Iain Duncan-Smith is a ……

It says something about Cameron that he wishes to prune what he sees as dead wood from the public sector. And yet he finds it in his heart to provide comfortable employment for two particularly useless Tpry party leaders in his cabinet. One is William Hague who was so effective at leader that he managed to advance the party’s standing by just one whole seat in the 2001 election. He is now Foreign Secretary


The other former leader, Iain Duncan-Smith, was so useless that the tories did not dare even let him lead the party into a general election - so bad that even the odious Michael Howard was seen as preferable.

Cameron has rewarded Duncan-Smith’s utter uselessness by making him Work and Pensions secretary. Last week he decided to emulate a previous Chingford MP by sounding macho abut the unemployed…

Last week he said last week that Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales was an example of a place where people had become "static" and did not know that if they got on the bus they would be in Cardiff an hour later, and could look for work there. "We need to recognise the jobs often don't come to you. Sometimes you need to go to the jobs,"

Today’s Guardian states that Research by the Public and Commercial Services union while there were 1,670 unemployed people and 39 job vacancies in Merthyr, all temporary and part-time. The equates to 42.8 unemployed persons per Mcjob. In Cardiff the position is better but with 15,000 people in Cardiff chasing 1,700 jobs (8.8 persons per job).

The vast majority of vacancies in Cardiff were temporary and part-time, mainly unskilled labouring, for just one or three weeks' duration.

Among the permanent jobs was work in a casino or bars. Neither offered help with journeys home afterwards and the last bus out of Cardiff leaves at 11.06pm, the union pointed out. "Workers from outside the city might be able to get the bus to work, but they would not be able to get home," said a spokesman.
"These figures prove it is not a question of people not being willing to work, there simply are not enough jobs for them to do – and there are unlikely to be any time soon because of the government's plans to cut public spending, including cutting 15,000 more jobs in the Department for Work and Pensions."

Duncan Smith said on Friday after the union criticism of his comments: "The unions are showing themselves to be totally out of touch with reality with these pathetic remarks. They seem to be suggesting that anyone who commutes to work is somehow doing the wrong thing.

"I would suggest they apologise and recognise that ordinary, decent people want to improve their lives and do the right thing for their families and so value work and get on the bus."

It’s one thing to go out and look for work but if there are no jobs (or the jobs are impractical like the casino ones) The PCS also noted that there are fewer jobs available in the whole of Wales than there are unemployed persons in Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent. Some may be able to get out to other parts of the country but many, for a variety of perfectly good reasons, simply cannot do that.

If there is a dearth of jobs now I shudder to think what the situation will be like as the public sector sheds staff

But back to Duncan-Smith. It did not matter to him that his comment was crass given the dearth of work in Cardiff. But why should he give a damn? I doubt the man has any real concern for the people who rely on welfare through no fault of their own. Far more important to be seen to be hard on the vulnerable

Iain Duncan Smith dangerously distorts scientific research

Cameron’s recent predecessors as Tory leader could at the very best be described as ineffectual. Perhaps the worst of the lot was Iain Duncan Smith who was viewed as such a liability that he was axed before he could be humiliated at the polls.
Strangely Cameron has appointed Duncan Smith as social policy tsar. It would seem that Duncan Smith has been distorting research into childhood neglect and its effect on brain development

Duncan Smith has asserted that children from broken homes and dysfunctional families have undeveloped brains and start school with the mental capacity of one-year-olds

He has even attempted to draw a link between brain development and crime. In a private speech at the Centre for Social Justice, Duncan Smith said neuroscientists had identified "physical signs" of neglect that could indicate a child's likelihood to commit crime in later life, including "the scale and size and capacity of their brains to be able to deal with challenges".

“We keep going back, and as you track back you begin to realise that actually, for far too many people in society crime began before they were born. And that is a really strongly held belief of mine now, and more and more work was done in both social science, but even particularly now backed up by neuroscience demonstrates that the damage that we start children with, is damage that they keep, and that damage becomes more and more difficult as they go through.

"We now know that we can pretty much figure out where an 18-year-old will be at the time that they are two and a half or three years old. Signs are there. There are of course physical signs, including the scale and size and capacity of their brains to be able to deal with challenges. But it is also in their behaviour."

He added the inability of a child to have "imbibed the concept of empathy" from their parent could have profound impacts on their later life.

Duncan-Smith has based these assertions on work undertaken by Dr Bruce Perry, who runs the respected Child Trauma Academy in Texas. Dr Perry is not desperately pleased at the way his research is being used stating that said Duncan Smith had "greatly misrepresented" and "distorted" his work.

Perry’s research assessed the brain development of children who suffered extreme forms of neglect – such as those locked in a basement without human contact – and he said it was wrong to apply the findings to children who have undergone far less severe neglect, such as those from broken homes.

Dr Perry concluded Duncan Smith's comments were an "oversimplification" that "greatly misrepresents the way we would explain the impact of neglect or trauma on the developing brain".

"I do believe that overstating and misunderstanding the neurobiology can lead to confusion, anger, distortion and potentially to bad policy," he said, adding that the claims appeared to be "a terrible distraction from the important issues related to the need to create family friendly, and developmentally informed policy that is aware and informed about the importance of early childhood and brain development".

Duncan Smith denied he had misrepresented Dr Perry's work, whom he acknowledged as the source of his claims about brain development. "I haven't misrepresented his findings. I don't talk about every single child," he said. "The brain size is an example of what happens at the extreme end of that neglect and abuse, which is something I know that he has written about."

Duncan Smith is being stupid or perhaps even dangerous in manipulating research for his own political ends. He’s not the first to do this of course and sadly won’t be the last. But I shudder to think what damage will be caused by distorting research in this way.

There was a good reason why the Tories dumped him as leader. He was bloody useless. Now he is being potentially dangerous in his current role.