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benefit, benefits, Coalition, Conservative, Department for Work and Pensions, DWP, government, Iain Duncan Smith, Jobseeker's Allowance, Jobseekers (back to work schemes) Bill, Labour, Labour Party, Mandatory Work Activity, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, Parliament, people, politics, retroactive, social security, unemployment, Vox Political, welfare, Workfare
This is a quick update as I am working on somebody else’s computer.
Vox Political has received the following comment, regarding the Jobseekers (back to work schemes) Bill, due to go before Parliament as I type this, in fact:
“Just had a reply from my MP Sheila Gilmore, Labour.
“’The Guardian article was wrong. The Labour front bench is not voting for the Bill. Currently they are looking to secure some amendments. Lots of discussion in the Parliamentary Labour Party ongoing.’”
This seems extremely good news. If it’s true, of course, we’ll never know whether it was due to the pressure of public feeling or if they were always going to oppose it.
No matter.
This is the right choice, for those affected, for Labour, and for the UK.
Mike Sivier's blog 
they are all in this together they sahould be tossing the bill in the bin not trying to amend it
Your source seems to be at odds with Liam Byrne (shadow work and pensions secretary).
We’ll find out who is right later on today no doubt.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/19/labour-rush-benefit-rebates-poundland
It’s looking bad, isn’t it?
All I can say is, selections for 2015 are coming up. Make a note of whether your Labour MP supported this travesty and, if you’re a member, kick them out and get a proper socialist candidate in for the next election. Simple as that.
If anybody thinks walking away in disgust is a good answer to this, think again. That would just ensure the problem continues and gets worse.
I have not yet had any reply at all from my Labour MP, Tessa Jowell, after I emailed her to explain I would not vote Labour in 2015 if they did not support ‘A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay’
Of course, I wrote to Liam Byrne on behalf of my CLP. It will be very interesting to see what he has to say in response.
We need a list when this is over to see who voted what
Hi Mike I sent the list of labour’s achievements to alan johnson. I did have an idea that labour might have been lying to the condems, if they were that was really smart, I hope this was the case!!!!
I have just emailed my MP and Liam Byrne and Ed Miliband urging them to vote against the Job Seekers Bill rather than abstain – I don’t know if it makes any difference but I can’t just sit here watching it unfold on BBC parliament without doing something
http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/03/19/on-the-labour-party-campaign-against-the-bedroom-tax-joint-statement-and-petition-by-dpac-and-black-triangle-anti-defamation-campaign-in-defence-of-disability-rights/
Discussion?
Isn’t this going through today? Bit late for talk guys! And what do you need to discuss; surely it should be obvious not to support this monstrous policy.
I had a reply from my MP MIke Weir who is an SNP – the whole of the SNP is going to vote against the bill but they only have a few SNP MP’s and he is one of them. He has written that he has heard the Labour are abstaining from the vote and believes that the bill will go through because of this. I have never been so ashamed about Labour in all of my life!
There’s never been any suggestion that Labour was voting for the Bill (and it’s not a claim the Guardian makes). It’s that they’re allowing the Bill to be fast-tracked in one day. They’ll abstain but it won’t prevent the Bill becoming law. Bills normally take weeks or months to be enacted. Labour, by allowing this one to be fast-tracked, is ensuring it’ll be an Act before the Court of Appeal judgement is enacted and the DWP obliged to refund claimants unlawfully penalised.
They may not be voting for the bill but they are abstaining, rather than voting against the bill, meaning that it will go through on the nod. If you stand by and do nothing while wickedness happens you become party to that wickedness. Labour are going to stand by passively and do nothing to try to stop the bill from succeeding which is hardly better than voting for the bill as the Guardian claimed.
Abstaining is not good enough, and if Labour think otherwise then they’re clearly as dimwitted as the author of this bill.
Remind me again, when evil prevails…
… (when) good men to stand by and do nothing.
But are there any good men or good women left at the top of the Labour Party any more?
No!
I’ll keep an eye out for a formation of flying piggywigs…
Good news
Shame it wasn’t accurate, isn’t it?
I emailed My MP Andy Love but have yet to receive a reply although I have had an acknowledgement. I still hope this is not true as I fear the fall out from this one issue could gift CallMe the election when grass roots support for Labour evaporates.
It was good to see that there were *some* MPs that grasped the simplicity of “you work, you get paid” and “if you are found guilty of a crime, you get punished”.
Sadly, they were the minority, and the majority seem oblivious and detached to the sheer simplicity of what they were facing.
They aren’t there to save money, they’re there to excuse failure and, by extension, deny justice. If you want to save money, remove Duncan Smith.
He had not a nanoscopic shred of contrition, instead choosing to pull faces at critics who, unlike him, weren’t blind to the obvious.
Hi Mike I have heard that Iain Duncan Smith’s retrospective workfare legislation has been passed into law!!! please please tell me this is wrong?!!!!! jo
For:: 200-plus.
Against: 57.
It isn’t wrong. I wish I could say it was.
Owen Jones has it right: http://tinyurl.com/c2pku2c