Cut Out: Living Without Welfare: Left Book Club

From the ale-house drunks of the Victorian era to the obese benefit scroungers of today, civilization has consistently pinned blame and shame for any societal issues on the poorer classes. In reality, the recent dismantling of crucial welfare state sections by both the U.K.’s Labour and Conservative governments has resulted in the emergence of a new, harshly disadvantaged layer of British society. Growing numbers of unemployed citizens have been deserted, their voices obscured. In Cut Out, journalist Jeremy Seabrook talks to these silenced communities in order to expose the cruel realities of the situation the British government has created for some of its most vulnerable citizens. Seabrook uncovers the many routes to poverty caused by welfare reforms and explores the brutally honest stories of Britain’s most devastated lives.