From the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour.
David Blunkett (above) yesterday promised to liberate benefits claimants from dependence, insisting the way to overcome depression and stress was to stop watching daytime television and get back to work.
“If people … reassociate with the world of work, suddenly they come alive again,” the work and pensions secretary said. “That will overcome depression and stress a lot more than people sitting at home watching daytime television.”
It was a paradox, he said, that although work was now physically less demanding, four times as many people claimed incapacity benefit today than were on the equivalent invalidity benefit 25 years ago. The rise, to 2.7 million people, suggested “something very strange had happened to our society”, Mr Blunkett told a seminar.
Without wishing to disrespect the sightless, the former Home Secretary has no idea what he’s missing.
To paraphrase Ms. Pauline Campbell-Jones of Royston Vasey, there’s a lot to be said for waking up late and flicking off to “Tricia”.