Gary Monro’s blog

Seems life on the dole isn’t so bad.

SEVEN in 10 of Scotland’s hidden unemployed would not take a job if offered one, government figures have revealed.

The Labour Force Survey for 2004 found that 69.9% of those classed as economically inactive did not want to work, compared with 66.3% in 2003.

Why would they not want to work? Answers on a postcard to the usual address…

Here’s another shocker form the same article:

The number classed as economically inactive, largely those on sickness and incapacity benefits, was 655,000 – down 33,000 on 2003.

Across Scotland, 21% of the workforce was in this category.

21% are on sickness or incapacity benefit? 21%? You mean to tell me that in a country with first world medical care that’s free at the point of use we still have a fifth of our people who are just too sick or ill to work?

Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch? And a free dinner….? And a free house…

Here’s an idea: devolve power properly by declaring English independence. Let Scotland et al (special dispensation for N Ireleand however) fend for themselves and let me keep a bit more of what I earn to spend on my family and not everybody else’s.

See how long the Scottish Parliament will put up with those lazy sods then.

Thanks, Bishop Hill

… why won’t Tony Blair shake his hand for the cameras?

There was a brief photocall with camera crews and photographers in the hallway before the talks began, but despite speculation that there might be a historic first public handshake between the two leaders it did not take place.

Maybe he doesn’t want the blood to colour his pure-as-driven-snow white shirt?

Thanks, A Tangled Web.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke - whose department is responsible for the proposed ID card - said the ID card scheme, had it been in place, would not have prevented the London bombings.

Now the minister in charge of the project itself - Tony McNulty - has played down the advantages of the scheme generally.

Tony McNulty, the minister in charge of the ID card project, admitted that ministers had been too enthusiastic in suggesting that the cards could be the answer to a host of problems such as terrorism and multimillion-pound benefit fraud.

Not only will it solve nothing it will, at best, just ‘help’ in certain, specific areas:

Mr McNulty said that the identity card scheme would help to tackle some of the problems but not overcome them. “It will help where fraud and abuse of identity is part of the equation. It will help in the development of some, but not all, strategies to combat identity fraud, serious crime and terrorism,” he said.

One thing that strikes me is that the day somebody manages to fiddle the ID card system not only will it make that person very rich but the amount of trust - and the degree of access - that one piece of plastic will afford them will mean that the fraud will be massive in scale and widespread in scope.

Anyway, I’m going to give the government 10 out of 10 for the belated honesty with which they’ve spoken on this subject of late.

But now the question that we’ve all been asking:

Why will be be spending billions of pounds on a project that will almost certainly go the way of all government IT projects - ie it will go very badly indeed - for benefits that will never be particularly outstanding and will, often, be non-existent?

What’s in it for the government?

From the Daily Telegraph:

Apparently the London bombing’s were all Tony Blair’s fault and we should expect more of the same:

Ayman al-Zawahri, the al-Qa’eda deputy leader, has threatened further attacks on London in a video broadcast by Arab television station Al-Jazeera.

Blaming Tony Blair for the attacks, Zawahri said: “Blair’s policies will bring more destruction to Britons after the London explosions.”

He also threatened America, warning of horrors “worse than they faced in Vietnam”.

Charming. I wonder what side of the bed he got out of this morning.

He’s really narked at the west for interfering with the otherwise idyllic societies of the middle east:

“Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers.”

Well, I’m a little slow on middle eastern affairs so remind me again: which rulers in that part of the world aren’t corrupt?

By the way, for anybody questioning the existence of al-Quaida (how do you spell that word?) al-Jazeera covers the same story on its on-line front page and they regard him as al-Kyeeda’s deputy too. In fact, they refer to his as “al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s deputy as well as al cayieda’s deputy”.

“To the people of the crusader coalition … our blessed Shaikh Osama has offered you a truce so that you leave Muslim land. As he said, you will not dream of security until we live it as a reality in Palestine, and until all your infidel armies leave Prophet Mohammad’s lands,” he said.

President Bush took it all very lightly:

“They’re terrorists and they’re killers and they will kill innocent people…so they can impose their dark vision on the world,” Bush said as he stood alongside Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

“Zawahiri was a part of that team that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001,” Bush said. “He was part of an al Qaeda group that said, ‘Well, we’ll try to achieve our objective in attacking America.’

“They must not have understood the nature of our country. I vowed then that we would stay on the offense against these people. We owe it to the American people and other freedom-loving countries to bring these killers to justice.”

Okay, so he wants to kill the guy. But apart from that, he took it well.

Want to know how poor this country really is?

Take the British Welfare state quiz. And weep…

Click here.

Let’s discuss particularly Question 4….