More transcripts from a series of recordings I’ve made in the last fortnight with people in Weymouth who were employed (in the armed forces in some cases), or had businesses and then went through periods of homelessness after losing their incomes. A number of these people have drug and alcohol problems.

They’re exactly the people who will be targeted as Iain Duncan Smith pushes through his plans to permit Jobcentre Plus staff to dock benefits for people who refuse drug and alcohol treatment. The irony is that most have had their benefits cut at one point or another anyway – because they failed Atos work capability assessments, or missed jobcentre appointments, or didn’t realise they had to fill in forms to reapply for benefits, or didn’t get forms because they didn’t have fixed addresses, or had their housing benefits stopped through administrative errors and so on. That’s how they ended up on the streets in the first place.

Anyway – way to go, Iain. You’ll really claw back the deficit when you kick these people into touch. If anyone caused the recession, it was surely people in these sorts of situations, as opposed to an out-of-control financial sector, etc. You’re a genius.