scornful elite
A modern tale of Dickensian cruelty Ken Loach’s film ‘I, Daniel Blake’ exposes the vicious face of Britain’s ruling elite, writes Daniel Margrain
T
he mismanagement of the British economy by the New Labour and Tory governments that followed the global crash of 2008 led to the poorest and weakest in society suffering savage cuts and austerity. This is the context in which British film director Ken Loach denounced what he described as the government’s “conscious cruelty,” following the screening of his latest film, I, Daniel Blake at the Cannes Film Festival five months ago. Loach’s film questions the widely-accepted notion that the poor should take the blame for an economic predicament that is beyond their control. I Daniel Blake, which premiered in London on October 18, is the story of a skilled worker who, after having suffered a heart attack, is almost suicidal after trying to navigate the uncaring, remote and labyrinthine “work capability assessment” process that is integral to the UK benefit system. Given the government’s awareness of the causal link between its work capability assessment programme and suicide rates, the hatred they have towards the poor can be said to be pathological. Cheque book euthanasia The governments strategy of “cheque book euthanasia? is, in principle, similar to the way in which Nazi Germany, over time, created – through a strategy of divide and rule
– a climate in which the marginalisation and the dehumanisation of targeted minorities were blamed for the ills of society. In Germany, it was the Jews who bore the brunt of this treatment as the state methodically marked them out for destruction, first by innuendo, then by legal sanction, and finally by the direct action of rounding up and exterminating them. Other groups, such as gypsies, communists, homosexuals and those with permanent disabilities, were labelled as being “undesirables,” a drain on society and therefore other targets for elimination. The process by which the Final Solution was implemented was as gradual as it was deliberate. And, by cultivating the notion that the unemployed and disabled are somehow “undeserving” is to implant in the public consciousness the notion that some human beings are less worthy than others, are not a legitimate part of society and are therefore “sub-human.” I’m not suggesting a direct comparison between Nazi Germany and the contemporary British state. I am, however, arguing that there are disturbing parallels and similar types of trends that blinded Germans to the potential of Adolf Hitler that can be found within our British society today. What is certain, is that the universal social security system, based on proposals set out in the Beveridge Report of 1942, has been in steady retreat since the mid 1970s.
Given the government’s awareness of the causal link between its work capability assessment programme and suicide rates, the hatred they have towards the poor can be said to be pathological
www.coldtype.net | November 2016 | ColdType 3