Like Gavin Maclure, I also agree with Polly Toynbee’s latest remarks that Gavin mentions here

The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee writes:

“Workfare is transparently unfair to most people, substituting slave labour for big companies. Michael Heseltine’s scheme that was dubbed workfare had three vitally different ingredients. He paid jobseeker’s allowance recipients extra for working, he ensured the work was for charities or community projects – no risk of job substitution – and the job market was rising. Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling breached all those, absurdly calling objectors “job snobs”. The protesters gave them the bloody nose they deserve.” [Gavin's highlighting]

Like Gavin, I am the biggest fan of Iain Duncan Smith’s Welfare Reform but there is no way that any government should be subsidising private companies with free labour.

As Gavin Maclure also said here

As I’ve written before, despite being a believer in capitalism and the free market I side with Wilberforce when it comes to slave labour. Employing a man or woman in a charity shop to get their JSA is one thing but helping to increase the profits of a FTSE 100 company without being rewarded by that company is out of order.

Here Channel Four says

Mr Grayling insists the scheme is “entirely voluntary”.

That’s technically true, on the face of it, but it comes with two heavy qualifications.

Firstly, you do run the risk of having your benefits stopped if you agree to do a placement, then change your mind after a “cooling-off” period of one week.

So much like the French Foreign Legion, the scheme is “entirely voluntary” to enter, but there may be an element of compulsion later on if you decide to leave.

And there have been unproven allegations that Jobcentre staff are misleading claimants into believing that the work experience scheme is in fact mandatory.

Cait Reilly, the unemployed graduate who is taking the government to the high court over workfare, says she was told her benefit payments could be stopped if she refused to work at Poundland, and wasn’t told about the cooling-off period.

Mr Grayling said the government disputes the facts of Ms Reilly’s case, and we’ll have to wait for the judge’s ruling before we know what the rights and wrongs of it are.

I was surprised at a recent SCC Cabinet meeting when the opposition Labour leader at the County Council started to denigrate the wonk being done both nationally and locally to bring jobs to the UK. in a lengthy tirade he damned the current necessary economic restraint and, not for the first time in a public debate demanded that nothing change, and for us to return to the very spend, spend, spend culture which is the permanent Labour fall-back position

A culture that brought two previous Labour governments and this country, to its knees; the third Labour government will be remembered for Gordon Brown’s ‘no more boom and bust’ mantra. A mantra which not only meant that many individuals hocked themselves up to the hilt, and house prices rose by more than 100% in their 13 years, but Labour’s borrowing exacerbated the financial problems, leaving the Conservatives – yet again – to restore financial probity and stability.
During this tirade, he talked about the lack of investment and new jobs coming to Ipswich, in particular, referring to the empty shops.
At this stage, I had to remind him that, in fact, Ipswich is doing pretty well, and no thanks to his party, when all Labour members of the Ipswich Planning Committee voted against the £70m investment on the redundant and blighted B & Q site in Grafton Way, near Stoke Bridge, which will bring 900 jobs to the town. Why did they vote against7 Because they like to refer to it as a Tesco development, when in fact it is a mixed scheme of housing, hotels, public car park (to which they wish to limit access) and also a Tesco!
Fortunately, Conservative members supported the proposal, the investment, and the jobs. We also SLD-ported the Little Waitrose in the Corn Exchange, and the new development at Cranes to bring a big Waitrose and John Lewis At Home, regenerating a landmark site which is an eyesore and, yes, bringing more jobs. Yet, again, Labour councillors were largely lukewarm and the economic portfolio holder talked about ‘profit’ being the motive for development, seemingly unaware that, without profit, even businesses like the John Lewis Partnership cannot
create new stores and employment.

As to empty shops. Yes, there are some, as there are in High Streets across the country – because retail is changing and town centres need to adapt to change. At a meeting I attended in London recently to discuss this very issue, the industry acknowledged that an attractive public realm (hence the investment by the Conservatives in Giles Circus, opposed by Labour) is vital, along with a vibrant cultural and leisure offer, from restaurants and bars to museums, galleries and theatres.
Tower Ramparts has recently been bought by a pension fund, and will be reinvigorated over the coming months; yet more investment in Ipswich is coming from the Government funded £22m ‘Ipswich fit for the 21st century’ project. Work is also starting on new housing schemes.
We have an increasingly successful university, attracting world-class teaching, and the business-led Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has already won, and is bidding for, significant multi-million pound government funds to support further investment across Suffolk.
Talking down the economy may suit Labour’s populist strategy, but it does the very people it now serves as the administration in Ipswich a disservice – because it doesn’t help business confidence. When the competition is fierce, as it is, if we are to bring fresh investment to the town and the county, we – the political leaders – have to be proactive, supportive and encouraging.
At the County, we are doing just that, focusing on key growth sectors which will provide the right investment opportunities, create jobs and bring profit.

Police are appealing for information following a robbery at a property in Newnham Court, Ipswich.

Between 10pm and 11pm last night, Thursday 23 February four men have entered a block of flats. Once inside the block, they have knocked on the victim’s door and when answered, they have forced their way inside. A man and woman inside the property were threatened with violence before the group searched the property and stole items from within including two wallets and a mobile phone.

The four offenders are described as two white men and two mixed race men, in their early twenties, all wearing hooded tops and scarves covering their faces.

Following the incident all four men made off from the scene on foot.

Should anyone have any information in relation to this incident, please call DC Matt Williamson at Ipswich CID on 101, quoting crime reference number IW/12/731.

The letter is as follows.

I have read David Ellesmere’s last two Star column’s and I am amazed at how all of a sudden he seems to be concerned with the health of the people of Ipswich.

When Ben Gummer campaigned to save Iceni, David Ellesmere and his Ipswich Labour colleagues seemed to be completely silent on the matter. Before that, when Ben Gummer was campaigning to keep heart services at Ipswich hospital the comrades of Ipswich Labour were absolutely silent about that too.

The government’s NHS Bill is designed to slash bureaucracy and boost efficiency by switching power and money to GPs and patients. But Councillor Ellesmere claims that it is privatisation and claims to be very concerned. This is very strange because I can’t remember him saying a word against the last Labour government’s NHS Private Finance Initiative (PFI)

Because of the last Labour government, the people of Ipswich have an Accident and Emergency building 100% owned by a private company. But when the contract for the Garrett Anderson Centre that is now costing Ipswich hospital £3.2million a year was being formalised, I can’t recall him saying anything against it.

Tesco is a private enterprise and the left hate private enterprise. The advertisement was wrong due to an error by Job Centre Plus. This has been established.

The left won’t attack Job Centre Plus for their error because those at Job Centre plus are public Sector Workers and members of trade unions who will defend their right to be incompetent.

At Ipswich Unemployed Action here it actually says

A DWP spokeswoman said: “As we made clear on Thursday, this role was incorrectly described and advertised by Jobcentre Plus; not by Tesco – there was no error whatsoever on their part.”

But the left will attack Tesco rather than incompetent, unionised public sector workers.

The advertisement which was erroneous shows the incompetantness of Job Centre staff. Those at Ipswich Unemployed Action know that Job Centre staff are completely incompetent but being left wing, they would rather attack a private company than attack people living off money from the government like themselves. Yes, Job Centre plus staff may get a lot more money than unemployed people but they are part of the socialist brotherhood.

A couple of years ago, the same road was just as bad and a car went into the side of the shop and now this year someone has ended up with a broken leg.

Are our local councillors bothered about this yearly death trap?

At present, resident of Alexandra and Ipswich Politburo General Secretary, David Ellesmere is more concerned about becoming the MP for Ipswich. Resident of Saint Johns Ward, Peter Gardiner is the chair of the South West Oblast Area Committee which is going to achieve all Ipswich Labour want it to achieve i.e. nothing. Sprites Ward resident, Jeanette Macartney travels through Gipping Ward on her way into town. As none of them have to live with ice in the winter and pot holes the rest of the time, they are completely unconcerned.

Labour’s PPC for Ipswich is cynically using his position of Ipswich Politburo General Secretary for his parliamentary election campaign. He is taking credit for good things the Conservatives have done.

He starts by claiming that labour saved Kiln Meadow. But I find it hard to believe that Labour wrecked the nations economy just to save Kiln Meadow.

Ellesmere claims that Labour have brought Waitrose and John Lewis to Ipswich when in fact it was the last administration that brought Waitrose and John Lewis to Ipswich and labour opposed the plans for the Corn Exchange.

Captain Mainwaring also claims that Ipswich Labour have given the borough’s millstone of Broomhill a good chance of reopening when it was in fact a labour administration that he led who closed it in the first place and it was the last administration that started plans to reopen it.

The man of many hats takes the credit for tickets for Troops which was first suggested by Ipswich Conservative Group leader, John Carnell.

David Ellesmere also claims credit for freezing council tax when the Conservatives lowered Council Tax by 1%. What Ipswich Labour are doing is keeping the Conservative’s budget and then claiming credit for it.

Then hilariously Captain Mainwaring claims that this government is disastrously handling the economy. You just couldn’t make it up could you?

He then continues to steal the Whigs clothes

He claims credit for the building of new council houses which was made possible by legeslation brought in by the present government.

Every now and again you feel that what you’ve incoherently saying for blog post after blog post can be put more pithily. And that unlikely source, Labour List has done just that. In fact one sentence buried did this:

I no longer have any faith that the Labour Party will make a better society – or even wants to do so

Quite.

There’s a link to this article by a despondent Labour Party Member.

As you can see the first comment has been removed. The first comment was about how the last Labour government screwed the British Working Class by having an open door policy on immigration to rub the rights noses in diversity. It talks about how some British Working Class feel under siege due to the amount of immigrants living in their area and how British Working class have been made unemployed due to the influx of immigrants coming into the country.

The comment has been removed because it does not go well with their love of diversity from their nice houses in areas where everyone who lives in the area are British and everyone works in employment not being taken by migrant labour.

As you can see, the following comment was not “Yes it’s terrible what we did to this country. Our secret project of social engineering has been so detrimental to the working class people who voted for us.” but,

Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. Why the race element ?? We have Asian Muslim communities in Glasgow whose vote sLabour take for granted and I’m sure in other parts of the UK there are other BME communities who are represented by elected members who go off to Westminster and forget all about their constituents.

By this we must assume that if elected again Labour will carry on their project of social engineering at the expense of their traditional core vote and accuse anybody who dares speak against it of being racist.

The policy of making many working people unemployed and dependent on benefit while having an open door immigration policy, causing certain working class areas to be flooded with immigrants who then took British working people’s jobs was not the only attack on the working class of this country launched by the last Labour government.

Labour ripped apart working class communities closing local post offices and forcing local pubs to close. The smoking ban was a calculated attack on the working class as the fox hunting ban was a calculated attack on the upper class. They left self interested, middle class people who live in key marginals alone.

It’s not common knowledge but Labour (and the left in general) haven’t come to despise the working class only recently. This article on the past left wing social engineering project of Eugenics demonstrates the left’s view of the working class, which we can tell by the last Labour Government, hasn’t changed.

According to Dennis Sewell, whose book The Political Gene charts the impact of Darwinian ideas on politics, the eugenics movement’s definition of “unfit” was not limited to the physically or mentally impaired. It held, he writes, “that most of the behavioural traits that led to poverty were inherited. In short, that the poor were genetically inferior to the educated middle class.” It was not poverty that had to be reduced or even eliminated: it was the poor.

Hence the enthusiasm of John Maynard Keynes, director of the Eugenics Society from 1937 to 1944, for contraception, essential because the working class was too “drunken and ignorant” to keep its numbers down.

They may not believe that the poor are genetically inferior to the educated middle class now, but they do believe that the working class are inferior to themselves.

Instead of bringing the poor out of poverty their solution to poverty was culling the poor.

James Hargrave has written about it here, Andrew Grant-Adamson has written about it here and Ipswich Unemployed Action has a bit about the escalating debate here. It was also mentioned on the Bolshevik Broadcasting Commune’s Programme, Question Time with all the usual anti-Tory left wing bias.

Also the East of England co-op Marketing Department’s Ipswich Labour’s Alasdair Ross tweeted this

Alasdair Ross @AlasdairRoss
Government and Tesco conspire in ‘forced labour’ scheme wordblog.co.uk/suffolk/2012/0… thanks to wordblog

A more balanced article was in the Daily Mail which can be read here.

the supermarket said the listing on the Jobcentre Plus website, which prompted a backlash from Twitter and Facebook users, was posted in error.

I suspect that the error was the word ‘permanent’ on the vacancy advertisement.

Now enough has been said about ‘slave labour’ already. There is no evidence that nobody who partakes in the ‘mandatory work activity scheme’ won’t be offered employment. The jury is still out.

There is also the possibility that partaking in such a scheme could hinder the chances of future employment because it would show that one’s situation had got that bad.

What isn’t being addressed is the fact that by partaking in the scheme Tesco are being subsidised by the government. This does not concur with my belief in a free market. No government should subsidise a multi national company.

Of course if the placements were offered in the public sector Labour’s masters the unions would go berserk.

Or

Please use this linkto pass any useful information to Suffolk Police about this incident.