Sentence, Structure

If Nicola Sturgeon is “serving a sentence for a crime [she] did not commit,” then is she serving it on the same wing as a rapist? She put other Scotswomen in that position. She gave a “no comment” interview to the Police before, days later, sending them a written statement that was copied to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, headed by the Lord Advocate in the Cabinet, which without further examination by anyone promptly decided not to prosecute her. Will this now be standard practice? Someone must have the file that Police Scotland sent to the Crown Office. This is what the Internet is for.

Sturgeon had better hope to have concluded her sentence well before the next Conservative Government, since, in yet another sign of the restoration of Blairism, that party has adopted the old New Labour groupies’ idea of replacing cash benefits with payment cards that could be used to purchase only approved items. Chris Philp wants this to be only for people serving non-custodial sentences or released on licence. But of course that would be only in the first instance. Even for them, would it extend to the state pension? If not, why not? Likewise, Universal Credit payments to those in work, who are two in five claimants. The administrative costs of this whole thing would make it more expensive than the present arrangements, but that is never the point, just as no one who decided anything would care that this gimmick would drive people into the black economy so that they could buy a pint at a birthday party. So much for rehabilitation.

Rather fewer workers might be on benefits if work paid enough to live on. Agree or disagree with equalising the minimum wage regardless of age, but Pat McFadden told Trevor Phillips today that it was not the Government’s job to do. Then whose is it? And why was it in the Labour manifesto? “Labour will also remove the discriminatory age bands so all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage,” it said on page 45. McFadden also claimed that, “Today, around seven in 10 young people claiming health and disability benefits are still claiming a decade later.” That was a lie. Those people will have been on Disability Living Allowance for under-16s, the application form for which is 40 pages long and requires the support of numerous specialist reports. Nearly half of severely disabled children live in poverty, and nearly a third of DLA recipients in childhood have their claims for Personal Independence Payment rejected when they dare to live another day.

But neoliberalism is reaching its outer limits. There is far more tax fraud then benefit fraud, yet tax frauds get to cut deals with HMRC and pay back as much or as little as they pleased. When he is not endorsing Restore Britain, then Elon Musk is privatising space. And the latest antics of Bonnie Blue, whose endorsement Reform UK has welcomed, are enough to test anyone’s commitment to the “free” market in general and to the non-personhood of the unborn child in particular.