In the Furore About the Government's Plans for Job-Seekers To... [Derived Headline]

Summary

---

IN the furore about the Government's plans for job-seekers to undertake a month of community work, it's become clear that too many of my peers on the left regard welfarism as a sacred cow that brooks no challenge. I am sceptical of the details of Iain Duncan Smith's reforms: compelling the jobless to do "voluntary work", instead of offering real jobs, is barmy. But surely all of us should welcome any shake-up of the debilitating grip of welfare dependency.

The idea that encouraging the long-term unemployed to get back to work is a malevolent right-wing plot shows how far welfarism has redefined what it means to be unemployed. Unemployment - as a political phenomenon - used to be about demanding decent jobs for all (remember those "right to work" marchers). How sad that today it's considered radical to do no more than defend the right to long- term benefits. This fatalistically accepts unemployment as a natural state of affairs, a version of "the poor will always be with us".

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

In the Furore About the Government's Plans for Job-Seekers To... [Derived Headline]

Where once unemployment was understood as a temporary interlude during which the "safety net" of state assistance was use...

See the full content of this document

---