the pontifications of pompuss

Mark Sainsbury really has to retire from his position as presenter of TVNZ's Close Up.    His series last week on beneficiaries was an absolute disgrace to the so-called profession of journalism.

He interviewed 3 beneficiaries living on welfare payments: a nurse who could no longer work because of chronic pain; a couple on sickness benefits who were too unwell to hold down jobs and - wait for it - a woman with six children from four different fathers.

The nurse and the sickness beneficiaries don't cause me a problem - after all that is what the welfare system is  for, i.e. people who need extra help when they find themselves in unfortunate circumstances often beyond their control.

However the lady with the six children is another matter.    Why have six if you can't feed them?    And where are those four absent fathers?      She reminds me of the feral underneath the summerhouse who has litter after litter and never thinks of the future.

My slaves are incensed too.   They think that  a benefit payment should only be for the absolute basics but nowadays people seem to think that it should be enough to run a car (what's wrong with buses or bicycles?) and a TV set (what's wrong with the local library or a deck of cards?).  

People have forgotten how to cope.   When the City Mission solicit goods for the food bank they ask for toilet paper!!!!   The she slave mutters that her West Coast Scots granny never bought it - the family were wiped with cut up squares of newspaper.     Come to think of it, that's probably the best use for some of what is produced by the media.