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Look what we have here…. The Jobcentre Plus column and here’s my version. 

After a long afternoon campaigning outside Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentre I was in great need of cheering up. It’s cold out there at the moment and some of the claimants stories were particularly hard.

We decided to go for a well earned cuppa. Whilst we were sat having a chat, my comrade reached into his folder and asked me if I had seen this column in our local newspaper.

I hadn’t, I don’t buy the newspaper but sometimes you can get a free copy. So I had a look. I was that incensed that I actually spilt my cuppa.

I do believe that Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentre are trying to promote themselves and their schemes as being helpful. No mention of the heartache and desperation that they cause to claimants everyday. I wasn’t surprised though. Our protest has been continuous every Thursday for 15 months now, and as a result we have had a lot of good, positive feedback. As a result they could well have felt the need to try and portray themselves in a better light.

I then thought to myself and to my comrades that we should construct our own, which is below. I have tried to find the person named in their leaflet, but so far I’ve had no luck. But I’m not surprised by that either.

Here is Ashton Under Lyne Jobcentres “column” in the local newspaper. I’m sure that they have done similar promotional things in different areas.


You can see why I was angry. So here’s our version. I actually think it’s much better and more realistic. Many thanks to my friend who holds a deep hatred of the DWP, but is also amazing on a computer.

 


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17 thoughts on “Look what we have here…. The Jobcentre Plus column and here’s my version. ”

  1. Lol!–To be honest, I’ve read a bit of the new version but it hurts too much and don’t deserve that! It provokes thoughts of the way the ability/permission/ finance/skill and experience needed to produce a quality publication is abused like in the original version! Superb and thought provoking! I think I will publish my thoughts around ‘publications’ and their importance!—Watch for it!

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  2. Nice one. It’d be good to know which paper you’re talking about.

    On the note about advertising, it’d be worth checking if you can get a full page colour ad in there – and how much that would cost you. Obviously, it’d be useful to be able to tell Jobcentre claimants and others you see at your protests how much money has been wasted that could have been spent on benefits.

    If it’s the one of the papers of the Inside Tameside group, then the page to get an advertising quote for ‘your business’ is here:

    https://insidetameside.com/market-with-quest/print-marketing/

    I’d suggest getting somebody who has a perfectly innocent, real, and totally non-political local business to get a quote – preferably one that they would actually like to use if the price was right. If you have any dog-walkers or karaoke systems amongst your local sympathisers, they’ll be the people that get offered the best price; which is what the Jobcentre likely paid.

    Whilst they’re there, they may want to enquire about Quest Media’s design service for the same full page ad. Neither jobcentre workers nor their managers are likely to have created the advert themselves, whereas Quest Media, which owns most papers, radio and local-news webservices around Ashton, offers an in-house service. They have a promo vid and phone contact details here:

    https://insidetameside.com/market-with-quest

    As ever, well done and thank you for the time you put in.

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      1. Didn’t imagine you’d have the money. Newspaper advertising doesn’t come cheap, especially not a full page in colour. Where I am it’d cost somewhere between £450 and £800 for a half page in the local paper.

        And you’re probably right about the paper being unlikely to take such an ad from a protest group.

        That said, if I get the chance, I’ll do some research and give you the specifics. Which paper was it?

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      2. Oh the local paper is the Tameside reporter which is owned by new charter who has members of the council on the committee….. It’s heavily censored as a result. Very annoying

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  3. Brilliant. The Tory government are destroying peoples lives in the name ideological austerity, it’s nothing more than the social reordering of society. The rich get richer, the poor die out. Eugenics by proxy.

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  4. THAT is absolutely BRILLIANT, it’s just such a massive shame that you can’t actually advertise it in the same local paper ! That would really nark them off !

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      1. I suppose if you tried to advertise that in whatever paper it was, they would realise that it wasn’t from the Jobcentre, and whoever is responsible for authorizing adverts at the paper, would probably refuse to put it in? (even if you were paying them, which you’d obviously have to do, of course 🙂 ) However, there shouldn’t be anything to stop you from printing a few copies of that, and putting it in/on every major noticeboard you can find? How about the Morning Star? Corbyn reads that doesn’t he? It’s weird actually that you would probably have problems printing it, but could ‘advertise it’ online without any issues whatsoever !

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