I’ve noticed some people have been comparing the coalition’s workfare ideas – where the unemployed have to work for free or have their benefits taken away from them – to the ideas behind the infamous Victorian workhouses.
I’m no historian, but I’ve been perusing some interesting articles about the origins of the workhouses and it may actually not be such an exaggeration after all.
The workhouses, made famous by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist, were the result of an act of parliament in 1834 called the Poor Law Amendment Act.
And I’ve discovered something interesting. The reasons why Victorian politicians deemed it necessary to put the poor and the vulnerable in workhouses, are worryingly similar to the justification the government gives for modern workfare today.
These were the reasons given in 1834:
- the poor claim relief (help from the parish) regardless of their merits
- large families receive the most relief, therefore leading poor people to have more children
- women are able to claim for their illegitimate children, so the system encourages immorality
- labourers have no incentive to work hard and be thrifty, if they get relief without it being earned by honest hard work
- the poor have no respect for an employer when they know that their wages could be supplemented by the parish
- men are discouraged from providing for their families and aged parents because the old and the frail can get help from the parish
Sound familiar?
They should. Because these are exactly the same reasons the Daily Mail, the Sun etc have been giving us for the justification of the coalitions’ workfare policy in 2012:
- all the unemployed can claim benefits, regardless of whether they are willing to work or not
- large families receive the most benefits, therefore leading people to have more children so they can claim more benefits
- single parents are able to claim for children, so the system encourages the breakdown of the family unit
- workers have no incentive to work hard and save, if they can get benefits without it being earned by honest hard work
- people have no respect for employers if they know that their wages can be supplemented by the state with family credit etc
- because the old, the disabled, sick etc can get state help, people are discouraged from caring for their own family members and aged parents themselves
Here are the reasons again, in a table for easy comparison:
So the truth is – we’re not seeing a return to the bad old days of the 1980s under Thatcher as some people think.
What we’re really seeing, is a return to the bad old days of the 1830s under the Victorians.
Or to quote Scrooge when he refused to give some money to help the poor:
Are there no prisons? And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?
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Related articles by Tom Pride on this subject:
Did you know the government is subsidising McDonald’s with taxpayers money – your money?
The government has finally done something so outrageous even I can’t be bothered to satirise it
Government To Promote Equal Workplace Opportunities By Allowing The Disabled To Work As Slaves For Tesco’s Too
Struggling to find words to describe this government? Here’s a list to help you.
No hidden agenda behind government’s Training & Experience for the Sick, Crippled & Old programme
Tory minister – no shortage of jobs for disabled toddlers
Department of Work & Pensions – Death No Reason Not To Be Classified As ‘Fit For Work’
Government Responds To Banking Crisis By Cutting Benefits For Disabled Kids
Government – Light-Touch Regulation Of The Disabled To Blame For Economic Crisis
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Please feel free to comment – you don’t need to register and I’m extremely minimal with the moderating – so fire away.
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Socrates said:
Yes, and I couldn’t help but notice that Thilo Sarrazin’s erm… Mindbelch of 2010 has a somewhat antiquated feel about it.
There is just one speech about the poor and needy that gets recycled generation after generation.
For example the Times on the Irish Famine: “The Irish peasant has tasted of famine and found that it was good”, hoping to get free manna from the sky. Moreover, the religion of the peasants holds that “Man shall not labour by the sweat of his brow”.
We have re-entered some unbelievably dark times.
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Tom Pride said:
Right – the similarity of the arguments going back in time is striking.
I suddenly got a feeling today that we really haven’t moved very far at all in several hundred years.
BTW, Sarrazin was supposed to be on the left, wasn’t he?
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Natasha said:
Absolutely right Tom – what a great piece (as are all your writings). We are supposedly ‘celebrating’ the 200th birthday of Dickens this year. Dickens would not wish that to mean returning to living conditions in his times, those he wrote so eloquently about in order to expose them as wrong and in need of change. He would be turning in his grave to see the injustice going on now. Clearly our ‘leaders’ haven’t read Dickens or studied history. Fine, if they want a return to Victorian values, they can also look forward to a return of plague, typhus, TB, mass crime – in the streets of London. They should be careful what they wish for………
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allyouneedisyourmind said:
Reblogged this on allyouneedisyourmind and commented:
Read this, This is 100% correct, it’s back to Oliver! and Victorian values at #wrb and #workfare
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Tom Pride said:
I agree – Dickens would definitely be turning in his grave – and he would be surprised to recognise exactly the same arguments being trotted out now by those in power as in his day.
The problem is I think our ‘leaders’ have read Dickens and they know exactly what they’re doing.
It just shows me that the arguments we (and people like Dickens) thought were won are still going on – and at the moment we seem to be losing them again…
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Rowanne said:
Just so you know, I’ve borrowed and shared the workfare vs workhouse image on Facebook, hope you don’t mind
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Tom Pride said:
No problem – be my guest.
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Rowanne said:
Thanks, a few friends have shared it along too. I genuinely fear for the future of this country
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Socrates said:
More here on the undeserving poor.
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harrymonmouth said:
When you consider the system that was operating in the feudal era it is quite good to see that they were actually very advanced in the Victorian era by comparison. However the flip side of that is the worrying fact that we are so primitive in the modern era.
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