(photo: sarah lee for the guardian)

so many things to write about recently (cy twombly, lucian freud, news international, mass murder in norway...) but it's this which has dragged me back to the keyboard; the way the government has used this french company to wash their hands of the dirty work of cutting the numbers of people claiming incapacity benefit. there are countless stories about the speed, shoddiness and hearltessness of the process itself, the numbers unjustly declared 'fit for work' and the effect this has had on vulnerable people. moreover, 39% of the claimants who appealed against decisions have won their cases at a cost of over £20 million to the taxpayer while the company itself suffers no penalty as a result.

more proof, if more proof were needed, that we are being governed by a group of ideologically driven liars and incompetents who have never been dependent on the services they are slashing and who are incapable of sympathising with those who are dependent on such services. more 'big society'...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/26/fit-to-work-tests-flawed