[urlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-steve-mccabe/iain-duncan-smith-food-banks_b_4489974.html?utm_hp_ref=uk[/url

Quite an excellent piece of informative writing (above), and is there anyone alive in the country who does not think that IDS (himself, not a deputy) should at the very least agree to a meeting with some of the folks who have offered their services in advice ?

The very first two comments after the article are also very interesting (they may be at the end of the list when you read them), one giving a Tesco survey that has simply not been reported on in the media and another broadly in support of the government but urging IDS to address the issue rather than ignore it.

I suspect though that he will continue to ignore the matter through 2014 as he doesn't seem to have the temperament or character to stop and look over his shoulder to see if the rest of the troops are still following him, all the more surprising when you consider that after being sacked as Tory Party leader for being "ineffective" he formed the Centre for Social Justice, a group which states that it will work with various charities to eradicate poverty, after being its founder and chair for several years until 2010 he resigned and remains a lifelong trustee - how strange.

It would have been of more interest to know why IDS dismisses the possible link.
I mean what is his evidence that there is not a link and if so what IS the main reaon for the trend.
There will be other factors admitted.

[url=http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Cambridge-University-college-Master-Rowan-Williams-criticises-Iain-Duncan-Smiths-disturbing-remarks-about-foodbanks-20131224060424.htmFollowed by the ex-Archbishop of Canterbury[/url speaking as a patron of a foodbank.

Iain Duncan Smith is a full-weight sociopath with not a semblance of humanity or empathy. Camoron is only keeping him in post to assuage the right wing element

I think the real reason that Cameron keeps him in the post is as a fall guy and firewall - notice how Cameron never gets the criticism even in the left wing press or blogs - the target is always IDS, his past history in the party made him the ideal candidate for the dirty work, he is a proven failure within the party and yet gets one of the top jobs, albeit the job most likely to end your political and personal career.

Having said that, I am growing more convinced that they will be re-elected in 2015 as, if the Murdoch press is to be believed, there are plenty who support measures to curb the sponging, skiving, unworking, £600 per week benefits claiming lower classes.

IDS refused to be sacked. Cameron would not force the issue and this shows he is a weak leader with next to no overall political strategy and/or moral compass and as a consequence IDS carries on despite being what he is.

This means ministers, generally, have a free reign so can go off at whatever tangent they like. I don't think Cameron could stop Hunt or Gove doing whatever they liked to the NHS or Education even if he wanted to. IDS has proved Cameron to be nothing but a front man.

I wonder if it ever crosses the mind of the former Archbishop of Canterbury that this [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529393/Unemployed-mother-two-borrows-1-700-EIGHT-payday-loan-companies-buy-hundreds-Christmas-presents-children-says-pay-back.htmlstereotypical single mother[/url may be a truer reflection of the type of person who turns up at a food bank, pleading poverty?

Undoubtably, not all are as feckless as this one, but I genuinely wonder if we now have a generation who believe it's their "Human Rights," to have a similar life style to those who actually have to graft for their salary. Unlike the good Bishop, I don't see food banks as a bad thing per se, but simply an example of the charitable decency of folk/firms prepared to donate goods, and give up their time freely to staff them.

As for Woonga and the rest, I have absolutely no sympathy for those licensed loan sharks, who I doubt in this case are going to see a penny of their loans being repaid. Any Credit Firm who advances loans to a person whose only source of income is through the Benefit system deserves to face the ridicule from the great British public.

Did he? When was this?

Does the Bishop see them as a bad thing?

They're no better or worse than the 100k+ charities we already have in this country. For some reason people have a bee in their bonnet about them, without ever saying why.

Hundreds of presents for £1,700?
At an average of less than 85p per present, if we are to take the claim literally.
A list which includes items like computer games and TVs.
I need to contact this resourceful young lady, I would like her to do my shopping for me.

Incidentally if you want to see how the next 18 months are going to pan out with regards to government proclamations and press releases have a look at this article in The Mail today [urlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2529714/Duncan-Smith-No-hiding-place-opt-life-benefits.html[/url in which that newspaper seemingly gets an exclusive deal from the DWP to publish the thoughts of IDS.

In his statement he skillfully diverts attention away from his department by first of all blaming the previous government for everything - standard - and then mentioning that there are "millions" who are stuck in a lifestyle of claiming benefits rather than working because the previous government made it more financially viable to claim benefits rather than work.

A couple of points to counter this - the numbers of claimants who draw down tens of thousands in unworked benefits are small and the bulk of those benefits usually comprise housing benefit and the housing benefit is so large because successive governments have shied away from providing council housing and relied instead on private landlords to take up the slack, at a price - the fact is that most benefits payments, and the largest of benefits payments (working tax credits) are made to those who are currently in work and its THESE people who make up the bulk of his "millions".

He then goes on to describe how his personal Universal Credit will change everything being at the same time very careful not to mention how much of a balls up its introduction has been and being careful not to mention that the trial areas are still relying on manual spreadsheets to track payments rather than the expensive software that is not yet working - the delay of several year now being described as "carefully managed" whilst at the same time also pinning blame on the previous government.

And when we add up the total number of out of work that he claims have been positively affected by his changes to the benefits system we see that since April the number is 25,000 - so there are "millions" trapped out of work and in benefits and so far we've helped 25,000 of them.

Round of applause for the DWP please.



More of this to come, if he was a salesman sitting in your office you'd be looking for an excuse to show him the door by now.

I'm curious how he's going to make people on unemployment work 35hrs a week applying for jobs. There's only so many jobs out there or is he expecting people to just apply for jobs which they are not suitable just to prove they are making an effort? 35 hours is basically a working week.

We should adopt the Norwegian model, depending on how much you payed in you the national insurance scheme you get either a year or 2 years "on the dole".

And when they do exactly that, they then get their benefits sanctioned for not attending the JCP or taking time off from the Work Fare Programme. I was only reading the other day that a man had a job interview at the same time as his JCP appointment, he asked them if he could re-arrange, which they agreed, only to have his benefit sanctioned for a month for not turning up for his JCP appointment! IDS is a disgrace, he calls himself a Christian, this man wouldn't know how to behave like a Christian (or just a normal, decent, caring bloke) if it hit him in the face with a wet haddock.

And then what?

I've long held the opinion that IDS regards the Victorian era described in A Christmas Carol and other Dicken's work as a blueprint for how he would like society to be.
The DWP is the ideal vehicle for him to achieve this dream

That's it, 2 years then it stops.

Got that data from the London Evening Standard you said you had?

Strange. I seem to recall being taught about "the poverty trap" in economics in the 1980's. The trap being that working can mean you are worse off, as you pay tax and NI etc on earnings, so people chose to stay on benefits. We'd had 5 years of Thatcher then, and I doubt it was a new concept anyway.

Its just disappointing that the masses swallow this claptrap from politicians without questioning it, or thinking for themselves.

So what do claimants live on?

Oh Christ, he doesn't have to care, he's part of a team running the country. They set out an agenda, and people either vote for it or not. At the last election the 3 main parties promised massive spending cuts, NHS privatisation and benefit reform among other things. Millions of people voted for these policies. If you weren't one of those, my commiserations but you took a stand. The problem is, with Rachel Reeves promising to be even tougher than the Tories the Conservatives are who you have to vote for otherwise these sanctions will be even more commonplace as Labour will surely get elected, then you'll be praying for the return of the "disgrace" that is IDS.

Frozen pizza, it seems to be the national dish judging by the chest freezers in supermarkets.

If you give me the link to your Twitter feed I should be able to find the figures you quoted if you're too busy, we wouldn't want people thinking you're just making stuff up.

Absolutely its always been an issue and the theory of working tax credit is a good one in handing back taxation to low paid to encourage them to work rather than just drawing benefits. In practice it can be abused by employee and employer alike, it can subsidise low pay for employers, it can encourage employers to advertise two 20 hour posts rather than one 40 hour full time post because its cheaper for them, its also commonplace in (for instance) the hotel industry (where my wife works) to have employees state that they must have more than 16 hours a week but definitely no more than "xxx" being the figure at which their tax credits drop - still doesn't make the theory of WTC a bad one though and as we've seen recently provides some good PR when the employment figures are released.

What is claptrap is statements based on the total benefits numbers which include in-work benefits (but they don't tell you that) and which are designed to outrage the party supporters into believing that there is a whole generation (or three generations, another Tory Party lie) consisting of "millions" (IDS's figure) of benefits claimants that have yet to be dealt with and thus justifying more and more stringent headline grabbing measures so that we are supposed to approve and applaud the fact that the terminally ill are being recommended for sanctions and return to work, sadly those sort of headlines work.

And sadly those headlines work because no-one ever questions them and sadly this must be pinned on the door of the Labour Party for every time IDS and his department of lies issue another statement like the one he has offered exclusively to the Daily Mail (I wonder why) today then the Labour Party should be demanding a breakdown or justification for the numbers that he uses and exposing those lies time and again until he learns to stop.

They aren't doing it though, but they will have to start soon.

SO they steal the frozen pizzas because they haven't got the money to buy them, how and where do they cook them because they will presumably have been evicted for non-payment or rent.

If we adopted the Norwegian model (considering that their unemplyment rate is 3.3%), would you also be happy paying Norwegian rates of tax and NI?

But nobody voted outright for him did they? I saw what Labour were doing to the old Incapacity Benefit through Atos. It was fair and asked non leading or yes/no questions. This joke of a government got hold of it and turned it into a farce. It wasn't Labour that came out and said they wanted to slash DLA by 20% (as Maria Miller admitted).

Believe me, I will never, ever pray for the return of the absolutely disgraceful Iain Disregards Statistics as long as I have a hole in me bum.

I've no idea how they obtain them, perhaps the first thing you should look up, sorry, second thing after the LES unemployment article you posted on what I can only imagine is the worlds longest Twitter feed, is how many people stay unemployed for longer than the 2 years.
Oh God no, I've lived there. 36% starting rate of income tax, 2 rates of VAT that make ours seem generous, which means it's cheaper to get on a ferry to Sweden to buy meat, not booze or fags, meat. It's the side people don't hear about when they demand our country be more like those wonderful Scandinavians because they read how great it is in the Observer Travel Guide or whatever it's called.

Now, back to those employment figures you [delmade up[/del are having trouble locating.