You're never too old for a bit of conscripted labour

So says former senior civil servant, and all round waste of oxygen Baron Bichard:

"We are now prepared to say to people who are not looking for work, if you don't look for work you don't get benefits, so if you are old and you are not contributing in some way or another maybe there is some penalty attached to that."

He asked: "Are we using all of the incentives at our disposal to encourage older people not just to be a negative burden on the state but actually be a positive part of society?"

So, not content with forcing ever-increasing numbers of pensioners into poverty, now our glorious leaders want to force them onto workfare. Bichard was of course Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education and Employment, and oversaw the introduction of the draconian Jobseeker's Allowance regime - the enabler to the massive use of sanctions, and now workfare, to attack benefit claimants.

Bichard, incidentally, has only bothered to turn up for 79 votes out of 260 since he became a lord. Perhaps he'd be more 'incentivised' to bother turning up for his 'job' if we took away all his money and sent him to stack shelves for free.

Even if this never sees the light of day, note this comment: "[Bichard] acknowledged it would be difficult for politicians to sell to the public, but added: "So was tuition fees.""

And of course tuition fees were never 'sold' to the public, rather the government pushed ahead with them regardless, with the opposition not even pledging to cut them. It's when you have a crisis of political representation on the current scale, combined with a lack of any kind of significant fightback in the workplaces or on the streets, that this kind of insane ultra-toryism becomes thinkable. At the very least, it's a chilling insight into the way the ruling class think, and where they aim to shift the terms of debate to.

Simian-poop journalism

I.e. fling enough shit and anyone can appear dirty.

Bob Crow gave evidence to the Media Ethics Inquiry today and, oh, the lengths the press go to get a scoop. They keep private detective to watch him on holiday. They 'blag' private information held by the DVLA. A Sunday Times journalist was refused a copy of the agenda for an RMT official meeting, so he began rooting around in the RMT's office bins. Most charming of all:

Crow describes being "doorstepped" at home by reporters and photographers from the Sun.

"When I got to the station he still stood in my way and said, 'you're not allowed to go to work'," Crow tells Leveson.

He says there were two men with video cameras and others who refused to let him go to work. Crow says the Sun told him: "What's it like not to get to go to work? You stopped people going to work this week so get a taste of your own medicine."

Oh, it's just like Woodward and Bernstein.