[i"My view is that you have a responsibility to support people in difficulty. It's a prime concern of ours - we can't run away from that."
[/i

Try telling that to the half million who will lose ESA benefit from Monday or the 1 million who are on DLA at the moment but will not qualify for the new Personal Independant Payment. You have been running away for 2 years IDS and you haven't stopped running yet.

Lies, lies and more damned lies.

But it's a sound bite that can be wheeled out over and over to show that they care

I don't think anyone is fooled by IDS's apparently sudden bout of social conscience, he probably thinks that if Gideon looks to him for an extra £10bn, he won't have a department left to run.

I'm just enjoying the infighting, it makes a great spectator sport

When Hunt goes, will the trail lead direct to Osborne and then Dave Boy? Mr Murdoch may have done the country a great favour.

Murdoch is not alone in culpability, but he bears a large degree of responsibility for the dumbing down of public discourse in this country.

The complete confusion over who is dealing with the whole Hunt issue gives more credence to the view that the country has been handed over to sixth formers. Leveson is being used as a smokescreen to avoid them having to investigate. It's a clear ministerial issue that overrides Leveson and they know it. I suspect as Dally says, they don't want to look at Hunt too closely in case the whole background is revealed.

I wonder if an FoI request could reveal just how substantial the bung was that Adam Smith received to take the flak?

It's also worth noting that it took Hunt over 24 hours to agree to release e-mails & texts between he and Smith, plenty of time for some textual cleansing

Aren't you in the media game too old girl?

rlCameron now putting daylight between himself & Huntrl

I recollect he went through all this bollox over Liam Fox, it's just another example of a poor picker of men seeking to justify his original decision. The bloke (Cameron) is sheer bloody incompetence and sheer bloody mindedness personified.

rlAnd the rich are getting ever richerrl

Thank god they got a tax cut.

We're all in this together.

Glad to know the 94 quid a week I'm giving up is going to worthy people via the tax system

I feel better knowing we're all in this together and IDS isn't running away and will look after those of us in difficulty.

From Steph's link, this speaks volumesWhen I wake up tomorrow morning I shall still be unwell, I shall still be unemployed, and I shall still be struggling with the myriad problems that chronic ill health brings.

Tomorrow I will simply become a small piece of collateral damage in the government's drive to reform welfare spending.[/i

No doubt one of the resident mini neo-liberals will be along soon to tell us the author is not in "the real world"

You have to wonder whether he dare let Hunt resign. At the moment Hunt is taking the flak for the Tories' previous pro Murdoch stance. Cameron hob-nobbing with Rupert and James, horse riding with Rebeckah, discussing informally the bid for total ownership of BskyB, among themselves. Presumably Hunt was just reflecting the zeigeist of the regime. How was he (or the rest for that matter) to know that 6 months down the line Murdoch's chickens would come home to roost with a vengence.
Whilst in opposition and in the early days of his government, Murdoch was saying jump and Cameron & co were saying "how high?" The sooner Murdoch is eliminated from a position of power and influence on our politics the better. The last lot kow-towed to him and for all we know took us into Iraq on his say so.
"I've never asked for favours from any government" he didn't need to ask!!