Just watched ITV Secrets from the Workhouse. You make up your own mind about the worth of the show. What struck me so forcibly was the Victorian attitude to the sick lame and the poor. Demonised and publicly judged to be malingers, the shiftless workshy who had to be punished and humiliated back into a proper wish for work.These same Victorians that I had always assumed had such proud high moral standards and lived within such very straight-laced ethics. These Victorians from the security of their mansions, surrounded by a bevy of servants with access to all the riches from across the world felt able to judge those that failed to succeed.
Despite a brief interlude where the Welfare State put such judgemental views firmly behind us and set out to help all those that fell, back onto their feet to gave them support for another chance to make a go of it. We are back at square one.
On our behalf, our government sets out to demonise all those out of work or taking benefits of one kind or another, casting them as lazy, work-shy fraudulent abuses of the system. We have turned a full circle and are back with the Victorians attitudes condemning all those that have not yet leapt onto the gravy train was worthless. Sanctimonious hypocrisy.
If the government cannot learn and understand that we are all dragged down by the poor and deprived within our society. That all our lives are degraded by the consequences of having a sector of our society without hope, despair, loss of self-esteem. We shall have to teach them. We shall have to speak loud and clear to them and tell them that giving the rich even more access to even more riches can only be done by taking more from one sector, the least well off. This is not sustainable. You cannot blame the sick, lame or poor for failing. You have to help them, you have show compassion, not condemnation.
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