“I will be honest with you: when I look at the Philpott case, I, too, see “the product of welfare UK”. I see “the State”. I see its mark as assuredly as the Mail does. But do you know what “welfare UK” I see? I see 17 children, all of whom were healthy and well nourished – because benefits fed those children – and all of whom went to school. So the surviving ones now have some chance of a future, because the State paid for it. I see the women’s refuge that Lisa Willis was able to go to when she left her abusive partner – paid for by the State. I see a man who was given free legal representation during his manslaughter case – so that everyone in the country knew justice had been done.
I saw that while evil operated in the centre of all this – a terrible, destructive, manipulative man – every innocent around him was helped, and aided, and was never abandoned, and had somewhere to turn because of “welfare UK”. For that is why the welfare state was created: to undo wrongs, to help the helpless, even as strong men rage to destroy them. Anyone inclined to berate “welfare UK” should consider for a moment what would have happened to those women and those children in Victorian times, before Beveridge and Attlee.
Because if they believe that the slums then were not filled with men exactly like Mick Philpott – but whose children starved and whose wives stayed, beaten, in the house – and that it is only “welfare UK” that has now created them, I fear the history my father taught me, during his long, “idle” days on benefits, was more comprehensive than yours.”
- Caitlin Moran (via modernlovetacotruck)
I saw that while evil operated in the centre of all this – a terrible, destructive, manipulative man – every innocent around him was helped, and aided, and was never abandoned, and had somewhere to turn because of “welfare UK”. For that is why the welfare state was created: to undo wrongs, to help the helpless, even as strong men rage to destroy them. Anyone inclined to berate “welfare UK” should consider for a moment what would have happened to those women and those children in Victorian times, before Beveridge and Attlee.
Because if they believe that the slums then were not filled with men exactly like Mick Philpott – but whose children starved and whose wives stayed, beaten, in the house – and that it is only “welfare UK” that has now created them, I fear the history my father taught me, during his long, “idle” days on benefits, was more comprehensive than yours.”
- Caitlin Moran (via modernlovetacotruck)