Single Mothers of Infants, Get to Work, Dammit!

The Guardian reports the UK's Work and Pension Secretary is demanding that parents on the dole must be prepared to work or face dole reductions. The kicker is that the proposal would apply to single parents with children as young as one.

The Idler points out a poignant comparison (Thanks to Tom Hodgekinson):

The UK's DWP official said:

'Sanctions would only apply to those who refuse to take steps to be job-ready that have been jointly agreed with their personal advisers in Job Centres.'

In a classic example of the originality of British Civil servants,we can see from whose larger government regulation the DWP has copied work:

The problem?

'Work-shy elements within the meaning of this order are men who are old enough to work and who have recently been certified fit and who can be proved to have rejected offers of work on two occasions without just cause or have accepted work only to abandon it again shortly afterwards without adequate reason.'

The solution?

'All protective custody prisoners will be sent to concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar.'

The date of this announcement? 1938. The author? Heinrich Himmler.

The moral of the story?

Watch out, people. It’s during times of economic collapse that bits of authoritarian legislation tend to get sneaked through.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.