“Question: Who’s going to get Britain back to work? Answer: Emma Harrison CBE
Perhaps the only person who is positive about spending cuts is the head of Britain’s biggest employment agency A4e. “The coalition government’s cuts are, in fact, fantastic!” says Emma Harrison.
”Cutting benefits will put a stop to people making a profession out of being unemployed. The Government is looking to put more effort into helping people get back to work which is the most important thing.”
A4e controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department of Work and Pensions.
“There are about 450,000 jobs currently being advertised with the JobCentre so there are jobs out there,” insists Mrs Harrison.
From Here.
But Angels have wings.
The Saintly One has since backtracked,
At 7.53pm last night Emma Harrison, under the username Emmachat, posted this comment:
I did not have any knowledge of this press release. I did not ask for it, write it or approve it. My views are wholly and utterly misrepresented and from what I can determine were written by someone from Hillgrove that I have never met with, or spoken to. The blog writer by his own admission was suspicious that these were not my sentiments but he did not bother to check with me. Ummmmmm.
At 8.18pm she posted the following comment:
My PR company? I rang them. They have apologised. Junior that i do not know, trying to get the attention of editors with dramatic, distorted and what I consider to be offensive views. Not my views. Shame the blog writer did not check with me or other Guardian articles they have written about me and my views – the ones when they have actually spoken to me……. Ummmmmm
Ps I am not a baddy
TV, media, papers. A snapshot only, and only the one they want to give you.
• The article was updated on 2 December 2010 to highlight comments made by Emma Harrison in the comment threads of this blog post
The Holy One has since added,
Confused? So am I, and personally very upset too.
Sometimes in life you say something which gets misrepresented by others.(We know how you feel Emma, life’s a bitch).
Any comments I have made recently, both on TV and in press interviews, are around the fact that more needs to be done earlier to help the unemployed back into work and that any changes which give extra support to individuals which means they are better off working than being dependent on benefits are wholly welcome.
(Well said O Essence of Celestial Grace!)
Anyone who knows me will know that I am passionate about working to lift people out of financial hardship. From the last twenty years of helping people back into work, I know that the only thing that works is ensuring people get sustainable jobs which ensure long term financial security.
People who know me will also know that I am straight-talking and to the point.
(And a Healer and Muse, Emma, don’t forget that!)
But, more importantly, I am passionate in what I do to help people who are long-term unemployed get back into work.
(Would that everyone shared your passion!)
The reason I work in this industry has always been, and will always remain to be, improving people’s lives.
(Well done yet again!)
If you want to know what I really think and believe in, then visit my blog here at Mya4e.com.
(We surely will)
We are sure you’d like to follow up this suggestion:
Also if you have any comments or questions please email me it’s eharrison@a4e.co.uk
Hat Tip to Work Programme here.
Andy, it’s time to add this vile and utterly evil bitch Emma Harrison to the list of enemies – oh, you already have
Comment by Emma Harrison is Evil — December 2, 2010 @ 12:39 pm
Blaming the PR company will not wash. There are already thousands of angry A4e clients planning to storm Thornbridge Hall.
See, there is one thing being tory scum and living in a big mansion, whilst ramming that fact down peoples throats… then there is making stupid comments like these sticking the two fingers up to the poor, some of which happens to be service users of her business, then getting sh*t scared because everyone knows where she lives!
There are also talks of a4e sit in protests all over the country. I really hope it don’t end in violence and serious injury/death.
She should start googling around.
If her admission of it not being of her, the she will need to sue her PR company and perhaps even the newspaper who reported the comments. If she doesn’t do that (I mean she has enough money and a “reputation” at stake…) then its obviously why.
Does Thornbridge Hall have security? For her own sake (and I’ll be honest I don’t like her or her company) and that who lives with her, she needs to step up the security.
Comment by Work Programme — December 2, 2010 @ 1:46 pm
“I really hope it don’t end in violence and serious injury/death.” – I’d really hate to see Thornbridge Hall go up in a pile of smoke and searing flames wrapped around Emma Harrison and all the A4e welfare-to-work provider scum screaming in agony as they breathed their last – what a distasteful and most pitiful sight
– and besides, who would their be left to haunt, we would all be left haunting each other, and I’d hate to be haunted by Emma Harrison 
Comment by The Ghost of Thornbridge Hall — December 2, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
What I found funny was her carefully chosen words….
This seems like her verbal comments were noted without her permission. She hasn’t stated that she didn’t make any comments of such nature.
She says she didn’t personally ask for it, she weren’t aware of its release, that she didn’t write it (well, you never do, hence paying a PR company to do it for you! Her English is at a very crappy standard) and didn’t approve of it.
This means someone sent it off without her approval or her commissioning it to begin with.
Here we go… Her views were “misrepresented”… sorry, I was under the impression that someone made a spoof press release up saying she said things that she otherwise didn’t.
Nope, Emma Harrison chosed her words carefully (I assume it was recorded by dictation before typed up) making it seems her “views” were distorted. Strange that.
If that wasn’t bad enough, she goes all posh tory scum spoilt brat school child on this matter, by denying she didn’t even know who did it.
I mean surely, from time to time in business, stuff is delegated via an external body to someone you have enver met before.
To a similar concept of those on New Deal/Flexible New Deal have had their personal details shared with a provider like A4e, and such information is viewed and processed by more than the people you see at the Jobcentre and your adviser at A4e.
Comment by Work Programme — December 2, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
Emma Harrison – Busted!
Comment by Wesley Snipes — December 2, 2010 @ 3:14 pm
Christmas Prezzy for Emma:
The Right to be Lazy by Paul Lafargue:
“Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy.”
http://www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1883/lazy/ch01.htm
Comment by Andrew Coates — December 2, 2010 @ 4:05 pm
Baddy!? You are rat-faced motha fucking piece of shit.
Comment by Will Smith — December 2, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
A lot of Hitler’s comments were “taken out of context” too; a most “misrepresented” man was our Adolf
Comment by Joseph Goebbels — December 2, 2010 @ 4:35 pm
When my dear, beloved Adolf had his remarks taken out of context and was misrepresented by our PR spokesman Jospeph Goebbels as saying: “I vill gas all ze Jews”, what he he really said was: “I want to hold the hands of the Jewish people and lead them on to a bright and shiny new world of fantastic opportunity.”
Comment by Eva Braun — December 2, 2010 @ 4:43 pm
she is a horrible character
Comment by Denzel Washington — December 2, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
She is so furious that her official website blog (emma-harrison.com) has no mention about this what so ever.
Comment by Work Programme — December 2, 2010 @ 8:36 pm
I wonder about Emma’s comments
Were they really not her own?
Or were they the forthright opinions of someone who’d enjoyed herself in the whirlwind of a well-lubricated function.
Back home had she wanted to share with the world her, and her friends’, views about the lazy-bones unemployed?
Comment by Andrew Coates — December 3, 2010 @ 11:09 am
Alcohol is such an “fantastic” tongue laxative
Comment by Special Brew — December 3, 2010 @ 11:55 am
It is not that but A4e Emma Harrison tried to jump on the celebrity bandwagon.
This means she came into the public spotlight. Prior to the TV shows etc. she wasn’t that much heard of outside the political and welfare-to-work circles and of course to the anti-A4e peeps.
It doesn’t mean you get to choose your own personal life with your opinion *and* create a completely different picture perfect PR image to be known by. You have a choice in life:- be a normal person have your private life etc. respected as private or become a celebrity and be deemed more important than the normal person however get no real privacy. Emma Harrison wasn’t of the few who became a celeb due to nature of work (i.e. actor/actress) or association (i.e. royalty) but actually stepped into the spotlight herself, so I think she is a hypocrite, she can’t have it both ways.
This means her plan has backfired. She wanted the opportunity to choose how her now multiple-personality was portrayed in the media – of course, she wanted the Angelic “I can show you (anyone) the journey into the light of getting a job and end your pain as I know how you feel” Emma Harrison…
The only way for A4e Emma Harrison to avoid this is to keep her mouth shut and remain secretive – except when making pre-planned perfect speeches that can be further enhanced by her PR team.
The first thing I would personally do in this situation is:
1) sack the PR team – get another
2) sue them
Of course, it is not that simple. This is because she was probably recorded saying those words however became upset because it didn’t match the image she wanted to be portrayed as.
She can still get rid of the PR team but has no grounds for legal action.
She needs to grow up and take responsibility. When you are a multi-millionaire celeb and successful businesswoman you don’t register for an online account to comment on an article you disagree with. (This was done in a desperation attempt to save her name due to severe panic of her reputation.)
You get your solicitors on to it and PR team. Of course, the PR team she is upset with (lacks the common sense to hire one of the many other thousands out there – and it is not like she is short of a few quid to do so) and her solicitors can’t really do anything because it isn’t libel as she knows it was the exact words she had said. Dilemma!
Again, simply not matching the perfect public image she hired the PR team for. To be honest, I would be pissed off too if I was paying for someone to make me into a better person if I was naturally that cr*p and this happened, however, I wouldn’t be as silly to be that vulnerable in the first place.
Yes, the microphone hooked up to the PA system shouldn’t have been there but you shouldn’t have made the comments. Yes, the swimming pool shouldn’t have been filled with petrol… but you shouldn’t have thrown your cigarette in. Yes, the media shouldn’t have published your naked photo… but you shouldn’t have been out naked in public.
Anyone see the points I am trying to make? She has to stand up proud but with regret and admit her comments were wrong with a public apology. A few comments amongst hundreds of others on an article where most people don’t bother scrolling down to and blaming your PR team is childish.
Comment by Work Programme — December 3, 2010 @ 12:42 pm
We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, “How can you sell this for such a low price?”, I say, “because it’s total crap. And, our earrings are cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn’t last as long.
Comment by Gerald Ratner — December 3, 2010 @ 12:58 pm
Our Lady of the Sanctions asserts that she’s “not a baddy”, but her assertion is rather conceited because it’s not for her to decide her own vitue or otherwise – that is a matter for the general public to decide.
How many people who have unfortunate enough to be forced on to one of A4e’s fantastic courses, under the threat of sanction, would agree that Our Em’s a truly wonderful human being. And how more many folks who have lost entitlement to benefit as a result of allegations made by the jumped up administration staff and sales persons employed by A4e would say that Good Old Em and her staff are real salt of the earth people ?
Not many (if any).
Ms Harrisson is obviously concerned by the bad publicity arising from her statements. This comes as quite a surprise as claimants see Harrisson’s company scoop hundreds of millions Pounds in public money each year, giving her tens of millions in net profits each year, in exchange for worthless, take-it-or-else training, and yet Em appears to be rather hurt that she’s not perceived as a goody.
Never mind, here’s a couple ideas Ms Harrisson might want to consider in order to improve her public image.
First, because conscripts make the worst recruits ask your friends in Government to remove the compulsary aspect of attendance at A4e. Those that attend your premises voluntarily will then be entitled to demand high quality, bespoke training – in other words the kind of training A4e has been unwilling or unable to deliver.
Second, A4e will rake in many more millions when the Work Programme is introduced next year. How about donating 50 per cent of the net profits A4e will make to the communities that A4e operate in ? Go on, Em, if you’re not the baddy nearly everyone thought you were then put your money where your mouth has been.
Comment by paulyg — December 2, 2010 @ 8:38 pm
Great comment. Wish I could shake your hand. Have you emailed A4e Emma Harrison that? Would like to know her response, if any!
Comment by Work Programme — December 2, 2010 @ 10:47 pm
Thanks. I’ll drop her an email but won’t hold my breath for a reply. You never know, Ms Harrisson might get someone from her PR firm to send a reply (maybe one that doesn’t “misrepresent” her views).
Comment by paulyg — December 3, 2010 @ 12:02 am
hehe yes, you might get a long professional email agreeing with your comments.
Obviously, Emma Harrison herself keeps to short, rude and downright out of touch emails of poor English.
Comment by Work Programme — December 3, 2010 @ 12:13 pm
Vile odious harpy who has made a fortune patronising the unemployed. I believe an effigy of her was burnt on a pyre for bonfire, how about next year we just use the real thing?
Comment by Ross — December 3, 2010 @ 10:52 pm
I find it funny how the usual handful of sites ran to her defence… Watching A4e etc
Comment by Work Programme — December 4, 2010 @ 10:28 am
Yeah, the usual Emma Harrison’s arse-lickers like intensiveactivity and the sycophantic Emma Harrison worshipping tendancecoatesty.
Comment by Bonfire Nght — December 4, 2010 @ 3:34 pm
Don’t Worry About Sanctions. You Will Get One Soon. Emma IS aware of your comments
Comment by The Insider — December 5, 2010 @ 1:04 pm
Polly Toynbee was carried out of Top Shop when taking part in #ukuncut protests.
Comment by David Holm — December 4, 2010 @ 4:03 pm
I’ve heard A4e offices will be closed on the 15 Dec. They’re concerned about the possibility of protestors invading and staging a sit-in, and the media reporting it The last things A4e need is yet more bad publicity!
Comment by Funny A4e Photos — December 5, 2010 @ 10:38 pm
Then lets all arrange it for another day!! haha
Comment by Work Programme — December 6, 2010 @ 9:05 am
Emma Harrison’s apology sounds like a non-denial denial.
A press release issued by HER PR company in HER name.
PR companies eh! There’s just no living with them.
Comment by Squiddly Diddly — December 6, 2010 @ 7:39 pm
Personally, I’ll believe that the Trout Mouth’d one was misquoted by her PR mouthpiece on the same day that her scummy organisation goes out and competes for paying customers (as opposed to being gifted lucrative and ludicrous contracts) like any other private sector company.
Comment by paulyg — December 7, 2010 @ 7:01 pm
I just thought I should share this with you wonderful people at Ipswich Unemployed Action.
Monday 6th December 2010, 10:22Annual Guardian Charity Awards
I spent some time on Thursday with some wonderful people who spend their time helping others and improving lives. I was lucky enough to attend the annual Guardian Charity Awards and was honoured to be asked to make a speech to such amazing people.
Comment by Emma — December 8, 2010 @ 11:52 am
We can all play that game Emma!
I’ve supervised football matches for people with Downs Syndrome and I currently help out at the local Cathedral.
But I’m not expecting an award.:-)
Comment by Squiddly Diddly — December 8, 2010 @ 12:40 pm
the only way people are going to work their way out of poverty is decent skills,decent wages and avoiding the gang master culture that has dragged the labour market to its knees.
emma harrison has got to big for her boots and feels to be able to speak for the nation,she has ridiculed the people who’s lives she is supposed to be improving and is totally arrogant because of her wealth and over perceived influence.the government has only got itself to blame for this culture that has taken hold.
these “back to work” “gateway” programs have been dismal yet money has continually been wasted on these individuals and their ideas’ yet the same faces are present for the next round,she has feathered her considerable nest while those at the receiving end have been let down abused sanctioned often without any reason and left in poverty.
its a complete waste of time and money presenting the unworkable and then blaming everyone else,how this is allowed to continue in todays climate is beyond reason,clearly the government have not learned by their policies’.
Comment by ken — December 8, 2010 @ 12:42 pm
Benefits repayment case upheld by Supreme Court
The government has lost a legal battle to recover millions of pounds in overpaid benefits.
The Supreme Court ruled that it did not have the right to recoup money it had paid out in error to 65,000 people.
Letters were sent to claimants between March 2006 and February 2007 with the threat of legal action if they did not repay.
The government had challenged a lower court ruling in favour of Child Poverty Action Group.
The CPAG had fought the test case on behalf of claimants who were overpaid, but were, it argued, the “innocent victims” of an error.
The government had claimed it was allowed to ask for the money back and that it had a duty to recover public money paid out in error.
However, Supreme Court judges said that errors made by the authorities were not a sufficient reason to reclaim the money.
Judge Sir John Dyson said the statutory scheme for recovery of benefits was limited to misrepresentation or failure to disclose a material fact.
“Simple error on the part of the adjudicating authorities was excluded,” he said.
CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said it was an important decision.
“Even though the letters claimants were sent acknowledged it was the government’s own errors and the debt was unrecoverable under its own social security law, explicit threats of court action were still made.
“We hope that the department will regret the anguish caused to many of the people who received the letters and will seek to improve its own administration to avoid overpayment problems.”
A High Court judge ruled in favour of the Department of Work and Pensions in February 2009, when the action group first challenged it.
But lawyers for the group, which aims to influence policy to help low-income families, successfully appealed in October 2009.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11948811
Comment by BBC — December 8, 2010 @ 1:12 pm
Excellent!
Claimants 1 DWP 0
Comment by Squiddly Diddly — December 9, 2010 @ 9:21 am
More on the Emma Saga:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2010/dec/06/emma-harrison-in-cuts-storm
The Conclusion is interesting:
“So have Harrison and A4E managed to drawn a line under this PR disaster? Who knows? It’s hard not to see many of the 200-plus comments on my original post as a reflection of the anger and unease many people feel not just about the cuts, and unemployment, but the welfare to work industry, and its practices. Some clearly appreciate the irony of someone so apparently skilled in the art of self-publicity being landed in it by her own PR advisors. But many of the posts demonstrate a real curiosity about A4E’s various government contracts and its performance in terms of getting people back into work. This curiosity, I feel, in the current climate, is not going to go away.”
Comment by Andrew Coates — December 9, 2010 @ 10:11 am
Comment by :-) — December 10, 2010 @ 10:52 am
Hear rat-faced, trout-lipped Emma making idiotic and inarticulate comments regarding her new role as an “Emma” aka “Family Champion”: it starts of with “volunteering or work experience”… “helping out in the the local precinct at the local charity shop”… “that if that mums cooks the first hot meal that she has ever cooked for that family that is a working family”.
lol:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wdjlb/Today_10_12_2010/
Fast forward to: 1:15:06 – 1:19:18
Comment by :-) — December 10, 2010 @ 10:53 am
Quicker link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9275000/9275026.stm
Comment by The Today Programme — December 10, 2010 @ 12:04 pm
“I am am absolutely not getting paid for this, this is my passion, I have been doing this for 20 years.” What does this mean, that A4e is a charity, that Emma Harrison has been working for nothing for 20 years? What a deceptive, lying bitch.
Comment by Listener — December 10, 2010 @ 12:12 pm
Spot on. She is a multi-millionaire some how… She is that sort of person. Surprised she didn’t stand as Fib Dem MP… but that is only because she is con-servative!
(Plus the fact she owns a provider getting money from the Government.)
Comment by Work Programme — December 10, 2010 @ 2:40 pm
Watching A4e has been watching intensiveactivity and doesn’t even have the decency to hat-tip this site. Yes, that’s you “Historian”!
Comment by Watching Watching A4e — December 10, 2010 @ 12:14 pm
Ipswich Unemployed Action and my site Work Programme Network are completely different style of websites to Watching A4e.
Although we have a bias to the unemployed because this is our target, we will report how things are, independently and say it how it is.
Watching A4e is more on terms with other sites like Indus Delta who are focused around people in welfare-to-work.
Sometimes they will pass judgement on poor failings etc. because its worthy news; they however (because they are affiliated in the welfare to work arena) won’t go far enough to alienate their target market. Obviously.
For example, when I “leaked” out the New Deal Contracts on to a website, sites like Indus Delta wasn’t happy about it because it is deemed as “inside knowledge” something not worthy of outsiders seeing – especially the unemployed who have to go on them. This would make jobs harder in welfare-to-work.
Also, the fact I had converted them from a paper copy to text, and stuck them on a website I controlled, seemed rather anti-competitive and they were upset the request wasn’t made to WhatDoTheyKnow where I assume they could have chosen to write articles from various snippets at their choosing (obviously not wanting to link to a website by someone criticising the industry).
One major element I remember was, an A4e feature on BBC Inside Out that got pulled and replaced with a feature on Clouds. I reported this. I googled about it and found an Watching A4e article… http://watchinga4e.blogspot.com/2009/12/a4e-on-inside-out.html This then got deleted – I think I saw it on Google Cache but clicking the link resulted in a post not found message.
I used to actively support Watching A4e, until the founder had some criticism of my direction which before soon resulted her removing the links to my site off hers. Ever since Watching A4e appears to be mostly leeching from Indus Delta content. I am sure it keeps historian busy but I am not really too sure what the point of Watching A4e is any more – even the comments on articles are over moderated.
Yes, not so professional telling you how it is, but I am not a journalist; I am unemployed, don’t have a degree in English, I am not paid by or work with welfare-to-work providers and thus have zero loyalty with them, and I am not accountable to anyone. I do abide by the law however I am not scared of empty legal threats sent to censor the internet (A4e being a major example, tried to take down my site many times).
Comment by Work Programme — December 10, 2010 @ 3:15 pm
Link above does not work as yet – the lazy bones soon to be unemployed BBC don’t appear to have bothered their backsides to upload Today on 10/12/2010 to the iplayer as yet.
Comment by Irate Listener — December 10, 2010 @ 2:04 pm
They have now:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wdk0s/Today_10_12_2010/
Comment by Irate Listener — December 10, 2010 @ 2:07 pm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wdk0s/Today_10_12_2010/
Comment by Fixed Link — December 10, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
Hear Benny Gummer commenting on the tuition fees protest:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wdjlb/Today_10_12_2010/
Fast forward to: 1:40:19 – 1:41:22
Comment by :-) — December 10, 2010 @ 11:01 am
Alternative link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wdk0s
Comment by :-) — December 10, 2010 @ 11:05 am
“I am absolutely not getting paid for this” lol
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wdjlb/Today_10_12_2010/
Comment by :-) — December 10, 2010 @ 11:07 am
Almost at 100,000 hits
Comment by Blog Stats — December 10, 2010 @ 11:49 am
On behalf of the Site Admin, we will be offering a special “prize” to the 100,000 blog hitter
Comment by Blog Stats — December 10, 2010 @ 11:51 am
You provider cunts sitting in your cosy little offices should be shitting yourselves – cos you aint getting away with it you scum!
Comment by Kaplan — December 10, 2010 @ 1:40 pm
Why have Harrison and her team of failed double glazing touts been allowd to have access to disadvantaged families ?
If some fishfaced old boiler wanted to come into my house in order to espouse nutty neocon ideology in front of my kids I’d call the bizzies or social services – or both.
Comment by paulyg — December 10, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
[...] the dust has settled. A4e Emma Harrison was caught exposed with her knickers down from behind showing her big ugly posterior before falling down on her backside in a desperate attempt to save her dignity and self-respect. [...]
Pingback by Reasons why the A4e Emma Harrison PR blunder was a cover up | Work Programme & Flexible New Deal: Ipswich Unemployed Action — December 19, 2010 @ 4:57 pm