Right, but the political spin on so-called welfare "scroungers" was always about money. It was never just "Look at these lazy, lower-class people" (which has zero political benefit), but always "These spongers are a colossal drain on the British economy". I remember politicians routinely announcing that the welfare budget exceeded all the other government departments put together, and that it was sinking the country - and they'd blame this on the "workshy". But it was a lie, as the vast bulk of the welfare figure they misleadingly quoted was always pensions, nothing to do with unemployment. And the actual figure for welfare fraud was always relatively tiny. But that didn't matter, as outraged Daily Mail headlines tended to be in people's faces more than the real stats - I recall somebody (an older relative) saying to me that all the money from North Sea oil was drained away into "hand-outs" for the unemployed. Current policy (and lack of media coverage of the shocking cases mentioned above) no doubt rides on the back of those decades of anti-welfare "austerity" market framing/propaganda.
Right, but the political spin on so-called welfare "scroungers" was always about money. It was never just "Look at these lazy, lower-class people" (which has zero political benefit), but always "These spongers are a colossal drain on the British economy". I remember politicians routinely announcing that the welfare budget exceeded all the other government departments put together, and that it was sinking the country - and they'd blame this on the "workshy". But it was a lie, as the vast bulk of the welfare figure they misleadingly quoted was always pensions, nothing to do with unemployment. And the actual figure for welfare fraud was always relatively tiny. But that didn't matter, as outraged Daily Mail headlines tended to be in people's faces more than the real stats - I recall somebody (an older relative) saying to me that all the money from North Sea oil was drained away into "hand-outs" for the unemployed. Current policy (and lack of media coverage of the shocking cases mentioned above) no doubt rides on the back of those decades of anti-welfare "austerity" market framing/propaganda.