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Mass homelessness is now official UK govt. policy?

housing activist | 06.02.2008 00:28 | Analysis | Other Press | Social Struggles

According to todays Guardian the Government now plan to create mass homelessness by threatening about a million council tenants with eviction if they can't find work. As there are only 0.6 million vacancies, this makes it impossible for more than 60% of these - at the very most - to find work.

Is government policy now to create mass homelessness, using the flimsy cover of "welfare reform"? Are we going to wake up in ten years and find ourselves in a nation of shanty towns? All those council estates would make great gated communities for the yuppies! It would be popular with the right wing, angry masses as well, at least at first, also it would create an army of really screwed up poor people for the middle classes to hate - and yet another problem for the government to "solve" (although after that it would have to be some kind of final solution - what else would you do with a couple of million homeless?)

OK, that was tasteless - and they're already said to be "backtracking", but again, why say it in the first place? It strikes me that the minister let that slip out by mistake, we just weren't supposed to find out about that yet.

Something like this simply has to be in the offing, if only because their economic policies do depend so much on taking from the poor and giving to the rich. I seem to recall that they've been cutting the top rate of tax and corporation tax after every election for decades now - how else is this fiscally sustainable, except via a massive gutting of the welfare state?

Where will it all end? This is scary; none of my friends seem to believe that they could be that heartless, but the public generally have been completely hoodwinked by corporate propaganda into hating claimants; they regularly demand that all benefits are slashed dramatically at every opportunity. The lemmings are baying for this kind of thing much like the Red Staters that voted for Bush on the other side of the Atlantic.

Then there's the recession. There will be pressure to sell council housing, evict poor people and stop their benefits. It's simply all that the UK elites know how to do; they'd rather die than tax the rich and as Camoron has shown, a canny politician can get a lot of good ink, and votes, from ranting about "the underclass". This is a done deal as far as I'm concerned.

When this happens activists should get back into social stuff, start mass squatting up again - because if we don't, people are going to die. And not in Gaza or Mexico, but right here, and sooner than you think.

housing activist

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06.02.2008 16:29

"According to todays Guardian the Government now plan to create mass homelessness by threatening about a million council tenants with eviction if they can't find work. As there are only 0.6 million vacancies, this makes it impossible for more than 60% of these - at the very most - to find work."

As much as I totally agree that the new legislation is a disgrace, I don't think the point above quite makes sense. I think the legislation is about people 'looking' for work rather than actually being employed. Similar to being on the dole etc., you are supposed to prove that you are looking for work, rather than working. Either way, I wouldn't put it past the authorities to force eviction on those they think aren't looking hard enough. But yeah.

lalala


Not looking 'ard enough..

06.02.2008 20:46

From some of the comments in the right wing press and the government, they obviously believe doleies aren't looking hard enough. What disturbs me are the comments made by Civitas in the Hate Mail implying that "junkies" and single mothers are less deserving of any kind of housing than people who work.

Neil Thurogood
- Homepage: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/freeheroin/


thanks

07.02.2008 13:19


Thanks for the comments, I've made a flyer up for anyone who lives in council or social housing. Maybe we can stop this shit in its' tracks, even if we don't maybe collective action will at least ensure that when the bulldozers / bailiffs show up people might have somewhere else to go, ie, squats etc.

I can't belive this is happening to be honest, but my experience shows that this is exactly what they they will get - the media just publishes their press releases and the general populaiton is massively in favour of this as a result. Stupid fuckers. We're sleepwalking into being a banana republic and these idiots lap it up, although I don't really trust that claiming 81% support for the measures that much, they're a sign that the ruling class are getting ready for a MASSIVE assault on the rest of us.

Here's my pathetic contribution to the struggle, anyway - feel free to distribute it as you like - I wish I could do more activism but (a) people in my town are more interested in abstract, globabl politics and fluffy bunnies than actual people, and (b) I suffer from depression and some kind of PTSD type problems as a result of years of just this kind of abuse, homelessness etc.

The struggle continues...

housing activist