Do or Die?

[catherinem]

I’m still reeling over Tory MP Philip Davies’ speech that he made in the commons yesterday in response to fellow Tory Christopher Chope’s Employment Opportunities Bill. services.parliament.uk/bill... Despite public opinion in the main being against his ridiculous and cruel idea he still stands by the statements that he made. I have had a good route around to see if anybody does agree with him, I didn’t need to look very far, infact I knew exactly where I would find a bunch of thoughtless people! (Feel free to read the comments and reply!) dailymail.co.uk/news/articl... It definitely looks as though they hadn’t thought this one through before commenting. With regards to the minimum wage, the Tories have never been into the idea that people need to have some sort of protection to ensure that they earn a living wage, but despite there being a minimum wage in place, minimum wage earners in most instances need to top up this income with tax credits and Housing Benefit in order to be able to put a roof over their heads. I can just imagine the scenario, I’m at a job interview (pinch myself, I must be dreaming!) and my prospective employer says to me “ I know the usual rate of pay is £5.93 per hour, but as you have Tourette’s I would like you to take the job for £3.50 per hour” “Er, Thanks for the offer, but I don’t think I’d be able to survive on that wage, I’m afraid I’m going to have to turn your offer down.” Then I can imagine the scene at the Job Centre afterwards “What was the outcome of your interview?” “Well, I had to turn the job down as I wouldn’t be able to live off the wage I was offered” “I’m going to have to sanction you, you’ll be losing your Job Seeker’s Allowance for 6 weeks.” So you get the picture of what will happen, employers interview a disabled person, ex-convict or young person for their minimum wage job, then they ask the successful candidate to take a lower wage, they’ll just go through their list until somebody says “OK, I’ll take your job, and you can pay me peanuts!” So in essence the employers will be shopping around to see who will be willing to do the job for the lowest pay. Are we worth that? At the moment these ideas have been thrown out of Parliament, but for how long? Do you get the feeling that the Tories would like to see us back in the workhouse? I found a remedy to this problem, here’s a suggestion from a lady in Llanelli.

youtube.com/watch?v=sXbuqbF...(Not working as expected?)

[LittleClapham]

I'm going to have to agree with the little old lady there!

[twitch1]

I'm surprised he even said that. I mean, even if he believes it, he must have expected that backlash. It also completely misses the point of a minimum wage, and could create a bit of a slippery slope....

I think even with the daily mail supporters it is still too ridiculous an idea to go through. Or so one would hope!

[catherinem]

I did a bit of fishing around, this isn't the first time he's been contraversial, he's a bit of an anti-PC lobbyist.