Job Club Revisited?

IDS, the perennial god bothering "Quiet Man" of politics, has finally come up with a master plan to solve the problem of the long term unemployed once and for all. The details have yet to be revealed in full but you can bet a pound to a pinch of shit that what we are due is just another version of that tired old number - work for dole. The long term unemployed are not all the same. Some are happy to remain on benefits topped up by a bit of petty crime. Lacking in skills and poorly educated they have never worked and probably never will. There are also a number of people who having seen through the charade of "the system" have decided to fill their days with what they see as productive and enjoyable activity and let the state pick up the tab. There are others who would like to return to work but have just had the stuffing knocked out of them in one way or another. Of course a huge number of people, with the best will in the world, are simply not fit and well enough to work. Others are unemployed because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time and are the victims of economic and political forces totally beyond their control. What may have escaped the attention of IDS is the fact that lots of people are unemployed because of ........ unemployment!
One group of people who have never done an honest days work in their lives will of course be exempt from all tests, training or schemes because they have no need of benefits, surviving instead on the accumulated wealth created by other people's labour.
We tend not to hear so much about them.