Embattled Chancellor George Osborne.
IDS out for revenge.
With the shock resignation of Iain Duncan Smith leaving many a pundit saying "We did not see that one coming" it seems now IDS is out of his job as DWP Secretary he can speak freely and has highlighted to many a media anchorman/woman from BBC to Sky that he quit because of the injustice of Chancellor George Osborne's budget.
He said he could no longer be in a job which it seems has become untenable for him attacking the budget as unfair in that it was going to cut benefits to the disabled and yet give the top earners in the UK a tax break.
IDS has been quizzed over his departure with some interviewers asking him point blank he quit the job because he has diametrically different views to David Cameron about the future of the UK in the EU. IDS said that is not the case and he quit for the reasons he had already given and asked by BBC 1's Andrew Marr on the 'Andrew Marr Show' yesterday morning whether George Osborne would be a great successor to David Cameron or 'Call me Dave' as the media like to call him IDS was very luke warm in his reply. IDS replied that Osborne probably would go on to be PM and leader of the Conservative party but left it at that not wishing to speak about Osborne who has been a constant thorn in the side of IDS when he was head of the Department for Work and Pensions.
It has been known for a while now George Osborne and IDS have been enemies as Osborne has made cuts to benefits taking money from the DWP to save the UK money (supposedly) and putting it back into the Treasury. It seems though as Jeremy Corbyn has highlighted IDS has found his conscience after years of presiding over the most controversial reform to the UK's benefit system in years which seems to be unfair for many unemployed and disabled people as they face cuts to the money they receive from the state so the UK can balance its books allegedly.
IDS said the UK faced being made a more divided nation between the rich and the poor and said austerity was not the way any more. He said when he thought of his children and the rich life they had and then he thought of poorer children he felt it was not right and he felt no one should be left behind and that David Cameron had betrayed compassionate Conservatism.
It would seem now though that the cuts in the wake of IDS's departure to disabled benefits are being cancelled but the Treasury has stated that the cuts will still have to be made some where to balance the books. IDS thought it right that well off pensioners should have their money cut as the pension bill which has been ring fenced by the government to ward off cuts for the elderly is bigger than the welfare budget.
Mean while 'Call me Dave' Cameron has jumped to the defence of George Osborne saying he has every confidence in him but John McDonnell the Shadow Chancellor has called for a questioning of George Osborne's budget in which McDonnell would ask him questions over how he (Osborne) came to write the budget and justify what he had written to the House of Commons.
It seems Osborne is not up to meeting McDonnell so has wheeled David Gauke from the Treasury out to answer questions from the Shadow Chancellor.
Jeremy Corbyn mean while has stated that Osborne should examine his conscience and do the honourable thing and step down as Chancellor. Corbyn praised IDS for finally finding his conscience over the hack the Conservatives have made over the welfare reforms which have caused the deaths of many ill and unemployed people when they have either faced sanctions for not looking for work or have had their money stopped from the state. Indeed there is an ongoing or there was an ongoing investigation by the UN into the reforms instituted by the Cameron administration to welfare and the negative affect it has had on many of its recipients.
Are the wheels starting to come off the Cameron government which in my opinion has been far worse and far more severe than Mrs Thatcher ever was in the 80's.
Let us hope that IDS has had a true conversion like Saul on the road to Damascus and will now be a true champion of the poor. IDS claims to be a Christian and who am I to judge the man let us hope he follows the teachings of Christ and uses his Centre for Social Justice to really help those in need and those who are left behind by today's money grabbing, cruel, materialistic society.
