By John Smith • Published: 19 Mar 2016 • 10:03
Iain Duncan Smith
WITH impeccable timing, the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has resigned from the government in protest at the size of the cuts to disability benefits which has come as something of surprise to many, considering the fact that his previous record suggested that he was all in favour of cuts.
His argument is that the latest round of cuts, announced in the budget (yet then said to be just matters for consideration the following day) go too far when savings could have been made by giving less to high earning taxpayers and more to the young and disabled.
Sensing that many back benchers were opposed to the bulk of the cuts, the government had already undertaken to review the decision and the timing of Mr. Duncan Smith’s resignation could be seen as a deliberate act to present a government in disarray which would allow him to promote his pro Brexit position.
It is also known that the former conservative leader has been at odds with Chancellor George Osborne over the years, so actions now could also be considered a direct snub to both David Cameron and George Osborne.
In his letter of resignation, Mr. Duncan Smith,that the changes to disability benefits were “defensible in narrow terms, given the continuing deficit” but “I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self-imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.”
In his reply to the letter of resignation, Mr. Cameron said that all parties including Mr. Duncan Smith had discussed the proposed cuts and since the budget the government had in any case agreed to review the situation so “In the light of this, I am puzzled and disappointed that you have chosen to resign.”
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Married to Ophelia in Gibraltar in 1978, John has spent much of his life travelling on security print and minting business and visited every continent except Antarctica. Having retired several years ago, the couple moved to their house in Estepona and John became a regular news writer for the EWN Media Group taking particular interest in Finance, Gibraltar and Costa del Sol Social Scene. Currently he is acting as Editorial Consultant for the paper helping to shape its future development. Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews
good riddance to BAD RUbbishHe was never any good in his position- cameron said one thing and he did the opposite.Maybe now pg struggling pensioners like myself will get help. ie: money they need to live that at the moment they can’t receive here in spain.I have had four occasions when NO MONEY.First I had to borrow potatoes and breadsecond my son sent me 100$third I wa s17days with subsistence money as they stopped my full pension.The fourth I have been out of money since 29th febcaused by 180⬠electric bill – I got 10â¬-all I could get out of the bank- to get veg and bread – can just about exist till pay day monday if the bastards pay me- I don’t trust the DWP since I did not get wfa till 9th March 2015 and that was 2014 moneyKay
IDS, the charlatan who falsely claimed he was a director at GEC-Marconi when he was just an ordinary employee. Falsely claimed a degree course at Perugia University which was actually just a one year language course at a different college and which he did not even complete. Didn’t get a degree of course. Wasn’t even trying. Claimed he was educated at Dunchurch College of Management but did not gain any qualifications there either. They were actually 6 short courses of only a few days each, altogether less than a month. Some “education”, eh? These false claims were all in his biog. on the Tory party website until he was rumbled – claims of educational qualifications he doesn’t have, but he did marry into money – big time – the daughter of Lord Cottesloe.
He’s the man on the make – has been all his life – even led the Tory party briefly, winning the run off against Ken Clarke by one vote! His greatest idea is Universal Credit which is so complicated it costs more to run than the benefits it replaces. HeÃÂ created the hated bedroom tax – which cuts benefits to disabled people who need a spare room for equipment or a carer’s overnight stay. Now he claims he’s resigned because he disapproves of Osborne’s further benefit cuts for the disabled?
Pull the other one.
The truth is he’s now free to jump on Boris’s bandwagon full time, dump Cameron and Osborne after the likely Brexit, and take over as PM Boris’s right hand man.
Apart from the gripes of other posters there is something connected to this that is very worrying, it has been for a number of years now, many ppl do not realise it, understand it nor even care about it as long as they get their money but it is something that is going to come up at some time and when it does it will go off with such a massive bang you won’t know what hit you!
The largest section of government spending is on welfare benefits “social protection” ã264 Billion, half of that is pensions ã153 Billion with ã111 Billion on welfare. The next largest is on Health care ã138 Billion, just over half again for Education ã89 Billion. Protection is ã29 Billion with only ã3.5 Billion of that to the police “surprised me that”! We are currently adding over ã5000 a second to our national debt of ã1.5 Trillion.
People are entitled to their pensions that they have paid into, the NHS, Police and Education all need more money as do some areas of SP such as the elderly.
In my opinion the essentials are HNS the Police, education and elderly care. There are people and politicians saying there are other areas of welfare that should receive on top of those already receiving.
Might I ask where do people think the government will get the money from to cover what we already owe never mind the ã5000 a second we are borrowing on top of what we owe and to pay off the ã55 Billion a year interest on that debt? 2 and 2 do not add up to 10, 9, 8, 7, nor 6, nor 5, people need to stop and think a little!
Just to add for lack of character space:
This is going to go bang and it could do very soon, it just needs interest rates to rise to make things a little more rocky, I can promise you the government are already starting to panic on this… we need to cut back on spending, we can’t on NHS, Education nor the Police, we actually need to spend more there as well as on looking after our elderly better. Think about this, what is more important? To receive health care, give education, have police protection and be looked after better when old or welfare handouts… a choice will need to be made. We cannot get more from business as taxing business more will return less tax, we can’t tax ppl more as they will just go to Monaco other low tax country, as Lewis Hamilton has and many others.
Bureaucracy “mostly from Brussels” in lumbering down business as well as “health and safety” adding to costs. Huge fuel taxes will drop as cars go electric… we need to take from somewhere, we cannot go on handing out money on certain welfare, as much as ppl won’t like it. If we do then one day very soon there won’t be any at all and I fear that day might be sooner than people think. What will happen when it comes, well people will blame the politicians but unfortunately the politicians like Tony Blair who started pushing welfare too far “to get peoples votes” will not be the ones that will be blamed, it will be the politicians who are in power when they have it taken away altogether, go on, keep your heads in the sand.
Just to add after seeing IDS on Andrew Marr’s programme this morning.
He spent all his time justifying the following as the sole reason for his resignation. Here, in his own words, in his letter to Cameron:ÃÂ “I have for some time and rather reluctantly come to believe that the latest changes to benefits to the disabled and the context in which they’ve been made are a compromise too far. While they are defensible in narrow terms, given the continuing deficit, they are not defensible in the way they were placed within a Budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers.”
Or to put that more clearly, he says you shouldn’t take public money, designed to help disabled people with the extra costs of being disabled, and simplyÃÂ ÃÂ hand it over to those who are already wealthy instead of using it to cut the deficit.
And then he adds: “I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.”
Maybe he has had a change of heart while in office. Maybe he means it, maybe not. We can only ÃÂ judge for ourselves.
All I can say is that when we went back to uk I was terrified to go out on my own and other people were tooGod help you if you needed to get money out of the bank – you were in danger of getting mugged.The police do not do there job- no protection.Gov. throws money away ie: they gave a woman 1200gbp to furnish a house – first lot she spent and refused the house so when she got another house they gave her another lot.they put immigrants in hotels and leave ‘their own’ on the street.Give a woman methadone – 3 bottles twice a week to get her off heroin!!!! she’s off it and sells the bottles at 30pound a time!!!!!I was put in hospital for a week unneccessary because I could not get the right strength anti bioticsso my bronchitus turned to pneumonia.If you are coloured all you have to do is shout ‘racial prejudice’ and you get what you want people lose their jobs over this- what a country!!!!Kay
Kay I am not sure if it will help you on your electric bill but I know Endesa have a low nighttime tariff where you pay less from 12 in the evening to 12 mid day (or thereabouts, there is a 1 hour difference winter to summer). The rate is slightly more out of the low tariff period but is lower in the low rate hours so things like ironing and washing which generally use a lot of Kwh can be done before 12 midday and so save on electric. If your water is heated by electric then it is costly but you can set the water heater to run only during the low tariff hours “with a timer”, also turning your water heater thermostat down to just about the halfway mark will save on electric “something you need to play with depending on tank size and ppl”. At the end of the day if you find it doesn’t save you money then you can just change back to the normal rates but to make a saving you do need to take advantage of the low tariff period to use your electric hungry appliances. 😉
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