More Tory Evil

I know you're all bored by politics (despite the fact that some of you clearly need to know more), and I promise to talk about kittens and things soon, but there was a big story last week which absolutely nobody followed up, and I think it's important.

The Conservative Party announced plans to allow local government to vary the benefits given to the jobless in their area: the idea is to force the unemployed to take work by paying less if there are more jobs available.

Fine, you might say: everyone should take whatever work is out there, whether it fits their skills or not. Work is, as Marx knew, good for self-esteem.

However, it's far more likely that councils will use this power for evil, and with no consequences at all. The money for unemployment benefit doesn't come from your council tax, it comes from income tax, via central government - but most people neither know nor care. So parties can run nasty-minded campaigns locally promising 'lower benefits for dole scroungers' and win big - the poor don't vote and the middle-classes fear and loathe the poor (hence the existence of the Daily Mail).

What we'll get is a beggar-thy-neighbour routine which takes us back to the system of Parish Relief, when the Parish had to pay for gruel and workhouse accommodation for the poor: the result was that the workless were ruthlessly forced to move on to the next parish. It's not difficult to imagine Tory (or even Labour/Lib Dem) councils reducing benefits for local people so much that these unfortunate people move on to another, perhaps more caring council, which will then have to pay their housing benefit (which is a locally-controlled fund). This will lead to rich areas attracting rich people who vote with a combination of low taxes and minimal public services (the rich don't use libraries, Meals on Wheels, lollipop men, environmental health operatives etc.), while other areas will become single-class ghettos of deprivation, in which council money will have to be diverted from quality services to housing benefit for people who don't vote, forced out of their own localities to the detriment of community in every way.

What a nasty, cheap piece of electoral trickery. They're still scum.