PAUL LICENSE: Hollow ring of PM's promises
ROME wasn't built in a day.
Gordon Brown's ancestors must have been on the job.
I mean, how long is it since Old Labour became New Labour and romped to power on a wave of euphoric optimism?
Certainly long enough to have built the foundations for something, other than a life of Hard Labour, which is the prospect facing many of us. And we're the lucky ones. We've got a job!
Now, after all these years, Gordon Brown suddenly pulls not one but a whole warren of rabbits out of his premier's hat.
Sadly for anyone who still holds a fond thought or two for those heady early years of New Labour, there is a hollow ring of familiarity to many of the boasts that 11 proposed bills will bring an era of fairness to all.
For instance, he says NHS patients will receive prompt treatment and care. Haven't we heard that before?
And, after pumping billions into the health service, why is it even necessary to promise what we ought to be taking for granted?
He's also going to get tough on the downright lazy: any young person refusing the offer of a job, work experience or training will have their Job Seekers' Allowance cut.
Has this idea only just come to him? Surely not. The Prime Minister cannot possibly live in such a hermetically sealed bubble that he didn't know this is what people have thought for years?
Or is he surrounded by so many Yes Men that he only ever hears what they think he wants to hear?
For the benefit of anyone for whom the penny has yet to drop, let me be clear: the hard- working public is sick of watching great wads of their hard-earned cash be doled out to the clueless and the idle.
If we have to create such a lavish and, for some, generous benefits system, don't make it so easy.
And I don't mean that the claiming protocol should be cleansed of the labyrinthine verbal hurdles which only the initiated understand.
What is needed is for those who put their hands out for public cash to earn the right.
Make them clean up some of the mess many of them have littered our streets with. Make them sweat a bit so they can appreciate the city around them. And make them value the money which comes their way.
It should not be free. It should be earned.
Mind you, you have got to admire Gordon Brown's timing.
He decides to announce this just as thousands are finding themselves on the dole through no fault of their own... but as a result of the dodgy dealings of a certain ex-Chancellor's pals in the banking industry.
And do you know what is particularly heart-wrenching?
These men and women have worked hard to put the Great in Britain, who have paid their dues and helped bolster a system which has created an underclass of loafers.
And now they are in need of some support themselves, the benefit system suddenly turns out to be a closed shop.
Limited help, limited support, limited cash.
Oodles of money, it seems, are only available to those who have invested a lifetime of scheming and scrounging into working out how to milk the system.
BUY ONLINE: Buy The Star - Monday to Saturday - for local news, sport, features and ads. Sign up on line by clicking here.
READ MORE
Main news index
Your letters
Features
South Yorkshire's environmental news
Kids Zone
More business news
More Rotherham news
More Doncaster news
More Barnsley news
Latest sport
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sheffield
Friday 10 February 2012
Today
Fog
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
