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Iain Duncan Smith resigns from Cabinet
Topic Started: 18 Mar 2016, 09:08 PM (570 Views)
Clyde1998
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Full Resignation Letter:

"I am incredibly proud of the welfare reforms that the government has delivered over the last five years. Those reforms have helped to generate record rates of employment and in particular a substantial reduction in workless households.

As you know, the advancement of social justice was my driving reason for becoming part of your ministerial team and I continue to be grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to serve. You have appointed good colleagues to my department who I have enjoyed working with. It has been a particular privilege to work with with excellent civil servants and the outstanding Lord Freud and other ministers including my present team, throughout all of my time at the Department of Work and Pensions.

I truly believe that we have made changes that will greatly improve the life chances of the most disadvantaged people in this country and increase their opportunities to thrive. A nation's commitment to the least advantaged should include the provision of a generous safety-net but it should also include incentive structures and practical assistance programmes to help them live independently of the state. Together, we've made enormous strides towards building a system of social security that gets the balance right between state help and self help.

Throughout these years, because of the perilous public finances we inherited from the last Labour administration, difficult cuts have been necessary. I have found some of these cuts easier to justify than others but aware of the economic situation and determined to be a team player I have accepted their necessity.

You are aware that I believe the cuts would have been even fairer to younger families and people of working age if we had been willing to reduce some of the benefits given to better-off pensioners but I have attempted to work within the constraints that you and the chancellor set.

I have for some time and rather reluctantly come to believe that the latest changes to benefits to the disabled and the context in which they've been made are, a compromise too far. While they are defensible in narrow terms, given the continuing deficit, they are not defensible in the way they were placed within a Budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers. They should have instead been part of a wider process to engage others in finding the best way to better focus resources on those most in need.

I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.

Too often my team and I have been pressured in the immediate run up to a budget or fiscal event to deliver yet more reductions to the working age benefit bill. There has been too much emphasis on money saving exercises and not enough awareness from the Treasury, in particular, that the government's vision of a new welfare-to-work system could not be repeatedly salami-sliced.

It is therefore with enormous regret that I have decided to resign. You should be very proud of what this government has done on deficit reduction, corporate competitiveness, education reforms and devolution of power. I hope as the government goes forward you can look again, however, at the balance of the cuts you have insisted upon and wonder if enough has been done to ensure "we are all in this together"."
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Zip
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Yep all about Europe.
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SuffolkRoyal
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Well I suppose if the country did vote to leave the EU, we'd have to have a new prime minister. There would be no point in Cameron staying on as the man who would have to get us out, it would like asking a turkey to go out and do the shopping for Christmas dinner.

Perhaps its just a clever bit of positioning on his part, in case he has to jockey for position with Gove and Boris :)
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Clyde1998
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SuffolkRoyal
18 Mar 2016, 10:32 PM
Well I suppose if the country did vote to leave the EU, we'd have to have a new prime minister. There would be no point in Cameron staying on as the man who would have to get us out, it would like asking a turkey to go out and do the shopping for Christmas dinner.

Perhaps its just a clever bit of positioning on his part, in case he has to jockey for position with Gove and Boris :)
Cameron said won't stand for a third term, so he'll resign at some point in the near future, regardless of the result of the referendum. I think the Conservative leadership will be between Boris, Osborne and May and I think Boris is most likely to win out of those three.
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Zip
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You are probably right James. Johnson is a complete tool.
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SuffolkRoyal
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Boris is the modern day equivalent of Claudius. He's a very intelligent man and not as barmy as he makes out. I had him down as a future leader of the Tories back when he was mp for Henley.
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He is still a complete tool though.
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davrae
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davrae
All leaders have a finite life and they say that all political careers end in failure. I think Cameron's end date is on the horizon, probably before the end of this parliament. The sad thing is that I can't see anyone around of gravitas to replace him. Boris is not the only tool in the box, viz Theresa May's fashion statement on budget day. Dipsticks.
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Agreed mate. It gets worse. Priti Patel may replace IDS. She is even worse than him. A horrible piece of work. They still are the nasty party.
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SuffolkRoyal
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We stand and stare at the awful choice America has to choose from for government and politicians, we're in just the same sorry state over here.

There must be a world epidemic.
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