The eighteenth winner of the weekly "No shit Sherlock" award

This week's prize goes to Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, and is real "no, really!" one. Showing the towering intellect that is common to our Labour government's ministers, she is reported to have said that some people were "working the system" to get priority on housing lists over people who held down jobs.

The Telegraph article that reports Caroline Flint's remarks continues:

""Demeaning and dysfunctional" housing rules developed under Labour force people to manipulate the system in order to be housed, she said. Tenants and would-be tenants are forced into "a race to the bottom."

...

"We have a system which seems to be the family or the individual that can present themselves as practically on the verge of collapse are more likely to get a home than someone who is in housing need and is finding it difficult to combine work with paying market rents.

"They haven't really got much of a chance unless they present themselves with doctors' certificates and other things to indicate they just can't cope.

"Personally I find that demeaning and a dysfunctional system because in that there will be people who can play the game in order to get what they want – and we have created that system, we've forced people to play in that way.""

The housing system created by this Labour government encourages people to claim benefits rather than go to work... Genius, it's not as though people haven't been saying that for a long time. When Labour ministers start talking tough on such issues, they are looking to gain some popularity from the right-wing press - I think they are past that point now.

Anyway to Caroline Flint for stating the bleedin' obvious - "No shit, Sherlock"