I have Zoe Williams to thank for drawing my attention to this quote in the Economist from Daniel Knowles:
Over the last few months, as welfare cuts have started, questionable numbers have floated out of Iain Duncan Smith's office into the public debate like raw sewage.
Osborne's in the same boat.
And both stink.
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Richard – to be honest, I thought that was what you had in mind in your earlier post, entitled “You’ll be paddling soon — and not necessarily at the seaside” – that Osborne’s idiocy would lead not just to social breakdown (as it clearly is) but to physical and logistical breakdown, with a broken delivery system (including our sewage system, built by enlightened national and local government in the 19th century – no waiting for “magic fairy” entrepreneurs there!!)
But I welcome the fact that a writer in “The Economist” (actually, in fact, a classic cess-pool of the ideas that have brought us to this situation, peddled as magic nostrums for every known economic and social ailment) has used this simile. Maybe even the Neo-liberals are beginning to ask themselves whether they might, just possibly, have got it wrong! Hope so!
Soon after taking office IDS took in a non-jobber from the Taxpayers Alliance, the rightwing pressure group whose Modus Operandi happens to be the peddling of truthy stats – data which contain an element of truth but on closer inspection are a complete distortion of reality.
I think these tactics have been adopted by the wider governing Tory Party.
And with the likes of Lynton Crosby in charge of the Tory (re)election strategy we can be sure that we can expect, much, much, more of the same. But then we are talking about a party that after just a few years in power make the New Labour, Blairite, days of spin look positively innocent. In fact ‘spin doctor’ no longer fits this bunch, does it.’Shite doctor’ is far more accurate.
Here’s another “stat” for IDS:
http://money.aol.co.uk/2013/06/27/pensioners-have-less-to-spend-than-an-11-year-old/?icid=money|DL_3_link
Are there any taxpayers in the TA ?
I thought they were/are all 1%-ers ?
“DWP Press Office Play Fast And Loose With Official Statistics Again”
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/dwp-press-office-fast-and-loose-official-statistics/
http://newsthump.com/2013/06/27/iain-duncan-smith-mad-as-a-box-of-frogs-tribunal-finds/
The current crop of DWP ministers do seem to be making a habit of being less than reliable with their numbers:
http://primlystable.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/dwp-minister-caught-making-up-facts.html
Politicians are no feeling ultra confident, even in the age of the cross-referencing ability of the web, that they can treat the public with no regard whatsoever. There is a clear pattern emerging that these utterances that are based on hot air are designed to manipulate perceived prejudices for political gain. These people haven’t just descended to sewer level, they ARE the sewer.
“This report outlines 35 cases where Ministerial claims using statistics on the subject of Work and Benefits have fallen short of the standards expected of Government Ministers.
We believe that this demonstrates a consistent pattern of abuse of official statistics by Ministers of the present Government to paint a false picture of benefit claimants in the UK in support of policies which are aimed at cost cutting to the detriment of jobless, sick and disabled people.
Within this document, each case is presented, and fully referenced to source material throughout.”
http://de.scribd.com/doc/149776210/DPAC-Report-on-DWP-Abuse-of-Statistics-Final-22-June-2013
“to the detriment of jobless, sick and disabled people”
If they [tories] [labour] [dem-lib] [ukip] win the next election, you can add “state pensioners” to the list.
Or maybe nobody has noticed the start of that already ?
Yes – so we will be all forced into dodgy pension schemes that are part of the money laundering industry – at present there are miners who are the latest victims of pension losses. http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/miners-fear-worst-after-closure-4731381
Mines closing and coal imported from Poland and America – makes sense environmentally doesn’t it!
“The falsification of statistics is not surprising news in China.”
http://english.caixin.com/2013-06-25/100546261.html