Lots of talk in this morning's papers about the 2,000 Incapacity Benefit claims from obese people, the sixty people unable to work due to nail disorders, the 50,000 alcoholics, and the million plus who, acording to the Daily Mail's Edward Heathcoat-Amory (brother of Tory MP David), "say they suffer from back ache or mental problems, which conveniently are the two most easy conditions to fake".
What you won't hear so much about, of course, are the hundreds of thousands of people like my dad, who put in forty years of backbreaking manual labour straight from school, handling heavy machinery outdoors in all kinds of weather, and ended up with Vibration White Finger and chronic lower back problems. Or the workers who got stuck in asbestos-ridden or otherwise dangerously polluted workplaces for decades before anyone stopped to think - or care - about the lasting effects on their health. "Make life tough for the idle," Heathcoat-Amory says. As if he even knows the meaning of the word.
1 comment:
What you don't also hear about are the Lords claiming daily allowance for sitting on their backsides, or mega-companies who pay less tax than Ken Dodd.
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