by In Wales
Mon Oct 25th, 2010 at 11:48:01 AM EST
Every time I come across Iain Duncan Smith, he gives me another reason to dislike him. In my whole life, I have been in the House of Commons twice and both times IDS has pushed me out of his way. Not a teeny nudge in a crowded area, trying to squeeze through. An almighty proper 'don't you know who I am' shove when I wasn't even in his way.
So, Reasons Why I Don't Like Iain Duncan Smith:
1 - He is rude
2 - He is a Tory
3 - He's telling the people of Merthyr to 'get on a bus' and go and find a job in Cardiff.
BBC News - Union anger over Duncan Smith 'get on bus' comment
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has come under fire from the unions after saying the unemployed should "get on a bus" to look for jobs.
Union leaders said the comment was similar to Lord Tebbit's 1981 suggestion that workless should "get on their bikes".
For information, Merthyr is a valleys town in South Wales that was built on the coal mining industry. The coal is no longer there, unemployment is high, deprivation is high and if there were a quick fix solution to this we'd have found it by now.
BBC News - Union anger over Duncan Smith 'get on bus' comment
"Iain Duncan Smith offers us a 19th-century vision of sturdy beggars and the undeserving poor, while the bankers and their chums continue to rake in millions and dodge taxes. The only polite reaction to all this is to say: shame on you."
The Public and Commercial Services union, the biggest civil service union, also suggested that Mr Duncan Smith, who has earned cross-party praise for his work on social exclusion and is the architect of ambitious reforms to the welfare system, had revealed his true colours with the remark.
The Public and Commercial Services Union have come back with their analysis showing that the jobs aren't there in Merthyr, but nor would the jobs be there if all the unemployed of the valleys popped down the road to Cardiff. And even if they did, vacancies are for low paid, shitty hours jobs. Get the bus to work by all means, but you'll get a bus back after your shift when hell freezes over.
Nine jobseekers for every job in Duncan Smith's Cardiff - News centre - PCS
On Friday 22 October there were 1,670 unemployed people in Merthyr, south Wales, and 39 job vacancies, all temporary and part-time. The number of people out of work in Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent combined was more than the total number of job vacancies for the whole of Wales.
Of the Cardiff vacancies, the vast majority were temporary and part-time. Of the temporary jobs, most were unskilled labouring for just one or three weeks' duration.
The most popular vacancy on the day the union carried out its research was a Christmas job in a well known store working four-hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays for the national minimum wage.
Among the permanent jobs was work in a casino or bars. Neither offered help with journeys home afterwards and the last bus out of Cardiff leaves at 11.06pm. Workers from outside the city might be able to get the bus to work, but they would not be able to get home.
So once more, the Tories are picking on people who are trapped in situations that they do not have the power to get themselves out of. Criteria for Jobseekers allowance now say that people should be willing to travel for up to 1.5 hours to find work and anything less than an hour does not get reimbursed, adding to the expense of seeking work.
BBC News - Union anger over Duncan Smith 'get on bus' comment
"The Conservatives are cutting jobs, cutting help for childcare, cutting working tax credit that makes work pay and even cutting support for buses."
Just what are people expected to do?
