Bringing The Nasty

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Leo Varadkar, then Minister for Social protection, launching the ‘Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All’ campaign, April 17, 2017

Via Village magazine [more at link below]:

[Leo Varadkar’s] nastiest single initiative came just before he stood for the leadership of his party, with the fractious ‘Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All’ campaign.

But it positioned Varadkar where he wanted to be.

Imagine being in the prime of your life and at the top of your career and deciding what you want to do is target the most disadvantaged in society, those most discriminated against in the most tangible ways, economically and socially.

Imagine feeling that you want to spell out a message that the most scandalous misappropriations are by the welfare classes not the bankster classes.

Imagine being Minister for Social Protection, representing the classes that have nothing to get up for in the morning and running a campaign that promotes those who get up early in the morning.

…His commitment to equality seems tentative. His commitment to divisiveness, if anything, stronger.

What constitutes robustness when standing up to the clowns in Fianna Fáil accelerates into meanness when deployed against the vulnerable and the impoverished in society.

He recently wrote in the Irish Independent:

“We have allowed society to be divided into one group of people who pay for everything but get little in return due to means-tests, and another who believe they should be entitled to everything for free and that someone else should pay for it”.

The gratuitousness of the divisiveness derives from the simple fact there is no such second group. While he later claimed he intends to unite it, this is cynical rhetoric, for the beef is in the divisiveness.

….Varadkar melds neoliberalism and anodyne blandness. But the glue he deploys is the most interesting thing about the man, for the glue is the glue of nastiness.

Go Easier On The Nastiness (Village)

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36 thoughts on “Bringing The Nasty

  1. Mart

    Ridiculous. Welfare cheats should be heavily targeted, fined and imprisoned if necessary.

    If you’ve done nothing wrong you won’t be targeted.

    1. broadbag

      + infinity! This idea of the poor, downtrodden cheat aka criminal, is a narrative that baffles me, up there with ”the banks got away with it so why can’t I?” on the dope-o-meter.

      1. Dr.Fart

        anyone cheating the welfare system aren’t doing it for the craic. they need that extra pittance. going after them seems harsher than, say, going after all the TD’s making fraudulent claims, fraudulent expenses etc. They earn huge wages and still go about cheating the system for more money, far more than anyone is cheating welfare out of. He only did this campaign to show what he stands for. It’s a line in the sand “are you with scumbag council estaters? or are you with me, and the upper class?” and by god did the classists row in behind him. As seen by some of the comments here, eg Mart and Broadbag.

        1. broadbag

          Many people are happy to turn a blind eye and ignore the consequences, many think laws don’t apply to them, not just those on welfare, but it’s welfare we’re discussing here.

          As for ‘pittance’ there’s people scamming 10s and 100s of thousands out of the system, away from the people who actually need it, but let’s ignore the consequences as the Irish love a ‘cute hoor’. Take a look at Ireland’s per capita rate of people on disability allowance, it’s unbelievable and doctors who sign people off have a lot to answer here too.

          Lazily label me a ‘classist’ if you want, but there’s plenty of hard working people sick of seeing idle, feckless spongers (the politicians, LOL!) who are happy to live off the fat of the land, gaming the system and getting away with it thanks to the attitudes of people like yourself.

          1. Dr.Fart

            im not saying its ok to cheat the welfare system. i’m saying theres worse ripping off us and varadkar and you don’t comment on that.

          2. Cian

            Varadkar was Minister for Social Protection when he instigated the initiative to reduce the cheats in Social Welfare. It was literally part of his role as Minister.
            Anything else (unless you are accusing him personally of cheating the system) wasn’t part of his remit.

            Since becoming Taoiseach stopping all forms of cheating are (indirectly) under his remit as big boss.

            But to have a go at him for implementing Social Welfare anti-cheating while Minister for Social Protection (but not other forms of non-welfare cheating) seems bizarre.

          3. GiggidyGoo

            Eh Cian. It was an expensive soundbite.
            A ‘big swinging micilín’ soundbite.
            Like the quango one
            Like his podium ‘deal’ on Brexit

        2. SB

          It a numbers game. There are only a limited number of TDs making fraudulent claims. Now I’m just making up numbers here, but say if there were as many as 50 TDs claiming as much as €10K fraudulently. Stopping that would save a measly half a million.
          But – to pick just one category of benefit – out of the hundreds of thousands receiving the various disability allowances (Disability Allowance itself claimant number increased by 32,000 to 134,000 in the 5 years to 2018), if, say, 20,000 of those were claiming fraudulently €203 p.w., stopping that would save over €215 MILLION. Every year.

      2. Giles

        Welfare fraud like all fraud needs ending
        Saying that Leo has failed in every portfolio he has had
        And he needs to be brought to book for this

    2. Ron

      I still see the usual daw jaws being daw jawed on here as usual. You really are pathethic lol. If you had brains you would be dangerous.

      1. millie vanilly strikes again

        Hahahahaha. That is hilarious coming from you.

        How goes the armchair election campaign?

    3. GiggidyGoo

      But it was found that the greatest loss of money was by Public Servants overpaying etc. Have any of them repaid what they lost out on?

  2. LuvinLunch

    Woo hoo! i thought i was the only one still giving out about that horrendous, 3rd Reich-esque campaign!

  3. Madam X

    He has a cheek. His buddies in corporate banking vulture funds have been cheating us for years, yet who has been jailed? Tracker scandal cost lives . Vote left get the parasites out

    1. Otis Blue

      Indeed. Michael Lowry hasn’t gone away, y’know.

      BTW How’s the FG investigation into Dara Murphy’s abuse of system going?

      Then there’s the Moriarity Tribunal?

      1. Donal

        Dara Murphy was morally wrong to make the claims he did
        But, he did not abuse the system. It was designed to be exactly as easy as it is for TDs to claim all sorts of crap without proving anything.
        Should FG/Leo have made efforts to ensure he wasn’t doing what he was doing when he was away in Brussels doing their bidding? Yes. But they didn’t
        An investigation is pointless, the rules as they stand were not broken. It did highlight how cr*p the rules are so hopefully the next Dail may amend the rules. (doubtful, of course!)

    2. Cian

      Yes we can.

      It would be:
      – Minister for Social Protection that would go after the “welfare cheats”
      – the Minister for Finance that would go after the “bank cheats”

  4. Kate

    Could Leo give us a progress report on the homeless man that suffered life changing injuries recently ? He apparently lost limbs . Where is he? How is he? Has he family and are they aware? The silence around his welfare is deafening.

    1. ReproBertie

      Is it any of your nosey business?

      How about we have the Taoiseach give us a report on your medical history while he’s at it.

      1. Kate

        I would have appreciated a statement (seeing as Leo was asked and got accused of politicising it) on his progress. I’m aware of several that would like to offer assistance and it’s nothing to do with medical “history” or “nosiness”. Human kindness is what makes the world go round .

  5. Joe

    Ahh now! the Welfare cheats eh? When FG’s favorite gangster banksters were caught out again screwing the people who get up in the morning, this time robbing them via tracker mortgages, nice FG instead of sending in the Gardai and CAB brought them in to meet nice Mr Donohoe who “admonished” them for been naughty.
    One law for the poor and no laws for the rich under FG

  6. Donal

    Where is the crackdown on bogus self employment? That screws the exchequer over by multiples of the losses due to welfare cheating. Millions of unpaid PRSI, all kept by unscrupulous business owners who force their employees to do their own tax returns and pretend they are self-employed.

    But Leo wouldn’t want to crack down on these job-creators would he, the wonderful honest hard working entrepreneurs who never put a foot wrong in their never ending quest to improve our country through their own unselfish efforts to make a quick buck…

  7. Charger Salmons

    I dunno.
    I think more people abhor welfare cheats that this forum represents.
    You know, real people with real jobs who really don’t like Wayne and Waynetta O’Leary gaming the system for a lifetime of fags and Linden Village.
    Mind you, not sure what rabbit Leo can pull out of the hat after the disastrous start to his election campaign.
    Another weekend of drug-related slaughter in Drogheda is the last thing he needs even though the rest of us would applaud more toe-rags meeting an untimely end at the hands of a fellow toe-rag subsequently imprisoned for life.

    1. Donal

      You are right, the average person does not like the wayne and waynettas of this world when they game the system.
      But there is a social welfare system in the country (rightly so) and the system does allow wayne and waynetta to be idle if they so wish (with a few pods and prokes to make them go to job training etc.
      This is different from cheating the system though. The cheats are the ones who are working for cash in hand and still claiming social welfare etc, and the numbers of these are much lower than Leo and his campaign would have you believe, as evidenced by the journal fact check linked above

  8. Hector Ramirez

    ‘Derives from the simple fact there is no such second group…’

    This is as disingenuous as Varadkar tarring all welfare recipients as cheats.

  9. DOC

    Feb 8th – Bye Bye Leo
    That smirk is going to be ripped off your face the same way way you have ripped off countless people

  10. GiggidyGoo

    Varadkar bombing it with Brian Dobson.
    Dobson didn’t take long (3 minutes) to get Varadkar to admit he hasn’t a plan for the pensions.

    Ultra waffle fest. Dobson giving him a hard time, and the big V isn’t up to it.

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