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(satire)
A ban on public displays of poverty is coming into force in England – with ministers promising it will help curb the number of young people taking up becoming paupers.
Unemployed, homeless and other poor people will have to be kept out of sight in large shops and supermarkets, while small outlets are exempt until 2015. The government is also planning to extend the ban to include public displays of disability.
A government spokesperson explained the ban was designed to stop young people from becoming paupers:
Research has shown that exposure to poverty only encourages young people to become poor themselves. Studies have also shown that two-thirds of unemployed youngsters started being paupers before they were eighteen.
So, if we can, literally, arrive at a place where young people just don’t think about poverty and they don’t see unemployment and they don’t see homelessness, by reducing the visibility of poverty to young people. – then I hope we can motivate them from becoming paupers themselves.
The government is also considering a ban on public displays of disability to drive down the numbers of people becoming sick or disabled.
The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the BBC he hoped the ban would prevent people from taking up being disabled and also help those trying to give up getting sick:
Seeing people in wheelchairs or being sick will only encourage young people to become the same. It’s time we took the bull by the horns and tackled this problem head on so we can arrive at a place where we no longer see disability, poverty and sickness as a normal part of life. Mainly by pretending it doesn’t exist.
A plan to force retailers to put poor and disabled people into plain packaging is also expected to be put out to consultation later this year.
The display ban will apply to shops of more than 280 sq m (3,014 sq ft).
But a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, who are against the ban, said it was wrong to believe legislating supermarkets and other shops from allowing poor and disabled people to be seen in public would have a major effect on young people:
We do not believe that hiding poor people under the counter or disabled people behind curtains or screens will discourage the young from taking up being poor or disabled. The truth is that children are more likely to become paupers when they’re in a household where parents are poor and also they tend to get their poverty from either parents, or older peers, not directly from supermarkets.
Public health minister Anne Milton cited evidence from other countries such as the US which suggested the measure could play an important role in discouraging young people in particular from becoming disabled:
We cannot ignore the fact that young people are being recruited into becoming disabled by colourful, eye-catching displays of disability.
There are too many examples of disabled people looking attractive in public and we need to put an immediate stop to this trend.
Related articles by Tom Pride:
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Andreus Lansleylococcus – the deadly threat lurking in our hospitals
Andrew Lansley ‘complex, incoherent and not fit for purpose’, say doctors
Andrew Lansley To Undergo Painful ‘U-Turn’ Operation
Andrew Lansley’s Face To Help Reduce Hospital Waiting Lists
NHS Reforms – Doctors No Longer To Diagnose and Treat Sickness
Government To Allow Patients To Run Hospitals
Government Extends ‘Nudging’ Policy To Winking and Nodding
Andrew Lansley: Dying can be good for us
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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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Hindle-a said:
This is excellent(and a bit too near the truth)
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Suzanne Schultz Pick said:
I almost believed it since everyone wants to keep kids educated at the risk of deep debt.
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PennyL said:
Most magazines, Hollywood films and fashion retailers already follow this policy. Young people with disabilities will soon only have channel 4 documentary subjects as role models.
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michaelwatsonvt said:
Wait, is this all true? Outrageous!
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michaelwatsonvt said:
LOL! Things here are so whack I actually took you seriously!
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Tom Pride said:
I know what you mean – it’s becoming hard to know what’s real and what’s satire.
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rob8urcakes said:
This has GOT to be a late April Fool’s-type of leg pull (no pun intended). But why Tom?
Are you trying to educate the Tories into hating, attacking and killing us even more than they already do? What’s the point of this false scare story?
The Tories are already so far right-wing in so many of their policies that Hitler, Pinochet, Stalin and Pol Pot would be so proud of them.
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Tom Pride said:
“What’s the point of this false scare story?”
Google the word ‘satire’ Rob.
That’ll explain everything.
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victimsofatoscorruption said:
Reblogged this on ATOS REGISTER OF SHAME.
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Dawn Willis said:
Reblogged this on Dawn Willis sharing the News & Views of the Mentally Wealthy and commented:
*snigger*
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Dawn Willis said:
Made my day – and somewhat like a Terminator movie, startlingly probable
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Tom Pride said:
Thanks for the reblogs. Much appreciated.
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Dawn Willis said:
Thanks for post – it’s ‘gold’.
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Jayne said:
Great blog Tom. I appreciate your satire even though it gives me ‘the chills’ as it could easily happen one day if the Tory empire doesn’t fall.
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annana said:
Brilliant, but really scary.
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Chris Gallagher said:
Hi Tom, Cheers I needed that.
Read it on ATOS Register Of Shame.
Excellent work and very funny.
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michaelwatsonvt said:
I put a link to your piece on Facebook and the one comment thus far was exactly that – the line between “reality” and whatever else is out there is just too thin.
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ste1953 said:
Nice one lmao, Just what I need right now
I’m still trying to find out how to complain about My medical 😦
Have put in for an appeal.
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Tom Pride said:
I suppose just writing ‘they’re a bunch of bastards’ wouldn’t be detailed enough to win an appeal, would it?
Good luck with it anyway.
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Pingback: Public displays of poverty and disability to be banned « Pride's Purge « Better Disability
warriet said:
Thank you for this Tom! you have done it again – produced a satire that is reportage. Your words are closer to the truth than most of the tosh that is mainstream published every day.
In a related development, The Charity Commissioners announced that it would remove charitable status from any organisation whose shops sold disguises to the poor. A new 0900 number will be announced next week so that concerned citizens can report anonymously any attempt by a pauper to present themselves as well-to-do; such a presentation was clearly part of a fraudulent claim and would be regarded as prima facie evidence of criminality.
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Pingback: Public displays of poverty and disability to be banned | SteveB's Economy Scoops | Scoop.it
Tom Pride said:
Cheers.
Bloody paupers trying to pass themselves off as well-to-do.
Whatever next?
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warriet said:
I am sure that Pickles has a plan for that, meanwhile a well-to-do appearance is a prerequisite for any sort of benefit claim – anyone not looking the part is clearly not seriously looking for work. poor appearance will be an automatic ATOS disqualifier.
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Joginder Singh Foley said:
What next us plebs doffing our caps and bowing to the rich ??? Time to take to the streets
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hugosmum70 said:
ste hope yu wrote to yur MP to complain as well as dss etc. law centres are excellent places to go for help.with any benefit prob.
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The Infamous Culex said:
But what about those people who claim that being “disabled” and poor is the result of genetics and is not a lifestyle choice?
Why should the taxpayer have to keep stumping up money to pay for expensive drugs and treatments for people who claim to be suffering from cystic fibrosis? We did not ask them to become ill, did we? So why should we be made to pay for them?
Then there are the poor and irresponsible breeders sponging off the state and breeding like rabbits just to get even more in benefits so they can live the life of Riley at the taxpayers’ expense. Iain Duncan Smith had the right idea when he suggested a benefit cap on just two children, but he did not go quite far enough – no benefits should be paid at all until the family is reduced to just two children. How the parents achieve this should be left to them, as should the choice of the two children they are allowed to keep. Free sterilisation should, of course, be made available to the lower orders of “society”.
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John said:
Is this really being planned? (Please note, I have a rare form of autism)
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