Wealthy UK politician reckons he can survive on £53 a week.

Call him on it.

Let him 'try' without help from friends or family and no tapping into his bank account for six months long enough for his life to really go down the loo.

53. and no more.

reply to post by samerulesapply


So you doubt he can do it, is that the jist of it eh? Well guess how much they survived on 100 years ago? 1000 years ago? Why does numbers even matter?

It was free to live, always has been. You just need to provide the sustenance the lifeform requires to survive, as well as the environment. It´s not a matter of money, it´s a matter of knowledge.

Its easy to survive on 53 quid a week, I don't know what you guys are complaining about.......... If you don't have a mortgage, parliament pays for your lunches, public transport and your brain is so small that it needs no more than a peanut a day to function............

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


I don't think my partner and two kids would be up for living in a shelter mate. Then again if things keep going the way they are going in the UK I imagine living in a shelter could quite possibly become a reality!

Originally posted by andy06shake
reply to post by JohnPhoenix

 

I don't think my partner and two kids would be up for living in a shelter mate. Then again if things keep going the way they are going in the UK I imagine living in a shelter could quite possibly become a reality!

A shelter? A shelter from what? Reality?

Originally posted by RoScoLaz

is this zombie even alive. I would rather live on a fiver a week then resemble this man in any shape or fashion.

reply to post by samerulesapply


From your article:

following an example of a market trader David Bennett, he could survive on £53 a week — the amount Bennett claimed he was left with to live on

The man who made the original £53 quip is a market trader.

He must not be a very good market trader if he only earns £53 a week.

He gets Housing Benefit, so he didn't have to pay rent.

But now he has to pay a bit towards it, because of the number of bedrooms in his house.

Why does no one question the fact that a market trader gets benefits at all?

He's hardly unemployed if he's a market trader, more self-employed.

And he still gets most of his rent paid. Where is the £53 from? Other benefits?

It's all too easy to slag off IDS, but this is just overblown sensationalism.

And a year is ridiculous. A month would do.

Of course he could survive on £53 a week! I'm sure he has more than enough savings to live off the rest of his life, even at £0 a week.

reply to post by samerulesapply


He can kiss my ass..!!!

reply to post by samerulesapply


Interesting post.Just one question.
What is that in US dollars?Anyone?

Well instead of saying it, why doesn't he do it? Doing it might open up his eyes and would be an honorable act. Plus, housing and gas and food would easily go over that! He would have to couch surf!

And the English have some weird things going on over there... extra room taxes, shady work programs where you work full time for less than minimum wage... wtf

reply to post by mardukiscoming


Not sure what the current rate is , but about $75.

Of course someone can survive on £53 benefit ($75) a week . . especially if they are are paying no taxes to the state, no taxes to the local authority, and no house rent . . because in the UK these are also paid for you as well . . . all that people do is booze their £53 down the pub and smoke . . . everyone probably knows someone doing this right now . . . it's amazing the lefty rhetoric making a non-story out to be something it isn't . . and for your information I vote UKIP.

Originally posted by wright852
Of course someone can survive on £53 benefit ($75) a week . . especially if they are are paying no taxes to the state, no taxes to the local authority, and no house rent . . because in the UK these are also paid for you as well . . . all that people do is booze their £53 down the pub and smoke . . . everyone probably knows someone doing this right now . . . it's amazing the lefty rhetoric making a non-story out to be something it isn't . . and for your information I vote UKIP.

Lefty rhetoric, counteracted with the right wing rhetoric spewed from The Sun and Daily Mail.

reply to post by wright852

......all that people do is booze their £53 down the pub and smoke.........

The average price for a pint of beer in the UK is around £2.80 but I guess we all know there are pubs where it's cheaper so if we take it at £2.40 that equates to approximately 22 pints a week, or just over three pints a day.

So you are saying that everyone on benefits spends all day in the pub hugging 3 pints leaving absolutely nothing for food etc - oh wait, you said they smoke as well so that's even less than 3 pints a day.

Doesn't quite add up does it?

And if that was true why are there a record number of pubs closing and the one's that are open are empty?

reply to post by woodwardjnr


This isn't right wing rhetoric . . this is real life . . . every Weatherspoon pub is full of people doing exactly this every day . . the state can no longer afford our social debt . . I am no longer willing to afford this as a tax payer . . . it's so easy to spout off in reply . . well tough . . . the tabloids newspapers keeping going on about this MP's flippant remark just exascerbates the real issue . . as benefits eat up to a third of our UK budget any idiot can see that this is unsustainable . .

reply to post by wright852

...the tabloids newspapers keeping going on about this MP's flippant remark

It's more than just the tabloids - he's pissed a whole bunch of people off with his 'flippant' remark.
It seems you are ok with him talking in such a condescending and dismissive manner and showing a complete lack of empathy for the misery many are currently suffering but I'm pleased to see that a surprisingly large number of other people aren't quite as soulless.

just exascerbates the real issue . . as benefits eat up to a third of our UK budget any idiot can see that this is unsustainable . .

And the reason so many people receive benefits is because there are no jobs as a direct result of the failed policies of successive governments and the greed and incompetence of their banker and industrialist mates.

Maybe if this government tried to stimuate the economy and the obscenely wealthy decided to re-invest some of their immorally massive fortunes into this country and it's people we wouldn't be paying so much out in benefits - it's not hard.

This could be the kernel of a blockbuster reality TV franchise...

The number of bloated, delusional, 'can always fall back on my governmental handshake when TSHTF' morons could more than drive years worth of great viewing...

You can't get bitten by reality when you're not living in it...

A99

Originally posted by wright852
reply to post by woodwardjnr

 

This isn't right wing rhetoric . . this is real life . . . every Weatherspoon pub is full of people doing exactly this every day . . the state can no longer afford our social debt . . I am no longer willing to afford this as a tax payer . . . it's so easy to spout off in reply . . well tough . . . the tabloids newspapers keeping going on about this MP's flippant remark just exascerbates the real issue . . as benefits eat up to a third of our UK budget any idiot can see that this is unsustainable . .

But there is no problem funding designer tapware, state-of-the-art 'conferencing' with high class courtesans, 'bought my 3-piece suit from a gift store in Dubai (on your tax money - s.n.i.g.g.e.r, s.n.i.g.g.e.r)', 'I no longer work FOR the people, but FOR me' contemptuous attitude...while riding around chauffeur driven capital cities in air-conditioned gluttony...

Those fugly welfare recipients should be grateful we are requisitioning thier spare rooms in thier overpriced rented homes ('I know I have several to spare to keep my parliamentarian wife and kids availed in the manner in which they are accustomed')...
Those fugly welfare recipients with thier dirty, lazy-boned attitudes, that wouldn't know the meaning of entitlement if it came along and punched them on the face...look at them robbing each other like animals, fighting on the weekends in the streets, huddling like cavemen around radiators, walking around in the darkness of thier hovels...unable to get a job, pay rent, electricity, gas...what's wrong with these people?!...lounging in pubs all day getting blotted on my hard-earned tax money?
Welcome to the 'NON-meritocracy'...think they're working for you? Think they really give a damn about your hard-earned dollars/pounds?...just keep 'em rolling in, that'll keep our wheels turning scumbags...

Dont like the class system?...then tear the **cker down!

A99

I can't see the petition challenging IDS to take up the challenge...here is the link
www.change.org...

The last figure I saw was 365,000 signatures...and I can't find the link, but IDS basically said he would not be taking up the challenge.

Rainbows
Jane