Elizabeth Barrat Browning Syndrome

A friend once coined the phenomenon Elizabeth Barret Browning Syndrome.For those who may not know she was a poet and lost in love and so took to her bed -permanently. The friend said what would happen if Barrat Browning had lived in a Welsh mining village and the only choice open to her was going down the mine or starving?She would be up before the lark and queueing for her turn down the mine.

I think the same about todays welfariat.Most of the people who are unemployed tend to be those who are awfully particular about what job they will and will not do.If they have to choose between wiping someone's backside in a care home or drawing the dole you don't have to know much about human nature to know which one many will choose.

When the State comes along and gives them that precise choice small wonder we have a major incentive and motivation problem amongst the unemployed.I put out adverts for job vacancies and no one one replies and yet we are told we are in the worst recession for decades.Something is not right about this picture.I know of people who are on benefits and they have not been pushed into taking a job or losing benefits.This so-called reform of the welfare system seems to be more rhetorical than real methinks.