(not satire – it’s the Sally Army!)

The Salvation Army has been heavily criticised for using unemployed people who have been forced – under the threat of having their benefits taken away from them – to work against their will for them for free as part of the government’s Workfare scheme.

And what is the Salvation Army’s defence?

Workfare doesn’t exist.

Here’s a screenshot from their Facebook page:

Well – pretending workfare doesn’t exist is one way to avoid people criticising your use of it I suppose.

Whatever next?

Government ministers claiming poverty and homelessness don’t exist?

Oh …… hang on a minute……

.

Here’s a petition demanding the Salvation Army withdraws from the workfare scheme:

The Salvation Army of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland: Withdraw from the government “workfare” style scheme

Related articles by Tom Pride:

Sue Ryder executives looking to profit from the privatisation of NHS services

The…

Well done to Sol Fed (Solidarity Federation http://www.solfed.org.uk/ ) who organised the lobby of customers going to the Poundland shop in New Street this afternoon. While it is not yet clear whether this particular store is using Workfare, nationally Poundland are. People under the age of 25 who are on JSA receive only £56.25 per week, yet are then sent on a Workfare scheme to work for their benefits. So that works out as free labour for Poundland, and £1.41 per hour for the young people concerned. So much for the “minimum” wage. And so much for providing young people with a future; this scheme has been shown to actually reduce your chance of getting a “proper” job.

This shameful exploitation of vulnerable young people must be brought to and end. It is to the credit of groups like UK Uncut and Boycott Workfare, that many users of Workfare have pulled out, but there is…

The UK government has forecast that the policy of ‘Austerity’ will last until 2018. Children born at the crash of Lehman Brothers, signalling the Financial Crisis in 2008, will spend the first decade of their lives in Austerity Britain. Today we look at the real cost of this decade on our young people.

Trouble at Home

When we talk about the impact of benefit cuts, we often look at things from the adult’s point of view.  But forget that children live in the households suffering the cuts to social security made by UK and European governments, and they will feel the pain too.  There are currently 3.6m children living in poverty in the UK, and a lot more are about to join them.

In the Autumn Statement last year, the government took a step to deliberately make the poorest poorer.  Jobseekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Income…

(not satire – it’s the Daily Mail)

Here’s a sad reminder of why we need press regulation in this country.

Transgender primary school teacher Lucy Meadows – who was mercilessly bullied by jumped-up Daily Mail bully-boy Richard Littlejohn – has been found dead:

Teacher due to begin new term at school as a woman is found dead

Littlejohn – who makes a habit of attacking normal hard-working people like teachers while relying on the impressive legal resources of his employer Lord Rothermere to protect him from any threat of libel from people without the financial means to challenge him in court – recently attacked Ms Meadows in this now-deleted disgusting Mail article (beware – Daily Mail bile):

He’s not only in the wrong body… he’s in the wrong job

This is a good reminder why we urgently needed press regulation.

To protect normal, hard-working people like Lucy Meadows from being…