Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant'
26th April 2013, 09:55
Reading an article on the BBC with the above title (seems like a sad endictment of capitalism that this is even an option; just how much is the bare minimum needed to keep you from keeling over and ruining our mortality stats?)
Found the following excerpt from the end of the piece quite interesting in terms of a Tory perspective on what the plebs should spend their money on
Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke has called for a welfare cash card to ensure that benefits are spent on "essential" items only - food, housing, transport, clothing and energy.
They would be prohibited from spending the money on "luxury" goods such as Sky TV, cigarettes and alcohol - items which "hard-working families" have to cut back on when money is tight.
Benefits, he says, are a "safety net to stop people falling into abject poverty". Giving people the money to go to the cinema, or buy Christmas presents, is not part of the deal, he argues.
But the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's report differs, suggesting that a single person living alone needs £5.13 a week for alcohol, which allows for the odd bottle of supermarket wine or a few cans of beer.
They should be able to spend £44.76 on social and cultural activities, which would include having a television with built-in Freeview, occasional meals out and a one-week self catering holiday in the UK.
"It does not include a big night out on the town, it's going for a out for a cup of coffee," says Hirsch. "People think you can't have an acceptable standard of life sitting at home and just surviving."
Full article here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22065978
Found the following excerpt from the end of the piece quite interesting in terms of a Tory perspective on what the plebs should spend their money on
Conservative MP Alec Shelbrooke has called for a welfare cash card to ensure that benefits are spent on "essential" items only - food, housing, transport, clothing and energy.
They would be prohibited from spending the money on "luxury" goods such as Sky TV, cigarettes and alcohol - items which "hard-working families" have to cut back on when money is tight.
Benefits, he says, are a "safety net to stop people falling into abject poverty". Giving people the money to go to the cinema, or buy Christmas presents, is not part of the deal, he argues.
But the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's report differs, suggesting that a single person living alone needs £5.13 a week for alcohol, which allows for the odd bottle of supermarket wine or a few cans of beer.
They should be able to spend £44.76 on social and cultural activities, which would include having a television with built-in Freeview, occasional meals out and a one-week self catering holiday in the UK.
"It does not include a big night out on the town, it's going for a out for a cup of coffee," says Hirsch. "People think you can't have an acceptable standard of life sitting at home and just surviving."
Full article here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22065978