UKC

Was there a Lord Freud thread I missed?

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 JLS 17 Oct 2014

How can this just be the sort of mistake that an apologise makes all right?

I'd have marginally more respect for him if he said, this is my view and I'm standing by it.
To say, I've made a mistake and this isn't my opinion, would seem somewhat disingenuous.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/15/lord-freud-unreserved-apolog...
Post edited at 21:17
Clauso 17 Oct 2014
In reply to JLS:

It was a Freudian slip...
OP JLS 17 Oct 2014
In reply to Clauso:
No no, I think he was quite sure of what he was saying.

Perhaps he's schizophrenic and it wasn't really him talking.

That should save his employers a few bob...
Post edited at 21:36
1
 Philip 17 Oct 2014
In reply to JLS:

Pointless apology. Apparently the point he made, that to get some people back to work would mean the state subsidising their pay back to minimum wage, was first suggested by leading disability charities.

I think it's the wrong solution, but I don't know a better one. Making the rules different for a subset of people does not reduce discrimination.
OP JLS 17 Oct 2014
In reply to Philip:

Pointless apology in the sense that he'd get no credit for it? I guess it had to be made for purely political reasons i.e. so the other side couldn't say he refused to apologise.

So was he really saying... ?

A. Some disabled people aren't worth the minimum wage.

or

B. Some disabled people can't achieve a level of productivity that an employer would be able or willing to pay the minimum wage.

I can sort of see how you might say A when you mean B. Should we give him the benefit of the doubt?

In reply to JLS:

All that happened was that the Conservative Party panicked and put huge pressure on him to revise his earlier comments.
OP JLS 17 Oct 2014
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:
Are you saying they were wrong to panic and that what he said could be explained away as just a poor choice of words?
Seeing how bad the headlines looked you can sort of understand why they panicked. Almost too unbelievable for an "The Thick of It" plot line...
Post edited at 23:14
1
In reply to JLS:

No, you're saying more or less how I understand it. I should not perhaps have used the expression 'All that' (rather than 'What')
 DaveN 18 Oct 2014
In reply to JLS:
Well, apparently he was talking about productivity and needing additional subsidy, but got hijacked by labour. This brings two questions:
1) if he thinks that disabled people need additional support in the workplace then why has it been reduced by this government?

2)is this really the best hijack that labour can do? They seem to miss a lot of open goals.
 DaCat 19 Oct 2014
In reply to JLS:

This isn't the first time the Tories have slipped up

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jun/17/tory-philip-davies-disabled-...

and then there's Cllr David Scott who raised the idea with Freud about disabled people not being worth it.

It seems to be a common thought pattern with the Conservative party.


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