RW think tank: publish the names and amounts of every single benefit claimant in the country

[muriel_volestrangler]

A massive exercise in bureaucracy, of course, but mainly a huge 'name and shame' operation, whatever his denials. And yes, this includes all pensioners and child benefit recipients (and, incredibly, Mark Littlewood was co-founder of NO2ID; fuck knows what the Lib Dems or Liberty were doing employing Scrooge). I doubt the words 'workhouse' are ever far from his lips. Sorry for the source, but who else would expect to publish this?

Why Osborne must publish the names of every benefits claimant - and how much we pay them: An incendiary idea to save on our £500m A DAY welfare bill

...
He just needs to be transparent about exactly what the welfare budget is going on. If he’s willing to do so, he can expect millions of Brits to demand colossal reductions in spending.

The welfare benefits claimed by every individual – including pensions, jobseeker’s allowance, bus passes, winter fuel payments and child benefit – should be put in the public domain.

They should be listed, in full, on a publicly accessible website for all of us to inspect. Taxpayers have a right to know exactly who is claiming what and how much they are getting.
...
Publishing this sort of information should be quite straightforward. The Government has never been competent at running an IT system, but uploading to a website each payment handed out, along with the name and address of the person claiming it, must be doable. Even by the dimmest bureaucrat.
...
Mark Littlewood is director general for the Institute of Economic Affairs

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2346714/Why-Osborne-publish-names-benefits-claimant--pay-An-incendiary-idea-save-500m-A-DAY-welfare-bill.html

Don't miss the bit where he seems to say he gave up sponsoring a girl in Cameroon, because the Tories increased overseas aid.

Do we know who pays Littlewood's salary? Do we fuck:

One name in particular jumped out at me: American Friends of the IEA. The Institute of Economic Affairs is a British group that, like all the others, calls itself a free-market thinktank. Scarcely a day goes by when its staff aren't interviewed in the broadcast media, promoting the dreary old billionaires' agenda: less tax for the rich, less help for the poor, less spending by the state, less regulation for business. In the first 13 days of February, its people were on the BBC 10 times.

Never have I heard its claim to be an independent thinktank challenged by the BBC. When, in 2007, I called the institute a business lobby group, its then director-general responded, in a letter to the Guardian, that "we are independent of all business interests". Oh yes?

The database published by the Canadian site desmogblog.com shows that American Friends of the IEA has (up to 2010) received $215,000 from the two secretive funds. When I spoke to the IEA's fundraising manager, she confirmed that the sole purpose of American Friends is to channel money to the organisation in London. She agreed that the IEA has never disclosed the Donors' Trust money it has received. She denied that the institute is a sockpuppet organisation: purporting to be independent while working for some very powerful US interests.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/18/charities-pr-rightwing-ultra-rich

[libodem]

1. That is disgusting

Yuck.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Argh.

Fortunately, his going to such extremes will probably scupper it; the typical right-winger might be quite happy to pillory poor people receiving benefits, but would not extend it to their own child tax credits or their parents' pensions.

And while so-called 'libertarians' may combine a concern for civil liberties (at least for those over a certain income) with a clamour to cut taxes and benefits, they would not normally support this sort of snooping - especially with all the recent scandals about government spying. Doubt that the No2ID campaigners as a whole would like this sort of thing!

I am not surprised that the LibDems might have shown bad judgement, judging by their entering this bloody coalition; but I would have expected better judgement from Liberty.

[fedsron2us]

3. Why stop at benefits.

I think we should also publish details of every individual and corporations net wealth, income and the amount of tax that they pay. That way we will get the full picture of who is really contributing to the UK financially.

[SwissTony]

6. ^^^^^ THIS!!!! ^^^^^^ n/t

[T_i_B]

4. Not surprised that this is Mark Littlewood

The man's an utter scumbag.

I'd like to see how Littlewood would cope if he ever had to live on benefits.

[The King of Prussia]

5. I'm in favour

so long as we start at the top by publishing how much the millionaire Cameron claimed from all sources for his disabled son.