‘Positively encouraged’ to abuse their children?

The Daily Mail’s Amanda Patell takes the wonderful opportunity to bash poverty-stricken women in her article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1092401/AMANDA-PLATELL-Shannon-8217-s-mother-seven-babies-men.html Her half-baked musings lazily declare Karen Matthews (kidnapper & child abuser) as

‘the personification of that terrifying growing phenomenon: a feckless, amoral, workshy, benefit-dependent underclass. It doesn’t matter to the Karen Matthews’ of this world that children like hers are scattered over council estates throughout the country, raised by anyone who will have them, neglected by their natural parents, child protection services and their own communities. And the most disturbing aspect of all of this is not that Matthews – and the countless other people like her – behave in this manner, but that they are positively encouraged to do so.’

I deplore the nerve of anyone who compares mothers claiming benefits to Karen Matthews. It is as offensive as it is stereotypical nonsense. What is more, with more and more people set to lose their jobs over the next few months, this ‘benefit-dependant underclass’ is only set to increase in number. I can not be alone in feeling that comparing these families to a child-abuser is not only totally unjustified but bludgeoningly abhorrent. I’d like to see the women Patell disqualifies as workshy become columnists. I’d like to see them sitting behind a safe, unapproachable, laptop for a couple of hours a day, drinking designer coffee and wearing superior smiles while sweating over the daily conjuring of an unhelpful attack on one of societies most vulnerable groups.