As was pointed out on the BBC Today programme this morning, the government is putting itself in an untenable position with its benefit reforms. For a start, such draconian reforms have never been tried in a period of recession so they are, quite literally, gambling with people's lives. Secondly, the reforms hinge around getting people back into work. What work is that? There are simply not enough jobs out there and the government has no money for job creation schemes or even 'back-to-work' schemes that find people employment that they are capable of doing and provide retraining. So, are the hundreds of unsuccessful applicants for the scant number of jobs to be penalised? Are people to be forced to take jobs for which they are physically and mentally unsuited just to make their Job Centre's figures look good?

The only result that I can see is more social unrest, more demonstrations and, I'm very much afraid, more violence. And who will control this when the police force is being drastically cut?

Like I said, an untenable position.