Tag Archives: daniel blake

This heartbreaking tweet about a real life Daniel Blake is going viral on social media

Mary-Rachel McCabe is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, who specialises in access to justice and is a children’s rights campaigner. Earlier this week she took to Twitter to relate the tragic story of a real life Daniel Blake she has been representing.

Despite what some Conservatives have tried to insinuate, the plot of I, Daniel Blake not only rings true – it is in fact a realistic depiction of the the way the cruel DWP has chosen to victimise the most vulnerable in our society.

Under the Tories, since 2010 we have seen a systematic campaign to reduce support for benefit claimants to a level below that of simple subsistence, with consequences that are all too predictable: more than a hundred thousand unnecessary deaths, starvation, poverty, depression and numerous suicides.

And for what purpose? Tory austerity provides no actual gain to society. It doesn’t even benefit the economy, because the social problems it creates are far more costly to address than the financial cost of simply having a fair and humane benefits system.

The true purposeof austerity, of course, is to divert public money to shareholders of the small number of companies who the DWP have contracted to provide services such as fake fitness to work assessments.

We need a radical, humanist alternative to the Tory austerity that is literally killing Britain, and only a Labour government under somebody like Jeremy Corbyn can provide it.

Here are some of the best replies to Mary-Rachel McCabe’s tweets:

Here at Newscrasher we definitely agree that the architects of the DWP’s cruel regime of benefit cuts and sanctions should be held accountable in a court of law.

Several users also told of helping people who have been put in similarly difficult circumstances by the cruel DWP:

IDS slams Ken Loach for being ‘out of touch’ with spivs and high net worth individuals

Iain Duncan Smith has criticised left-wing film-maker Ken Loach for being out of touch with spivs and high net worth individuals, it has emerged.

The former Minister for Manslaughter said: “It’s all very well Ken Loach making films about the supposed plight of people who I plunged into poverty during my tenure as Minister for Manslaughter, but he needs to realise how out of touch he has become to spivs and high net worth individuals who don’t pay any tax.”

“The plot of his new film, ‘I, Daniel Blake’ paints an inaccurate picture of the lives of people who need to use benefits in order to survive.”

“When benefit claimants are sanctioned, they gain the freedom to take control and look for new opportunities to identify efficiency savings, such as starving or freezing to death due to lack of money.”

“Many claimants whose benefits were stopped for no good reason quickly freed themselves from having to pay extortionate rents to greedy landlords, some of whom are Tory MPs, by becoming homeless and living on the streets.”

“In addition, numerous actors paid by the DWP to make statements in support of my fantasy have thanked me for helping to turn their lives around through my cruel regime of sanctions and fitness to work assessments.”

“I am truly proud of my record as Minister for Manslaughter, but I’m even prouder of my exceptionally bald head.”