And now we go live to the DWP Secretary Mel Stride: “If you go to the GP and say you are feeling a little bit depressed, and you’re signed off, in 94% of occasions, a box is ticked that says you’re not capable of work whatsoever.What we want to do is change the system so that that individual will be referred to – the government is setting up something called Work Well – where they will get both the healthcare support they need, but also a work coach who will be involved to either help them stay in work if they are in employment, or to help them get into work if they’re not.”
Billionaire prime minister Rishi Sunak, who has no lived experience of mental illness, added that Britain has a “sicknote culture.” But then said this: “If you are feeling anxious or depressed, then of course you should get the support and treatment you need to manage your condition. But that doesn’t mean we should assume you can’t engage in work.” Allow me to translate into plain English what Sunak actually said:
“If you have mental health issues you need to suck it up and get a job. You’re not sick. You’re lazy.”
Do not, under any circumstances, interpret Sunak’s comments in any other way because today he declared war on the sick and disabled.
The little shit (Sunak) also said, without saying what, “something has gone wrong” since the pandemic to increase the number of economically inactive people who are long-term sick, especially with mental health conditions. Hmm. I wonder what that might be, then? Nearly two million people on NHS mental health waiting lists? Could be. Millions living in poverty? Might have something to do with it? Millions in low paid, insecure work? Well, yeah. People with addictions, unable to access treatment? If you put it like that. And how about adding a broken country where nothing works? By the way, who broke it, Rishi?
At this point, let’s go back to Melvin Stride said. It was this: “If you go to the GP and say you are feeling a little bit depressed, and you’re signed off, in 94% of occasions, a box is ticked that says you’re not capable of work whatsoever.” What the actual fuck are you on about? Maybe that happens all the time in the sink estates of his Central Devon constituency, but where I live in the wilds of South Gloucestershire you have to be in, or arriving at, your deathbed if you want to see a GP. And who the fuck goes to their GP and says, “I’m feeling a little bit depressed“? How very dare you? Literally no one said this, ever, just like no one said “I’m feeling a little bit cancery” or “I’m feeling a little bit heart attacky“.
But let’s be fair to Sunak and discuss his five “key welfare reforms”, which are mere red meat to his even more right-wing bampots on the backbenches and permanently angry Express and Mail readers:
- The first is that we should be more ambitious in assessing people’s potential for work. This is code for, “We are going to be even more horrible to the sick and disabled.”
- The second reform is that the government will “test” shifting the “fit note” system to “specialist work and health professionals” rather than GPs. Sunak means that the person who decides whether someone is too ill to work will no longer be a medical professional. He, like Michael Gove, has had enough of experts.
- Third, anyone working less than half of a full-time work week will now have to try and find extra work in return for benefits. “Unemployment support should be a safety net, never a lifestyle choice”, Sunak says. Bad language alert: what a cunt. Filthy rich billionaire who has had everything handed to him on a plate is openly saying that sick and disabled people are pulling the wool over our eyes. They could all work more hours if they wanted to, lazy bastards. Anyone who thinks “unemployment support (whatever that is) should be a safety net, never a lifestyle choice” is either an idiot, a liar or a serial gaslighter, quite possibly all three. I worked for nearly 40 years in the DWP. If you think you enjoy a decent lifestyle on benefits without also committing benefit fraud, there really is no point in debating anything with you.
- Fourth, we need to match the support to the conditions people have. Where to begin? The support sick and disabled people want and need will come from medics. With an NHS in freefall, this is just word salad with shit sauce tipped over it.”
- Finally, “We can’t allow fraudsters to exploit the natural compassion and generosity of the British people.” PM Rishi Sunak announces there will be a crackdown on fraud as part of his ‘moral mission’ to reform the welfare system. Save the worst until last eh, Rishi? As soon as a politician announces a “crackdown”, you know the whole thing is bollocks. And what this little grinning toad really means is “Let’s go for the easy hits“, kick those carers when they’re down. “We can’t allow carers to care for people, bastards that they are. If people have no legs, then let them stand on their own two feet. If they are blind, then make them see sense.” Sunak isn’t the tough guy. He’s the weedy eight stone weakling who bullies people from his bullet proof helicopter, surrounded by scores of burly coppers. It makes him feel like a real man.
“If you’re feeling depressed“, says Stride, “It doesn’t mean that we should assume you can’t work.” How the fuck do you know that? You don’t, do you? I knew people, a good few people actually, who were depressed enough to kill themselves. Doubtless, the minister would have said, “Yeah, he said he was a little bit depressed, but he could have worked if he had not killed himself. Still – benefit saving! KERCHING!”
Before we go, which chancellor of the exchequer:
- Signed checks on billions of bounceback loans during covid which were fraudulent and failed to get the money back?
- Oversaw Covid procurement which saw billions wasted on fraudulent companies juicing margins?
- Presided over billions in PPE fraud which was subsequently written off without an investigation?
- Was married to a woman who dodged millions in taxes by being a non dom?
Answer? Rishi Fucking Sunak, that’s who.
But who are the real villains? Why, it’s the sick and disabled, especially those with non-existent mental health conditions.
On 8th April 2013, I celebrated the death of Margaret Thatcher with a bottle of Champagne. I hated her, more than I have ever hated anyone in my life. She wrecked this country, tore it apart, told us there was no such thing as society, that we should all be left to fend for ourselves and fuck everyone else, she destroyed our entire manufacturing industry and spent all her time in office attacking the working classes, whose lives she never understood nor cared about. I find it hard to imagine I will not do the same when some of these similarly evil politicians die. The only problem is that some of the worst ones, like Sunak, are likely to outlive me.
I’m usually a little bit depressed and when I’m not I’m very depressed. Like most people with mental health issues, I have always striven to carry on working and living my life the best I could, even at the very darkest times. Sunak and Stride have no clue of how the rest of us live, nor of how many of us die due to poor mental health. They really, truly believe it’s just us having a whinge, just being a bit fed up.
Sunak’s attack on the most vulnerable people in society tells you the kind of man – if you can call such a person a man – he is. Just another bully and the thing about bullies is that, one day, they find an even bigger bully. I hope he meets him soon.
