A Short Christmas Story

[Martin]

Mary & Joseph had a comfy flat in North London, not very many material things as both had been out of work for several years. They managed to survive on their meagre welfare payments which never increased in line with inflation, never increased to cope with price rises from greedy power companies, and never increased to cover the rising cost of food.
One black day they received a letter, "Dear Mr & Mrs, your Housing Benefit will be cut from 01:01:11 and you will be required to make up the difference from any payments you receive. We do understand that this is not possible if you wish to survive so as part of the government's plans to rid the City Of London of poor people by 2012, you and your neighbours will be escorted from the city at 23:59 on 31:12:10. The armed guards are for your own protection. Once outside the city limits you are encouraged to look for shelter in a rural area. The government has produced a leaflet (enclosed) entitled, "Living In A makeshift Shelter & Coping With The Cuts", we hope this will be of use to you. Your home has been re-let to a rather nice family from Poland, who, because of their asylum seeker status, will not be subject to any changes in benefit rules."
Mary was distraught, that morning she had just found out she was pregnant. Joseph was over the moon and was looking forward to (hopefully) being the proud father of a son.
Mary & Joseph were duly escorted from London, the armed guards were a Godsend, they shot and killed many indigenous folk to protect them from crowds of Conservative supporters who pelted them with rotten eggs, empty champagne bottles and unused condoms.
Mary's time was nearly upon her and the couple were desperately trying to find shelter, Unfortunately at each B&B, hotel, hostel the question was the same, "Do you receive government benefits? If so, we have no place for you here".
Mary & Joseph eventually found shelter in a barn where she went through a very traumatic birth. Three wise men arrived, one from The Department Of Works And Pensions, one from a private firm (paid to kill off the sick and disabled) and one from social services. Their gifts were government forms, in triplicate from each department.
The next day Joseph went to the nearest town, to the Social Security Office and begged for money for food for his wife and son. He was told he was elligable for Job Seekers Allowance but because he didn't have a valid address no employer would be able to contact him and he wouldn't receive any money for 16 weeks.
Joseph returned to the barn and found Mary waiting for him on the lane outside, the land owner had discovered her and had turfed them out.
Sheltering in a ditch that night, the snow began to fall, then just after midnight the temperature fell to -12 and Mary, Joseph and their baby son, Jesus, died of hypothermia.
Because of council cutbacks nobody came to clean out the ditch and the sad remains were never noticed. Eventually they rotted away, became one with the earth and nobody remembered they had even existed.

[gizmo]

HO HO HO

[Govangirl]

Scary Martin, very, very scary! Could have been written by Orwell himself

[bill]

Short

[Iain]

Short

Not long enough !