give that information. Sometimes they don't. It's a system that exists to make a rod for its own back - and thus makes those operating it difficult to deal with. Bureacracy begets pointless bureacracy.
To be fair, the woman - let's call her Tracy (because the DWP did) - was actually pleasant to deal with. I can't lie. However the whole thing is such a waste of time. It isn't remotely work focussed because, as we all know, the lsat thing the DWP does to help people find work is to help people find work. They have nothing to offer, but want to check up on you, every six months (so see you again in the Summer I guess), to make sure you're doing it.
That's all fairly banal stuff and mostly obbious to anyone involved with the DWP. We all know this. However what might not be known is that the system isn't just there to check up on you, it's there to make sure you are doing 'something', even if that is to agree to speak to your GP (no matter hiow pointless). If you don't, that is, if you are seen to refuse (it would be impermissible for the GP to say whether or not you have visited them, they aren't - or weren't - allowed to divulge that to anyone), they can stop your benefit.
What this means is that ESA (and probably UC) can be disallowed on the basis that, regardless of your health, you are not 'towing the line'. You are not seen to be 'moving forward'. Insert your euphemism of choice.
This is actually a pretty big deal. I explained the situation to her and she seemed to listen. I don't get the sense she's a troublemaker, like of the tinpot generals that work for the DWP. I explained that the local area has no mental health services and that ancillary organisations such as Second Step (who now comrpise the totality of 'support' locally) are essentially useless. I joined their Peer Employability Programme in October and have had next to no interacts with them nor have the anything to offer. These schemes are cheap to run and offer nothing. It's essentially a scam where they get service users to provide a non-existent service.
I did agree to go back to my GP, in regard of my ceaseless pursuit of an aspergers diagnosis. I couldn't explain to her that just wasn't going to get anywhere. GP's have no understanding of these issues and simply deflect any concern by saying "why do you need one anyway?" as if you can just function in our system the same as people who don't have cognitive/social differences, or that you can just positively think them away. It's a deflection from the reality that there is no help and that the local mental health partnership is, frankly, bollocks. I'm trying to pursue a case for advocacy but that again is difficult since finding people who can stand up and be counted on your behalf without tugging the bureaucratic or procedural forelock is nigh impossible.
So I had to agree that I would visit my GP or furnish the DWP with grounds for depriving me of an income. Does that seem reasonable? I'm essentially being forced to speak to a GP while I know full well that it will achieve nothing. Even if another diagnosis attempt can be secured it will be months possibly longer before anything can happen, with no guarantee it won't be the same people undertaking the same crappy process as before. That process was flawed and they ignored me explaining my situation. I even provided evidence from online tests (proper tests, designed by actual professionals, not just any internet nonsense, I should add) to the GP but they just lost it and gave up interest. There's a weird thing that happens with GP's: their interest seems to vacillate. One minute they offer to help asking to look at what evidence you have and seeming to agree in a way that suggests understanding. But when you return it's the opposite; you might as well be talking to someone else.
Of course I didn't argue the toss with the DWP. I haven't the energy for their bullshit. But I don't think it's right that people can be bullied into talking with a doctor. Nothing should surprise us about their attitude anymore. I haven't been though because there is no point. They can't help.
Thus have I been lax in posting here.
It's been almost a month since my Work Focussed Interview. Fortunately I was able to request a telephone interview, though why that should ever be an issue is beyond me. Typically DWP bureaucracy makes requesting one a pain in the arse; you contact your 'work coach' but you can't because they don't give you the details. Instead you have to keep ringing the call centre to finally get through to someone that will give that information. Sometimes they don't. It's a system that exists to make a rod for its own back - and thus makes those operating it difficult to deal with. Bureacracy begets pointless bureacracy.
To be fair, the woman - let's call her Tracy (because the DWP did) - was actually pleasant to deal with. I can't lie. However the whole thing is such a waste of time. It isn't remotely work focussed because, as we all know, the lsat thing the DWP does to help people find work is to help people find work. They have nothing to offer, but want to check up on you, every six months (so see you again in the Summer I guess), to make sure you're doing it.
That's all fairly banal stuff and mostly obbious to anyone involved with the DWP. We all know this. However what might not be known is that the system isn't just there to check up on you, it's there to make sure you are doing 'something', even if that is to agree to speak to your GP (no matter hiow pointless). If you don't, that is, if you are seen to refuse (it would be impermissible for the GP to say whether or not you have visited them, they aren't - or weren't - allowed to divulge that to anyone), they can stop your benefit.
What this means is that ESA (and probably UC) can be disallowed on the basis that, regardless of your health, you are not 'towing the line'. You are not seen to be 'moving forward'. Insert your euphemism of choice.
This is actually a pretty big deal. I explained the situation to her and she seemed to listen. I don't get the sense she's a troublemaker, like of the tinpot generals that work for the DWP. I explained that the local area has no mental health services and that ancillary organisations such as Second Step (who now comrpise the totality of 'support' locally) are essentially useless. I joined their Peer Employability Programme in October and have had next to no interacts with them nor have the anything to offer. These schemes are cheap to run and offer nothing. It's essentially a scam where they get service users to provide a non-existent service.
I did agree to go back to my GP, in regard of my ceaseless pursuit of an aspergers diagnosis. I couldn't explain to her that just wasn't going to get anywhere. GP's have no understanding of these issues and simply deflect any concern by saying "why do you need one anyway?" as if you can just function in our system the same as people who don't have cognitive/social differences, or that you can just positively think them away. It's a deflection from the reality that there is no help and that the local mental health partnership is, frankly, bollocks. I'm trying to pursue a case for advocacy but that again is difficult since finding people who can stand up and be counted on your behalf without tugging the bureaucratic or procedural forelock is nigh impossible.
So I had to agree that I would visit my GP or furnish the DWP with grounds for depriving me of an income. Does that seem reasonable? I'm essentially being forced to speak to a GP while I know full well that it will achieve nothing. Even if another diagnosis attempt can be secured it will be months possibly longer before anything can happen, with no guarantee it won't be the same people undertaking the same crappy process as before. That process was flawed and they ignored me explaining my situation. I even provided evidence from online tests (proper tests, designed by actual professionals, not just any internet nonsense, I should add) to the GP but they just lost it and gave up interest. There's a weird thing that happens with GP's: their interest seems to vacillate. One minute they offer to help asking to look at what evidence you have and seeming to agree in a way that suggests understanding. But when you return it's the opposite; you might as well be talking to someone else.
Of course I didn't argue the toss with the DWP. I haven't the energy for their bullshit. But I don't think it's right that people can be bullied into talking with a doctor. Nothing should surprise us about their attitude anymore. I haven't been though because there is no point. They can't help.
Wednesday, 9 January 2019
Fascists vs Fascists
In which you will see how I can turn every topic into being about me!
What is the world we are living in right now? I don't recognise it at all. I simply don't. Brexit has torn society in half. It's made Game of Thrones look sane. All so hamfucker Cameron could appeal to gammonatti of Britain and win an election. Well that worked out didn't it!
To be clear, I don't think Anna Soubry is a nazi. I do however think she's a fascist and, in common discourse, that's largely synonymous. I think this because she is a willing proponent of state force wielded with bludgeoning force against the rest of us. Let's look at her voting record on welfare, shall we?
You can check out the rest of her voting record while you're there. A few progressive decisions (pro gay rights, like the hamfucker himself) doesn't really excuse her being a willing member of the capitalist elite that uses violence and weaponises poverty against the poor. That is fascism. If she wasn't a Tory, and just an ordinary shmuck like the rest of us, she'd simply be a gobby parochial tedious daily mail reader type (one imagines).
In short: I refuse to defend her. I shouldn't have to defend her. The question isn't "is it ok for idiots to shout 'nazi!' at politicians'. The question should be "why are we tolerating a system that creates the conditions for this to arise". To be clear the idiots shouting at her (and Owen Jones - and probably many others) are by no means people I support either. This Goddard chap is a total fucking idiot with no understanding of the systems in play in our society. He's just blurting out , almost stream of consciousness, the tropes fed to him daily by the intelligentsia. That isn't to excuse it, but to explain it.
Defending an individual Tory, one who has an appalling attitude toward the poor, is addressing the symptoms of the problems in our society. What needs to be addressed is the root. The systems of hierarchy and oppression that allow two human beings, such as Goddard and Soubry (unless there's some genetic heritage I'm unaware of), not to be equals. There's a gulf between them and neither seem able or willing to understand why that exists. As a consequence there is the voice of a confused idiot with appalling views screaming because he feels something is being taken away from him. Yet I can guarantee he has not once protested at politicians for taking away the rights of the sick and the poor (more likely lumped them in with migrants as scroungers). Has he ever called IDS or McVey or, now, Rudd a nazi? Doubtful.
Should he? Fuck yes!
There is a lot of anger in our society and it needs channelling properly. Soubry makes no bones that she's pro-EU. A lot of Tories are, they didn't want Brexit, but the working class called their bluff - and not always correctly. The EU is a pro-capitalist neoliberal institution. THey are certainly not interested in emancipating the working class, just look at what they've done over the last eight years in response to Tory austerity. Nothing. A member state destriying the poor and savaging their lives. Nothing.
That's fascism. While there is a concern that idiots like Goddard (no doubt fed by the likes of Steve Bannon and the international dark money that funds the far right, which is a huge concern) are the tip of a deadly iceberg, the threat they pose needs to be addressed far more fundamentally. The discussion isn't about what's polite in discourse, it's about the working class and the ruling class.
Besides it's not as if Soubry can't dish it out!
What is the world we are living in right now? I don't recognise it at all. I simply don't. Brexit has torn society in half. It's made Game of Thrones look sane. All so hamfucker Cameron could appeal to gammonatti of Britain and win an election. Well that worked out didn't it!
To be clear, I don't think Anna Soubry is a nazi. I do however think she's a fascist and, in common discourse, that's largely synonymous. I think this because she is a willing proponent of state force wielded with bludgeoning force against the rest of us. Let's look at her voting record on welfare, shall we?
You can check out the rest of her voting record while you're there. A few progressive decisions (pro gay rights, like the hamfucker himself) doesn't really excuse her being a willing member of the capitalist elite that uses violence and weaponises poverty against the poor. That is fascism. If she wasn't a Tory, and just an ordinary shmuck like the rest of us, she'd simply be a gobby parochial tedious daily mail reader type (one imagines).
In short: I refuse to defend her. I shouldn't have to defend her. The question isn't "is it ok for idiots to shout 'nazi!' at politicians'. The question should be "why are we tolerating a system that creates the conditions for this to arise". To be clear the idiots shouting at her (and Owen Jones - and probably many others) are by no means people I support either. This Goddard chap is a total fucking idiot with no understanding of the systems in play in our society. He's just blurting out , almost stream of consciousness, the tropes fed to him daily by the intelligentsia. That isn't to excuse it, but to explain it.
Defending an individual Tory, one who has an appalling attitude toward the poor, is addressing the symptoms of the problems in our society. What needs to be addressed is the root. The systems of hierarchy and oppression that allow two human beings, such as Goddard and Soubry (unless there's some genetic heritage I'm unaware of), not to be equals. There's a gulf between them and neither seem able or willing to understand why that exists. As a consequence there is the voice of a confused idiot with appalling views screaming because he feels something is being taken away from him. Yet I can guarantee he has not once protested at politicians for taking away the rights of the sick and the poor (more likely lumped them in with migrants as scroungers). Has he ever called IDS or McVey or, now, Rudd a nazi? Doubtful.
Should he? Fuck yes!
There is a lot of anger in our society and it needs channelling properly. Soubry makes no bones that she's pro-EU. A lot of Tories are, they didn't want Brexit, but the working class called their bluff - and not always correctly. The EU is a pro-capitalist neoliberal institution. THey are certainly not interested in emancipating the working class, just look at what they've done over the last eight years in response to Tory austerity. Nothing. A member state destriying the poor and savaging their lives. Nothing.
That's fascism. While there is a concern that idiots like Goddard (no doubt fed by the likes of Steve Bannon and the international dark money that funds the far right, which is a huge concern) are the tip of a deadly iceberg, the threat they pose needs to be addressed far more fundamentally. The discussion isn't about what's polite in discourse, it's about the working class and the ruling class.
Besides it's not as if Soubry can't dish it out!
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