And another one bites the dust...

High Street Shops, 25 yo workers, or one of Boyd's Own selections - who knows.

At the risk of being howled down for being uncaring, unsympathetic and any other un’s that can be slung in my direction, I am truly flabbergasted that the DWP has revealed that a quarter of Britain is claiming disability payments for illnesses that are having “substantial” and “long-term” effects on their daily lives.

16.8 million people claim to be disabled, with about a third (5.8m) saying they have a mental health problem so severe it counts as a disability. The rise is sharpest among those of working age, with 24% saying they have a disability, up from 19% pre-Covid and 16% a decade ago – including about a million under 25. As one commentator pointed out, there are some 750k registered nurses and just shy of 400k doctors - so there are now 15 times more disabled people as there are people to looks after them. That also means that there are 227 times more disabled people than there are soldiers in the British Army. Minesh Patel of charity Mind, says there are “very real reasons why mental health problems are increasing” and pointing to “seismic events like the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis” as the possible reasons. I wonder if she might concede that there is a faint possibility that some of this number are skiving, or are we all morally obliged to bite the bullet and say that we cannot create a system of checks and balances that might deny a single sick person their care, if it means a thousand rob the system as a result?

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As my favourite poet EJ Thribb 17½ might have said: