Before you cast your vote.......
Dec 3, 2019 21:27:14 GMT
alison82cufc, furiousgeorge, and 2 more like this
Post by neilmc4 on Dec 3, 2019 21:27:14 GMT
............in 9 days time please indulge me by taking a few minutes to read the following. It probably won`t change the way you intend to vote but if , at the very least , it perhaps slightly alters the way you think about the world around us then it won`t have been a complete waste of my time.
It seems highly appropriate to post this now because today is the International Day Of People With Disabilities. Nine years ago , with our economy up a certain creek without a certain implement after the financial crash , David Cameron instigated his austerity programme and assured us that "we`re all in this together." Nine years on even the most blinkered of observers now realises what this meant in practice ; bankers still got massive bonuses , MPs still voted themselves huge pay rises , billion-pound corporations still avoided paying sufficient tax , CEOs still got annual pay rises in double figures , but the lowest of the low , including nurses and front-line public sector workers , got (at best) years of pay freezes. But the people hit hardest of all were the easiest targets , the ones least able to fight back - the disabled.
A decade ago I probably looked on the disabled community like most of you do , I guess - with general passive disinterest. I`d watch the Paralympics once every four years and make patronising comments about `being inspired` , drop the odd quid in a collecting tin now and again , and generally feel smugly thankful that I didn`t have to cope with the daily challenges that disability brings. Today it`s one of the few subjects that I feel passionately enough about to get into stand-up rows in public.
For the last 8 years I`ve headed up the Audio Description team at Cambridge United , a merry band of volunteers who give up their time for free to provide live commentary on every game at The Abbey for blind and visually impaired fans. 7 years ago my wife became disabled , and although I work seven days a week (part-time) my full-time job is now as her registered carer. I am on the committee of a small local charity which tries to plug one of the many gaping holes in the mental health care system , and twice a month we attend a support group for sufferers of fibromyalgia. So now , disability , public perception of it and politicians` attitudes towards it , are right at the epicentre of my world.
Cards on the table time. At the forthcoming General Election I honestly don`t know who I`m going to vote for - not that it will make much difference in my constituency (North West Norfolk) because even before the Conservatives named a candidate they were 1/100 to win the seat. The choice of main parties right now is so uninspiring it feels like being asked to choose Cambridge United`s Greatest Ever Player and being presented with a shortlist of Colin Alcide , Kingsley Mbome and Jordan Slew. Yep , THAT bad. The only thing I do know for sure is that I cannot and will not vote for five more years of Tory persecution of the most vulnerable members of our society.
Now is perhaps a good time to point out that if you subscribe to the Katie Hopkins point of view that disabled people are "the lame and the lazy" and that disabled children should be called "it" instead of he or she (and preferably should be forcibly aborted without their parents` consent) then stop reading now ; this thread is clearly not for you. If , however , you`re prepared to approach this with an open mind then thank you for your patience.
The last nine years of Conservative rule has been a concerted attempt to demonise , harrass , persecute and demean the disabled and , credit where credit is due , it has been hugely successful. Use of words like "cheat" , "scrounger" , "thief" and "fake" in the right-wing Press when reporting on disability issues has gone up over 200% in the last nine years. Successive Ministers have repeatedly talked about disability in terms of "incentivising work" - in other words , people are CHOOSING to become disabled so that they can live a life of champagne-fuelled luxury off the backs of hard-working taxpayers like you. And it`s worked. A study earlier this year found that the general public firmly believe that between 50% and 70% of all claims for disability benefits are fraudulent. The Government`s own reasearch puts the REAL figure at less than 0.5%.
This campaign of disinformation goes a long way to explaining how successive Conservative Governments have managed to get away with some of the most appalling abuses of the disabled.
- from the outset , disability assessments were outsourced to two foreign companies (Atos and Maximus) who were promised bonuses in excess of £400m NOT to assess people accurately , but simply to get as many people off disability benefits as possible. So incompetent were these two that over 70% of appeals against their judgements are now successful. Despite this , when their contracts came up for renewal they were handed over on a plate with no competition.
- the Government then appointed an American company called Unum to advise them on policy towards the disabled. Just after Unum had been successfully prosecuted in the US for illegal discrimination against disabled claimants , falsifying claim forms and paying bonuses to the staff who denied the most number of claims each month. Oh yes , and they were subsequently convicted of defrauding the US Government out of $200m. The Tories obviously thought they were a perfect fit.
- over 70% of people paying the hated Bedroom Tax are disabled. Everybody realises that we have a housing crisis but hardly anybody gives a damn that 93% of properties in the UK are completely inaccessible to disabled tenants. So the disabled keep on being fined , week after week , because they refuse to move into houses that don`t exist. Genius.
- 75% of people who use Food Banks are disabled. The Government`s own figures have recorded a rise of 200,000 disabled people per year falling into poverty.
- 80 terminally ill people every month (most of them with Stage 4 cancer and undergoing intensive chemotherapy) are dying within six weeks of the Government telling them that they are `fit for work`.
- you`ve probably never heard of Prevention Of Future Death Notices. They can be issued by a coroner after an inquest if they believe that the death in question was avoidable and they require the company , institution or individual responsible to set down in writing what steps they guarantee to take to avoid further loss of life. Since 2010 Tory policy has been directly cited by coroners as being 100% responsible for the deaths of disabled people wrongly denied benefits ; to date the Government has ignored EVERY PoFDN it has been issued with.
- in 2018 the UK became the first Western Government to be investigated by the UN for discrimination towards and abuse of its disabled citizens. The report stated that Tory policies were deliberately "cruel and inhuman" and "inflicted great misery" but that those in power were "happy with the way their policies are playing out". The report made 80 recommendations to address the issue of discrimination against the disabled ; to date the Government has implemented precisely NONE of them.
- this `happiness` most probably stemmed from a previous long-term study undertaken by Oxford University which concluded that Government policies targeting the sick and disabled were responsible for 30,000 "unnecessary and avoidable" deaths PER YEAR. Just stop for a second and read that again. OUR Government , in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world , is killing off 30,000 of its most vulnerable citizens every single year. That`s one Grenfell Tower every 21 HOURS. It`s a great way to save money when you think about it - after all ,corpses DON`T "scrounge" benefits do they? It`s nearly as effective as homelessness (up 165% in the last nine years , with the average life expectancy of a homeless person now down to 45). While we`re on the subject the National Audit Office recently asked the DWP to publish the data it holds , revealing the number of disabled claimants who have committed suicide after being wrongly denied benefits. The DWP flatly refused. Any idea why?
- hate crimes (inculding violent attacks) against the disabled have risen every year under the Tories and are now at record levels.
- but at least we all know it`s for a greater good. Over the last nine years cuts to disability benefits and social care have averaged out at £35billion per year. Tax cuts for the wealthiest cost the Treasury £47billion per year.
- I could reel off page after page of Conservative MPs and councillors who have quite openly made their hatred of the disabled a matter of public record but this post is already way longer than I intended , so a couple of examples will have to do. Like Richard Graham MP , who went on TV to defend re-testing people with permanent degenerative disabilities year after year - if they miss a re-test , for ANY reason , their benefits are automatically stopped. His argument was that they were perfectly fair because some permanent degenerative conditions "get better" ; when pressed THREE TIMES to name a single condition which "got better" (the clue is in the words `permanent` and `degenerative` Richard) he couldn`t think of one. Or then there`s the Tory councillor in Swindon who voiced his opinion that disabled babies should be "guillotined" at birth. Instead of being thrown out of the party he was staunchly defended by his local MP Justin Tomlinson. Who is the current Minister For The Disabled.
Not convinced? Fair enough. Let me refer you to Graeme Ellis , a member of the Conservative Party for 48 years and until 2017 the chairman of the Conservative Disability Group , the man in charge of informing the Government on disability policy and promoting their good work in that field. Mr Ellis resigned his post , left the party and sabotaged the CDG website in disgust at the policies he was being asked to defend. In case you`d forgotten , even Iain Duncan Smith (hardly a poster boy for the moderate , liberal , compassionate wing of the Tory party) couldn`t stomach the policies he was being forced to implement against the disabled and resigned from the DWP in protest in 2016.
So where does all this leave us on the (in)glorious 12th? Search me. All I know is that I can`t vote for five more years of systemic social cleansing. But what are you going to do? Like my former self ten years ago you probably won`t even consider disability when you`re in the voting booth. But here`s one final stat to consider - one in five of the population will have to deal with a serious disability in the course of their lifetime. One in five. Tell you what , just jot down the names of the people closest to you , the ones you care about the most. Your spouse , your kids , your parents , your brothers and sisters , the best mate you`ve been going up the football with for the past 20 years. Got a list of five or more? Makes you think , doesn`t it.......
"How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity" (Matthew Rycroft , UK Ambassador to the United Nations)
"How we care for older and disabled people [is] a fundamental test of any civilised society" (Vincent Nichols , Archbishop of Westminster)
OR
"There`s no such thing as society" (Margaret Thatcher)
Thanks for your patience. Vote wisely.
It seems highly appropriate to post this now because today is the International Day Of People With Disabilities. Nine years ago , with our economy up a certain creek without a certain implement after the financial crash , David Cameron instigated his austerity programme and assured us that "we`re all in this together." Nine years on even the most blinkered of observers now realises what this meant in practice ; bankers still got massive bonuses , MPs still voted themselves huge pay rises , billion-pound corporations still avoided paying sufficient tax , CEOs still got annual pay rises in double figures , but the lowest of the low , including nurses and front-line public sector workers , got (at best) years of pay freezes. But the people hit hardest of all were the easiest targets , the ones least able to fight back - the disabled.
A decade ago I probably looked on the disabled community like most of you do , I guess - with general passive disinterest. I`d watch the Paralympics once every four years and make patronising comments about `being inspired` , drop the odd quid in a collecting tin now and again , and generally feel smugly thankful that I didn`t have to cope with the daily challenges that disability brings. Today it`s one of the few subjects that I feel passionately enough about to get into stand-up rows in public.
For the last 8 years I`ve headed up the Audio Description team at Cambridge United , a merry band of volunteers who give up their time for free to provide live commentary on every game at The Abbey for blind and visually impaired fans. 7 years ago my wife became disabled , and although I work seven days a week (part-time) my full-time job is now as her registered carer. I am on the committee of a small local charity which tries to plug one of the many gaping holes in the mental health care system , and twice a month we attend a support group for sufferers of fibromyalgia. So now , disability , public perception of it and politicians` attitudes towards it , are right at the epicentre of my world.
Cards on the table time. At the forthcoming General Election I honestly don`t know who I`m going to vote for - not that it will make much difference in my constituency (North West Norfolk) because even before the Conservatives named a candidate they were 1/100 to win the seat. The choice of main parties right now is so uninspiring it feels like being asked to choose Cambridge United`s Greatest Ever Player and being presented with a shortlist of Colin Alcide , Kingsley Mbome and Jordan Slew. Yep , THAT bad. The only thing I do know for sure is that I cannot and will not vote for five more years of Tory persecution of the most vulnerable members of our society.
Now is perhaps a good time to point out that if you subscribe to the Katie Hopkins point of view that disabled people are "the lame and the lazy" and that disabled children should be called "it" instead of he or she (and preferably should be forcibly aborted without their parents` consent) then stop reading now ; this thread is clearly not for you. If , however , you`re prepared to approach this with an open mind then thank you for your patience.
The last nine years of Conservative rule has been a concerted attempt to demonise , harrass , persecute and demean the disabled and , credit where credit is due , it has been hugely successful. Use of words like "cheat" , "scrounger" , "thief" and "fake" in the right-wing Press when reporting on disability issues has gone up over 200% in the last nine years. Successive Ministers have repeatedly talked about disability in terms of "incentivising work" - in other words , people are CHOOSING to become disabled so that they can live a life of champagne-fuelled luxury off the backs of hard-working taxpayers like you. And it`s worked. A study earlier this year found that the general public firmly believe that between 50% and 70% of all claims for disability benefits are fraudulent. The Government`s own reasearch puts the REAL figure at less than 0.5%.
This campaign of disinformation goes a long way to explaining how successive Conservative Governments have managed to get away with some of the most appalling abuses of the disabled.
- from the outset , disability assessments were outsourced to two foreign companies (Atos and Maximus) who were promised bonuses in excess of £400m NOT to assess people accurately , but simply to get as many people off disability benefits as possible. So incompetent were these two that over 70% of appeals against their judgements are now successful. Despite this , when their contracts came up for renewal they were handed over on a plate with no competition.
- the Government then appointed an American company called Unum to advise them on policy towards the disabled. Just after Unum had been successfully prosecuted in the US for illegal discrimination against disabled claimants , falsifying claim forms and paying bonuses to the staff who denied the most number of claims each month. Oh yes , and they were subsequently convicted of defrauding the US Government out of $200m. The Tories obviously thought they were a perfect fit.
- over 70% of people paying the hated Bedroom Tax are disabled. Everybody realises that we have a housing crisis but hardly anybody gives a damn that 93% of properties in the UK are completely inaccessible to disabled tenants. So the disabled keep on being fined , week after week , because they refuse to move into houses that don`t exist. Genius.
- 75% of people who use Food Banks are disabled. The Government`s own figures have recorded a rise of 200,000 disabled people per year falling into poverty.
- 80 terminally ill people every month (most of them with Stage 4 cancer and undergoing intensive chemotherapy) are dying within six weeks of the Government telling them that they are `fit for work`.
- you`ve probably never heard of Prevention Of Future Death Notices. They can be issued by a coroner after an inquest if they believe that the death in question was avoidable and they require the company , institution or individual responsible to set down in writing what steps they guarantee to take to avoid further loss of life. Since 2010 Tory policy has been directly cited by coroners as being 100% responsible for the deaths of disabled people wrongly denied benefits ; to date the Government has ignored EVERY PoFDN it has been issued with.
- in 2018 the UK became the first Western Government to be investigated by the UN for discrimination towards and abuse of its disabled citizens. The report stated that Tory policies were deliberately "cruel and inhuman" and "inflicted great misery" but that those in power were "happy with the way their policies are playing out". The report made 80 recommendations to address the issue of discrimination against the disabled ; to date the Government has implemented precisely NONE of them.
- this `happiness` most probably stemmed from a previous long-term study undertaken by Oxford University which concluded that Government policies targeting the sick and disabled were responsible for 30,000 "unnecessary and avoidable" deaths PER YEAR. Just stop for a second and read that again. OUR Government , in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world , is killing off 30,000 of its most vulnerable citizens every single year. That`s one Grenfell Tower every 21 HOURS. It`s a great way to save money when you think about it - after all ,corpses DON`T "scrounge" benefits do they? It`s nearly as effective as homelessness (up 165% in the last nine years , with the average life expectancy of a homeless person now down to 45). While we`re on the subject the National Audit Office recently asked the DWP to publish the data it holds , revealing the number of disabled claimants who have committed suicide after being wrongly denied benefits. The DWP flatly refused. Any idea why?
- hate crimes (inculding violent attacks) against the disabled have risen every year under the Tories and are now at record levels.
- but at least we all know it`s for a greater good. Over the last nine years cuts to disability benefits and social care have averaged out at £35billion per year. Tax cuts for the wealthiest cost the Treasury £47billion per year.
- I could reel off page after page of Conservative MPs and councillors who have quite openly made their hatred of the disabled a matter of public record but this post is already way longer than I intended , so a couple of examples will have to do. Like Richard Graham MP , who went on TV to defend re-testing people with permanent degenerative disabilities year after year - if they miss a re-test , for ANY reason , their benefits are automatically stopped. His argument was that they were perfectly fair because some permanent degenerative conditions "get better" ; when pressed THREE TIMES to name a single condition which "got better" (the clue is in the words `permanent` and `degenerative` Richard) he couldn`t think of one. Or then there`s the Tory councillor in Swindon who voiced his opinion that disabled babies should be "guillotined" at birth. Instead of being thrown out of the party he was staunchly defended by his local MP Justin Tomlinson. Who is the current Minister For The Disabled.
Not convinced? Fair enough. Let me refer you to Graeme Ellis , a member of the Conservative Party for 48 years and until 2017 the chairman of the Conservative Disability Group , the man in charge of informing the Government on disability policy and promoting their good work in that field. Mr Ellis resigned his post , left the party and sabotaged the CDG website in disgust at the policies he was being asked to defend. In case you`d forgotten , even Iain Duncan Smith (hardly a poster boy for the moderate , liberal , compassionate wing of the Tory party) couldn`t stomach the policies he was being forced to implement against the disabled and resigned from the DWP in protest in 2016.
So where does all this leave us on the (in)glorious 12th? Search me. All I know is that I can`t vote for five more years of systemic social cleansing. But what are you going to do? Like my former self ten years ago you probably won`t even consider disability when you`re in the voting booth. But here`s one final stat to consider - one in five of the population will have to deal with a serious disability in the course of their lifetime. One in five. Tell you what , just jot down the names of the people closest to you , the ones you care about the most. Your spouse , your kids , your parents , your brothers and sisters , the best mate you`ve been going up the football with for the past 20 years. Got a list of five or more? Makes you think , doesn`t it.......
I`m not arrogant or stupid enough to try and tell you who to vote FOR on the 12th , I don`t even know what I`m going to do.........most probably draw a big fat hairy penis at the bottom of the voting slip to be brutally honest. But if you`ve got any kind of a social conscience , and if you care about the future of those closest to you , please think carefully before putting an `X` in the blue box. To conclude I guess I`m asking what your philosophy of life boils down to. Is it -
"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members" (Mahatma Gandhi)"How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity" (Matthew Rycroft , UK Ambassador to the United Nations)
"How we care for older and disabled people [is] a fundamental test of any civilised society" (Vincent Nichols , Archbishop of Westminster)
OR
"There`s no such thing as society" (Margaret Thatcher)
Thanks for your patience. Vote wisely.