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I know politics is a horrible world, but the furore over the comments of Lord Freud really does take the biscuit.
BBC News - Welfare minister apologises for disability pay comments
Labour has called on the Conservative peer to resign after he said some workers were "not worth the full wage".
So let me get this straight.
These are comments made off the cuff, in direct conversation with a father who was asked about whether people like his disabled son - who he desperately believed would benefit from working - could get an exemption to the minimum wage to encourage employers to take him on.
So the minister thinking out loud, which is specifically what he said, wondered whether there may be some way where the benefits system could make up the difference if the minimum wage could be relaxed for a small group of people.
I really feel sorry for this guy and how he has been so horribly misrepresented. Watching Newsnight with the oh so pompous and obvious tory-hating disabled lady making hay with this. And similar things on the 6 O'clock and Ch4 news shows.
The Adam Smith institute have come out in support of Freud, and their statement is very well put.
“Lord Freud has been shamefully mistreated by Ed Miliband. His point was that the market value of some people’s wages is below the minimum wage. This is often true of the severely disabled and can have appalling consequences for their self-esteem and quality of life. Fixing this problem was the justification for Remploy, a government-funded firm that gave jobs to disabled people who could not find work elsewhere.
To point out that someone’s market value is less than minimum wage has nothing to do with their moral value as human beings. Freud’s point was that we should help people in this situation by allowing them to find jobs paying below the minimum wage and topping up their pay directly to make up the difference.
Even if you don’t agree with this method, it is motivated by compassion for the disabled and an understanding of the unpleasant side-effects of our minimum wage laws. Freud’s only crime was to speak bluntly: it is disgraceful to use his words against him in the way Miliband has.”
And the best thing coming out of this? Labour supported exactly this policy when they were in office!
Labour Backed £4-a-Day Pay for Mentally Disabled - Guy Fawkes' blog
In 2003 the Labour government supported allowing some companies to pay people with mental health problems £4-a-day to man assembly lines. A government paper from when Patricia Hewitt was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, which argues that that some so-called “therapeutic work” should not qualify for the minimum wage. It proposed an organisation which “runs a facility for mental health out patients, who do various activities such as packing and assembly“ can“pay varying amounts up to £20 per week“, so long as “if [workers] do not attend there are no sanctions”. The government paper concludes that under such an arrangement “there would probably not be an employer/worker relationship” and therefore “the national minimum wage would not apply“. Ironically the likes of Scope, Mencap and the TUC were consulted during the preparation of the document. Ed Miliband today called for the resignation of a government minister for suggesting something not nearly as draconian…
And yet such is the furore and so afraid are our politicians over anything which could possibly be misconstrued as attacking the disabled, that he has profoundly apologised.
You really couldn't make it up.
I'm embarrassed that our politics has become like this. For Labour making such a nakedly cynical manoeuvre, or the tories for so timidly accepting it and apologising.
BBC News - Welfare minister apologises for disability pay comments
Labour has called on the Conservative peer to resign after he said some workers were "not worth the full wage".
So let me get this straight.
These are comments made off the cuff, in direct conversation with a father who was asked about whether people like his disabled son - who he desperately believed would benefit from working - could get an exemption to the minimum wage to encourage employers to take him on.
So the minister thinking out loud, which is specifically what he said, wondered whether there may be some way where the benefits system could make up the difference if the minimum wage could be relaxed for a small group of people.
I really feel sorry for this guy and how he has been so horribly misrepresented. Watching Newsnight with the oh so pompous and obvious tory-hating disabled lady making hay with this. And similar things on the 6 O'clock and Ch4 news shows.
The Adam Smith institute have come out in support of Freud, and their statement is very well put.
“Lord Freud has been shamefully mistreated by Ed Miliband. His point was that the market value of some people’s wages is below the minimum wage. This is often true of the severely disabled and can have appalling consequences for their self-esteem and quality of life. Fixing this problem was the justification for Remploy, a government-funded firm that gave jobs to disabled people who could not find work elsewhere.
To point out that someone’s market value is less than minimum wage has nothing to do with their moral value as human beings. Freud’s point was that we should help people in this situation by allowing them to find jobs paying below the minimum wage and topping up their pay directly to make up the difference.
Even if you don’t agree with this method, it is motivated by compassion for the disabled and an understanding of the unpleasant side-effects of our minimum wage laws. Freud’s only crime was to speak bluntly: it is disgraceful to use his words against him in the way Miliband has.”
And the best thing coming out of this? Labour supported exactly this policy when they were in office!
Labour Backed £4-a-Day Pay for Mentally Disabled - Guy Fawkes' blog
In 2003 the Labour government supported allowing some companies to pay people with mental health problems £4-a-day to man assembly lines. A government paper from when Patricia Hewitt was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, which argues that that some so-called “therapeutic work” should not qualify for the minimum wage. It proposed an organisation which “runs a facility for mental health out patients, who do various activities such as packing and assembly“ can“pay varying amounts up to £20 per week“, so long as “if [workers] do not attend there are no sanctions”. The government paper concludes that under such an arrangement “there would probably not be an employer/worker relationship” and therefore “the national minimum wage would not apply“. Ironically the likes of Scope, Mencap and the TUC were consulted during the preparation of the document. Ed Miliband today called for the resignation of a government minister for suggesting something not nearly as draconian…
And yet such is the furore and so afraid are our politicians over anything which could possibly be misconstrued as attacking the disabled, that he has profoundly apologised.
You really couldn't make it up.
I'm embarrassed that our politics has become like this. For Labour making such a nakedly cynical manoeuvre, or the tories for so timidly accepting it and apologising.