The Scapegoat.

Ian Duncan-Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, announced the details of the new Welfare Reform Bill last week. They’re going to clamp down on the unemployed, apparently. This is an old cloaking device that governments trot out occasionally when times are financially difficult. They know that there is a sizeable portion of the population who like to entertain the simplistic notion that the unemployed are responsible for the unemployment rate. I’ve frequently heard invective along the lines of ‘Why should I pay taxes to keep the layabouts on the dole queue in the lap of luxury?’ It’s an old story.

Well, let me say a couple of things here. Firstly, I know there is a hardcore of perennial unemployed who’ve never contributed anything to society and never will; but they’re in the minority. Secondly, I’ve been unemployed a couple of times myself, and I can assure everybody that, for most people in most situations, the level of benefit is woefully inadequate to pay for even the most fundamental living expenses. It isn’t even comfortable, let alone ‘the lap of luxury.’ But let me go back into recent history for a slightly broader view of this subject.

When I left school there were very few unemployed people, because if all else failed, all you had to do was go to the nearest factory and pick a job from the vacancies board. It’s how I got my first job while I was waiting to go in the navy. Something like 80% of the factories in that city have now closed. The second biggest employer was mining. There are no pits there any more. The third biggest employer was a major steelworks. That’s gone, too. The same is true of industrial areas all over the old world. Alternative jobs have been created in things like call centres and the leisure industry, but they’re not as stable and they’re not enough.

In the 90’s we saw example after example of banks announcing record profits, followed by a further announcement of job cuts. Technology was doing the work, so why employ people? By getting rid of the jobs, they could make even more money for the executives and shareholders. The primary aim of the private company is to make money, not provide jobs. Jobs are only the means to an end, not an end in itself. They like to crow about how many jobs are being created when they’re trying to get over planning objections, but it’s just a tactical device which really shouldn’t fool anybody any more.

Running alongside this process has been another one. The minimum school leaving age was raised, and then pressure grew on young people to stay in education even longer by going to college or university. A large chunk of the working age population was removed from the job queues that way. And yet there are now an estimated – depending on how you define it – 10% of the working age population of Britain who are unemployed and claiming some form of benefit.

Doesn’t anybody see the bottom line here? There aren’t enough jobs to go around. It doesn’t matter how much pressure you put on the unemployed, it won’t make any difference. The only way to get the figure down is to create jobs, which isn’t happening. Ironically, the government also announced cost-cutting measures last week which will destroy even more jobs. Blaming the unemployed for the unemployment rate is a shabby political device, but it works because too many people can’t see beyond the bigotry and the rhetoric.

It also seems ironic to me that a mere three weeks into the present government’s term of office, a minister has already had to resign over fraudulent expenses claims. And who stood up and said he was ‘very sorry to see him go?’ The very same Mr Duncan-Smith who wants to beat up the unemployed and make them scapegoats for a situation created by the move towards a more free market economy, the development of technology, and government policies over the last few decades. I have to wonder where the said minister’s priorities lie.

But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. The business of government isn’t about doing the right thing. It’s about making impressions, creating illusions, and maintaining popularity by pandering to mass prejudices. And when any government wants an easy target, the unemployed are the first against the wall.