A new Channel 4 Dispatches documentary claiming one of the biggest challenges to the Labour Party government is people on long term DWP sickness benefits will air on Monday 2 December. However, the man heading it up is none other than ToryBoy pseudo-academic Fraser Nelson:
7% of the UK’s working age population is claiming long term sickness benefits – costing the taxpayer £48 billion – and the numbers are quickly rising.
For @C4Dispatches, @FraserNelson investigates why this is one of the greatest challenges the new Labour government faces. pic.twitter.com/6OTy2qRIWQ
— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) November 26, 2024
Fraser Nelson: read his old tweets…
This is the same man who said people that were off sick were ‘complaining about anxiety, depression or other mental health issues’ and moaned about poor working-class boys not going to university. Oh, and he also said that Britain’s social security was “some of the most generous in Europe” – which was at the time, and still is, categorically untrue.
Let us spell this out. Channel 4 got the former editor of the rightwing benefit claimant-bashing Spectator to host its documentary on so-called economic inactivity. Did we mention, that would be Fraser Nelson who has also penned hit pieces for the Torygraph? Yep, yet another right-wing shitrag punching down on chronically ill and disabled people for a past-time:
I cannot believe that @Channel4 is giving credibility to Nelson Fraser, who is ideologically driven with a programme on economically inactive people.
— Anita Bellows (@AnitaBellows12) November 26, 2024
Not to mention being part of the corporate media at the very centre of blaming benefits claimants as workshy scroungers:
Let’s be clear. His objections are not on compassion grounds, but ideological. Check his timeline for the past 14 years. He does not give a fig about people on sickness/disability benefits https://t.co/bUD8ozEP3e
— Anita Bellows (@AnitaBellows12) November 24, 2024
He’s also on the advisory board for the notorious Iain Duncan-Smith thinktank the Centre for Social Justice. They set the wheels in motion for disastrous Universal Credit and other callous welfare reforms:
Why now Fraser? The Labour Govt. is just 4.5 months old but the benefit system has been in place throughout the 14 yrs of Conservative governments so if reform was needed why didn’t it get reformed by them?
Surely your report is on the mess left for Labour by the Tories.— Prixpics (@prixpics) November 26, 2024
Not a coincidence
More recently, Fraser Nelson moaned in 2022 that “how can there be a labour shortage and record joblessness?”. He said this was “a sign of a deep dysfunction in the welfare state”.
What a coincidence that the number of people off sick long term has risen so drastically in the midst of a pandemic. Fraser Nelson obviously didn’t get the memo about long Covid. Or the long term mental health impacts of lockdowns or family members dying:
I would discuss long covid with Fraser but, the only time I raised it, he blocked me. pic.twitter.com/HWMR7BhvDK
— Mick ☕️🍉 (@MickCoffey2) November 26, 2024
In April, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that over two million people in the UK were living with long Covid. However, this is probably an underestimate anyway. It’s likely there are many more living with it in reality.
Despite this, the upshot is that this surge in post-viral chronic illness could well account for a significant proportion of the rise in long-term sick people not able to work:
What could it possibly be? pic.twitter.com/v7y2kpskuP
— Rob Al (@robalpire) November 24, 2024
This is nothing more than a shameless PR exercise for the government. It’s no coincidence Fraser Nelson announced this the day the DWP is putting out its White Paper on employment reforms. This predictably emphasises people not working due to long-term sickness.
His documentary is there for nothing more than to manufacture consent for the government forcing chronically ill and disabled people into work.
Demonising disabled people on Channel 4?
People who are sick that need help being able to afford staying alive?
How dare they.
Rich people who aren’t so keen on paying their fair share of tax? Don’t you dare you mention that:
C4 please don’t say you as a broadcaster are going down the road of demonising a certain section of society. As an alternative, any chance of investigating the lack of keenness on the part of the some wealthy individuals. Contributing to society by paying their fare share of tax.
— Rosebud1942 (@Rosebud19427651) November 26, 2024
At the end of the day, the capitalist system we all have no choice but to live in is set up for people who are non-disabled. Is there any wonder people are getting sicker when we are constantly competing to survive?
For someone like Fraser Nelson – a non-disabled, white, straight male – who clearly has no worries about where his next meal is coming from, the idea that the system is making people sicker is just too hard to grasp.
Meanwhile, treating people who can’t work as burdens on society is going to do nothing other than worsen their health. But you carry on Fraser.
Feature image via screengrab
