Another flamer!

However let me just query some of the 'statistics' quoted in the last paragraph.

A recent Panorama programme looked at long-term incapacity benefit claimants 'Britain on the Sick ' (May 2008) investigating the 2.6 million people who are 'on the sick'

Shelley Jofre reported from Merthyr Tydfil, where nearly one in five people of working age is claiming benefit.
brief preview here

There are of course regional variations in the numbers claiming sickness benefit, compare the above with just five per cent in affluent parts of London.
'This is partly explained by the legacy of injuries and illnesses associated with the Welsh mining and steel industries

Most obviously, employment opportunities in southeast England are substantially greater than those in south Wales, and London's largely white-collar workforce is more able to take up jobs in the growth industries of services, finance and IT than are the manual workers of Wales.

While incapacity benefit may offer marginal financial gains over the equivalent unemployment benefit, despite what Daily Mail leader writers would have us believe, neither is as rewarding as a job. So why do so many people apparently prefer life off sick to life at work? '

David Wainwright (the co-author with Michael Calnan of Work Stress: The Making of a Modern Epidemic, published by the Open University Press, 2002) offers some explanations.....
Sick of Work?

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Well, Roger, what's happened to free speech here is that we have too many drive-by posters who want to post some political garbage without being regular members of our community. It you're a regular, identified member of the community and want to participate in the give-and-take of discussion on a regular basis, then you're welcome to speak freely.
If you just want to drop by to post some xenophobic hate stuff every now and then; well, you're not welcome here. If you're a stranger here, you are a guest and your speech is restricted. If we know you, that's another matter.
-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-