BRITAIN: Lie-detector tests for welfare applicants?

The October 13 Scottish Socialist Voice reported that the Labour government's work and pensions secretary, David Blunkett, says that applicants for welfare benefits should undergo lie-detector tests. Blunkett is especially qualified to comment on lying, as he was a member of the Labour cabinet that took Britain into the Iraq war on the basis of lies about Saddam Hussein's arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and he subsequently resigned from the cabinet when it emerged that he had lied about fast-tracking a visa application for his child's nanny. The Voice quoted Blunkett as saying that people with depression should stop "sitting at home watching daytime television" and get a job.

From Green Left Weekly, November 2, 2005.

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From GLW issue 647