Meet the BBC's poster girl for welfare 'cuts'



She sounded African, but I couldn’t swear to it. We were only told that her name was Rebecca and she lived somewhere in London.



Rebecca was wheeled out by the BBC as a victim of the latest ‘savage cuts’ in the welfare budget, which came into force yesterday.



The plight of this poor woman was considered by the producers of Radio 4’s Today programme to be the most important story in the world.

'Rebecca' complained that Duncan Smith's decision to cap welfare payments at £26,000 a year equivalent to the after-tax income of an average working family - would cost her £98

No age, no surname, no address, no nationality. Is she a British citizen? Where did the BBC find this woman and why did they think it was necessary to tell us so little about her?

She was given the prime 8.10am slot after the news on the BBC’s flagship show to plead her case.

This is the part of the schedule traditionally reserved for interviews with the big-hitters of the political world.



Yesterday it was the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s turn on the ducking stool, but not before Rebecca had her chance to denounce the cruelty of the Government’s cap on benefits.

She complained that Duncan Smith’s decision to cap welfare payments at £26,000 a year equivalent to the after-tax income of an average working family — would cost her £98 a week and she wouldn’t be able to afford to pay her current rent.

Rebecca said that she came to Britain for a better life but after having children she couldn’t find work.



The plight of this poor woman was considered by the producers of Radio 4's Today programme to be the most important story in the world

Being on benefits was not her choice, she insisted. ‘I do things in my community, I was in my training, I finish my training. Now if they want us to go back to job, where is the job?’



It was put to Rebecca that she could always move out of London to somewhere cheaper



Apparently, this isn’t an option because it would mean moving away from her ‘community’.



‘I think moving out of my community, my community will be missing me. I give them my time and they give me back as well. If they move me out I will start from zero.



‘I’m a choir leader, a Sunday school teacher, I cook for omelettes people.’



At least, I think she said ‘omelettes people’. I’ve listened to it half a dozen times on iPlayer and it certainly sounds like ‘omelettes people’. Conceivably, I suppose, it could be ‘homeless people’.

Difficult to tell, since her accent is so strong.



As I said, I’m assuming she’s African. We weren’t told precisely which ‘community’ she belongs to.



This was just one of a number of questions which were left hanging in the air. For instance, when did Rebecca come to Britain? Where, exactly, did she come from? Is she an asylum seeker, or an economic migrant? On what grounds was she given the right to settle here?



Did she have any children before she came to Britain or were they born here? How many children does she have? Two, three, ten? Are the children still at school or are they of working age?



Is Rebecca married? If so, where is her husband and what does he do for a living, if anything? If not, do all the children have the same father? Does the father (or fathers) contribute to the upkeep of the family?



London is a big city. Where, precisely, does she live? Is her home in Central London or one of the outer suburbs? Is it a one-bedroom flat or a £2 million townhouse? How much is her rent and which council pays the bill? How much does she receive every week in benefits?



If the welfare cap is ‘costing’ her £98 a week, that would suggest she gets around £31,000 a year from the taxpayer. That wasn’t explained, either.



Has Rebecca ever worked since she came to Britain, or has she always been on welfare? She says that she has finished her training, but what kind of job has she been trained to perform? How many jobs has she applied for? How many interviews has she attended?



Has she been offered work, only to decide that she is better off on benefits than in paid employment?



Clearly she is not without skills and would appear to be a churchgoer. We do know that she is a choir leader, a Sunday school teacher and cooks for the ‘omelettes people’.



But that’s about all we know. No age, no surname, no address, no nationality. Is she a British citizen?



Where did the BBC find this woman and why did they think it was necessary to tell us so little about her?



My guess is that Rebecca was conjured up from central casting by a researcher with one of the myriad Left-wing ‘anti-cuts’ groups on speed dial.



She was specially selected to prove that the Tories aren’t just heartless, they’re racist, too.



Even by the BBC’s standards this was a disgraceful piece of so-called journalism. It was pure anti-government propaganda.



John Humphrys is a proper journalist and a fine presenter. But using this woman as a cudgel to batter Duncan Smith was outrageous. Humphrys should have had nothing to do with it.



The Work and Pensions Secretary handled himself admirably, patiently explaining that no one should be entitled to receive more in benefits than they would if they were working and taking home the average wage.



He also reiterated that it was wrong to expect taxpayers to pick up the bill for expensive accommodation in Central London. No doubt most people who work in London would love to live in Kensington or Mayfair, but they have to commute daily from more affordable areas.



These are sensible, humane policies that command the support of the vast majority of voters, but not the Tory-haters who control the BBC’s news and current affairs output.



Duncan Smith was fully justified in accusing the BBC of making a ‘politically motivated’ attack.



Last week the BBC published an expensive self-serving report which admitted distorting coverage of immigration and Europe — but only in the past. Bizarrely, it cleared itself of ‘liberal’ bias.



In the wake of yesterday’s ‘impartial’ treatment of welfare reform and the scandalous alleged interview with Rebecca, which broke every rule of basic journalism, that report is exposed as a sick joke on all of us who are forced by law to pay the licence fee to feed the BBC’s relentless Left-wing propaganda juggernaut.



The children’s entertainer who hates children is a comedy staple. Behind their painted smiles, it is alleged that most clowns have an aversion to the kids they are paid to amuse.



That certainly seems to be the prevailing ethos at Clowntown, just off the North Circular Road, in Friern Barnet. It describes itself as the largest and most popular children’s indoor activity centre in North London. But when Colm Doherty tried to sing Happy Birthday to his young daughter, Clowntown’s manager, Ian Slazenger, called the police.

Mr Doherty's party was told that despite spending £300 on food, drink and admission fees, they weren't allowed to sing because he hadn't paid for a special 'Happy Birthday' package

A member of staff also attempted to prevent Mr Doherty’s party of 18 children eating a birthday cake they had brought with them.

Colm Doherty (pictured with his daughter Cara) was in shock and disbelief when he was told to blow out the candles on his 8-year-old's birthday cake

He was told that despite spending £300 on food, drink and admission fees, they weren’t allowed to sing because he hadn’t paid for a special ‘Happy Birthday’ package. Since when did anyone have to pay for the privilege of singing Happy Birthday? And what kind of misanthrope decides to disrupt a children’s party by calling the Old Bill?



It would appear that Ian Slazenger isn’t quite cut out for a career in Clowntown. He’s lucky he didn’t end up with the cake being shoved in his face.



The milkman of human kindness turns sour



Milkman Kevin Gifford has been ordered to stop whistling after complaints from customers. Five residents on his round in Leicester have protested that his early-morning whistling disturbs their beauty sleep.



His manager at Kirby & West Dairy said Kevin had been warned about his whistling. ‘He was asked to reduce the noise but unfortunately he didn’t heed those warnings and we were left with no choice.’



After formal disciplinary proceedings, a compromise has been reached and Leicester’s answer to Ernie has agreed not to whistle or sing before 8am

He’s not happy about the ruling, though, or the customers who complained. ‘They should just roll over and go back to sleep. Are they going to complain about the birds singing, too? They make more noise than I do.’



Kevin has a wide repertoire of tunes, ranging from Roy Orbison to the Sex Pistols, so maybe his customers have a point.



I wouldn’t mind a gentle burst of Only The Lonely but I don’t fancy being woken up by a full-throated blast of Johnny Rotten’s God Save The Queen at half past four in the morning.



Romanian police are being imported to London to tackle the crime wave caused by Roma gypsies who have set up camp in the West End.



Nothing better illustrates the madness of Britain’s immigration policy.

Why not just pull up the drawbridge?



Psst! Wanna buy some wine gums?



The health fascists are never satisfied, they simply move on to other targets. Having swept cigarettes away from supermarket shelves, they now want to scrap displays of sweets next to check-outs.



Plans are being drawn up to force shops to abolish so-called ‘guilt lanes’ near the tills. Public health minister Anna Soubry also wants food companies to stop using cartoon characters in advertising and force supermarkets to spend a fixed slice of their profits persuading us to buy low-fat and low-cal products.

Having swept cigarettes away from supermarket shelves, the health fascists now want to scrap displays of sweets next to check-outs

Why can’t these people just leave us alone? Anna Soubry is being tipped for promotion. Heaven help us.

