From a Conservative Party member, these comments would be condemned as evidence of our nasty, cruel, dismissive attitude of all those ‘less fortunate’ than us. From Blunkett they are reported in The Guardian as if they were as sensible as looking both ways before crossing the road:

The work and pensions secretary, David Blunkett, today urged hundreds of thousands of people on incapacity benefit to stop watching daytime TV and start looking for work.

He insisted those who needed long-term care would be comfortably provided for. But for others currently on the benefit, Mr Blunkett said getting back to work “will overcome depression and stress a lot more than people sitting at home watching daytime television”.

Blunkett points out a disgraceful statistic without either him or The Guardian wondering how this came about:

There are four times the number of people claiming incapacity benefit than there were on invalidity benefit 25 to 30 years ago, Mr Blunkett said.

“Health has got better, medical science is improving by the day, technology has changed the nature of work so that people can work part-time,” he said.

Surely the facts of increasing health technology and yet more people on invalidity benefit requires further digging? Why don’t we do that? Afraid of what we might find..?

Blunkett then garbles a bit but makes enough sense to sound like Norman Tebbit:

Echoing Norman Tebbit’s famous phrase, Mr Blunkett said: “We are not actually talking about saying to people we will give you benefits but it is entirely up to you to get on your bike and do this.”

So a government minister tells people to get on their bikes. Ooh, the brute. Good job he’s not a Conservative. There’d be no mercy shown then.