David Freud

Will the long-term jobless really benefit from a private sector presence in welfare?

Surely people who live like this deserve sympathy, education and support, rather than corporate rape:

For Natalie Langford and her partner Kelvin, this month's primary unpleasantness will be the formal loss of their ten-month-old daughter. She was taken away from them just after she was born, and will shortly be adopted out by social services. Such are the joys of life as a junkie, says Natalie.

'So, my daughter was taken off me and I never get to see her again. I only get photos,' Natalie says. 'I won't see her now until she is 16 and [if she] wants contact. I was nicked for shoplifting (just after the baby was born) and I was taken to Holloway for two months. They didn't give me a chance to look after the baby. All I have is letterbox contact now, because I was on methadone. I stopped taking drugs and everything. I was trying to go into detox, but I couldn't get into detox, because they didn't have funding and all that shit, so like, it weren't happening. So, my daughter was taken off me and I never get to see her again.'

It is a story that calls, Kelvin says, for a drink. He and Natalie and five or six of their friends are already working their way through the beers. They're drinking at the top end of Deptford High Street. They all look pretty horrific. Natalie is only 35 and she is personable, eloquent and political, but you'd be pushing the romance if you said she was something to look at. She's got thinning hair, bleached-looking irises and the pale, pimply skin of a user. Her skin is so inflamed in places that her face looks misshapen. Kelvin, who says he's ex-Army, could be anywhere between 35 and 60. He's grey-haired and sallow, and also has the faded irises.