[jambutty]

The new housing minister Caroline Flint, hereinafter known as Skinflint, has come up with yet another Labour “CRACKPOT” idea. She has suggested that henceforth Council House Tenancy Contracts should include a clause that states something to the effect of, “Tenants must be in work or actively seeking work to keep their tenancy.” Or in other words if you are living in a Council house and you lose your job you could be liable to lose your home. Council House tenants can already be evicted if a member of the family is convicted of a crime and if any member of the family associates with a convicted criminal.

Having just moved to Housing from the Department of Work and Pensions it seems like Skinflint is trying to make a name for herself without a single thought of how it would affect the population. A bit like Tony Blair.

Has this woman not thought past her flash of inspiration?

Popular opinion on the Jeremy Vine radio show, from those in work and earning a decent wage is simply, “Yeh! Chuck the scroungers out.” My response, “Where to?”

It has recently been claimed that some 2 million people are in receipt of Incapacity Benefit fraudulently. So that’s two million on the streets straight away. Then there are the unemployment figures that vary from one to three million.

If Skinflint got her way there would be upwards on 3 million people homeless. Some would undoubtedly become a burden on the NHS as they fall ill and some would get residence in a prison. The rest would become a gang.

No doubt that there are scroungers and efforts should be made to get them into meaningful work but chucking them out on the street is not the answer.

Before coming up with yet another “CRACKPOT” scheme the government should try to find out WHY people are out of work. The greater majority thrown on the work scrap heap want a job but why should they take one that pays less than £6 an hour when the benefits of being out of work effectively pays them more.

The sooner the current government is shown the door the better. Unfortunately the alternative is no better.