The War on Disabled People is an Invitation to Fight Back

[Lady Lou]

More power to the peoples' elbow

 

http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/12/06/camerons-declaration-of-war-on-disabled-people-is-an-invitation-to-fight-back-gina-ravens/

[osdset]

Yep,. that article pretty much voices how I feel

[LaughingGirl]

Superb article, but as I asked on another thread this morning...what can be done about it?

[Dilizjo]

great article:)

[Crazy Diamond]

Superb article, but as I asked on another thread this morning...what can be done about it?

 

1 - pass the word around.

2 - Get EVERY SINGLE person you know who's disabled to write to Ed Milliband and make it clear that they will only vote for Labour if he undertakes to scrap the Welfare Reform Act and all the satellite legislation that goes with it.

3 - Teach people how to fight Atos, the DWP etc at every step. Knowledge is power, always.

4 - Fight the propaganda at each step. every time someone quotes the Daily Mail or calls disabled folks scroungers or worse, correct them with the right figures and facts. Slowly but surely, the media are starting to pay attention to our voices and a few dissenting articles are appearing here and there, it's up to US to keep on pushing the message.

5 - Make sure that by 2015, everyone knows that a vote that's not for Labour means a vote for the tories and further years of misery.

6 - Keep on lobbying Labour for changes, they are starting to listen (way too slowly, way not loudly enough, but it's starting), but they need us to tell them over and over again that it's a symbiotic arrangement: they want to get in power and we want to be treated decently, neither of which will happen as long as the tories stay.

[Nystagmite]

2 - Get EVERY SINGLE person you know who's disabled to write to Ed Milliband and make it clear that they will only vote for Labour if he undertakes to scrap the Welfare Reform Act and all the satellite legislation that goes with it.

 

I would also add - anyone who is a carer, relative or works with disabled people to do this too.

[Crazy Diamond]

Indeed.

 

My bad.

[LaughingGirl]

I was rather hoping for something that would get rid of this shower before 2015.

 

Joking apart, you're right. I have a nice, shiny new Labour MP courtesy of Louise Mench who very kindly did one (cheers, America...you can keep her, by the way), so I shall email him too, and ask him what his views are on all aspects of welfare reform.

 

Writing to Ed Milliband, I can do. Correcting the Daily Mail Brigade is something akin to breathing for me. Helping people fight Atos etc...I'd have to brush up on that myself first but no reason why I can't.

 

Cheers CD.

[Surfer01]

1 - pass the word around.

2 - Get EVERY SINGLE person you know who's disabled to write to Ed Milliband and make it clear that they will only vote for Labour if he undertakes to scrap the Welfare Reform Act and all the satellite legislation that goes with it.

3 - Teach people how to fight Atos, the DWP etc at every step. Knowledge is power, always.

4 - Fight the propaganda at each step. every time someone quotes the Daily Mail or calls disabled folks scroungers or worse, correct them with the right figures and facts. Slowly but surely, the media are starting to pay attention to our voices and a few dissenting articles are appearing here and there, it's up to US to keep on pushing the message.

5 - Make sure that by 2015, everyone knows that a vote that's not for Labour means a vote for the tories and further years of misery.

6 - Keep on lobbying Labour for changes, they are starting to listen (way too slowly, way not loudly enough, but it's starting), but they need us to tell them over and over again that it's a symbiotic arrangement: they want to get in power and we want to be treated decently, neither of which will happen as long as the tories stay.

 

I doubt if Labour would do anything as they have been very quiet about it and I suspect that they would have done something similar. Now they can blame the Tories for the introduction of these systems when it was them that started the ball rolling.

[Crazy Diamond]

I doubt if Labour would do anything as they have been very quiet about it and I suspect that they would have done something similar. Now they can blame the Tories for the introduction of these systems when it was them that started the ball rolling.

 

Indeed, they started the ball rolling with Atos, but their criteria was extremely different, they didn't have targets or quotas to kick off as many people off benefits as possible. They introduced an assessment system, which is fair enough, which then got turned into a machine to turn claimants into fodder. THAT's the Tories' doing.

 

You're right in that Labour have been quiet about it. But you're wrong about the rest, as the disability groups are working with Labour as we speak. DPAC, Black Triangle etc, they're all in contact with the likes of Anne Begg, Andy Burnham, Anne McGuire etc to get things changed.

 

Like it or not, they're our only choice, because to coin a phrase: We can't go on like this. It's up to us to make sure they know it's a quid pro quo.

[citizenB]

I am sorry CD, it was Labour who started with the targets and quotas and if the roles had been reversed and Labour were in power, then you could almost bet the farm that it would be the Tories that were working with the Disability groups !

[Crazy Diamond]

No, that's incorrect. Yes, Labour started the assessments system with Atos (may they be cursed forever for that), but it was the Tories that changed the criteria to what it is now. The Tories came to power and decided they would cut 20% off the disability bill. The Welfare Reform Act (which wasn't in their manifesto) is also a purely Tory idea.

 

As for working with the Disability Groups, the Tories had from 1997 to 2010 to work with them and did no such thing. Nothing. The DDA and the Equality Act and the Autism Act are ALL Labour achievements (although to give her her due, one Tory MP was the co-proposer of the legislation) and were largely opposed by the Tory Party.

[Lilly_Monroe]

The problem is we are broke as a Country, so even if Labour do get it, they will not have the money to put right the wrongs that have been done.

 

Plus I feel that once benefits have been reduced by this lot in power (then the dirty work will have been done) I really cannot see Labour undoing it.

They can promise the Earth, as the opposing parties always do, but that does not mean to say they will deliver.

I really think they are all the same - full of empty promises.

[Lady Lou]

A true democracy doesn't have to be inhuman......

 

I reckon that Labour might target the top earners more, but more than that, I favour the Icelandic governments approach:

 

http://digitaljournal.com/article/334265

 

A summary of their political parties:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Iceland

 

I think that our politics need to change.

[speedfreek]

No, that's incorrect.

 

No that's totally correct

 

Gordon Brown was infatuated by statistics! All the measurable outcome n variences (no they're not targets) all labour!

 

If you remember the 80s transformer cartoons the jingle Nu Labour Torries in Disguise

 

There's a song by the Disposable Heros of Hypocrisy (famous for Television the Drug of the Nation Breading Ignorance and feeding radiation (although I 1st heard it by the Beatniks supporting Billy Bragg on the early 80s))

 

With the lyrics

 

Medical racist social statistics

Has everyday life become a health risk

 

Very good album is Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury

[Lady Lou]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/19/iceland-reykjavik-mayor-best-party

[osdset]

The problem is we are broke as a Country, so even if Labour do get it, they will not have the money to put right the wrongs that have been done.

 

Plus I feel that once benefits have been reduced by this lot in power (then the dirty work will have been done) I really cannot see Labour undoing it.

They can promise the Earth, as the opposing parties always do, but that does not mean to say they will deliver.

I really think they are all the same - full of empty promises.

 

According to who? The UK is far from broke!

[citizenB]

Gordon Brown as Chancellor inherited coffers stuffed full of money in 1997. He sold off our Gold reserves to boost those coffers. Please tell me exactly how we were/are so much in debt when he left office ?

 

What would the Labour party be doing now if they had not lost the last election - who would they be targetting to make cuts? They would almost certainly be targetting the same groups as are being hit now.

 

Why did they not start the belt tightening when the Global meltdown started, because it sure as hell had started whilst they were in control. I have no time for any of the parties but IMHO, the present and disastrous coalition are doing the best they can and keeping us from falling apart like some of Europe.

 

If you personally were in charge.. how would you be sorting out this mess ?

[Nystagmite]

The UK can't be that broke if it can afford to cut the tax rate from 50% to 45% for people earning over £150k, and send money for overseas aid...

[RaeUK]

^^^ indeed. We were wealthy enough to give away £8.5bn last year alone to other countries as we didn't need it. Not to mention the £bns spent on IT systems that will never work. Or the £bns spent on retaining membership of the European dream. Let alone the somewhat generous no-questions-asked expenses policy endowed to our beloved political betters. Yep, we're really broke.

[citizenB]

The UK can't be that broke if it can afford to cut the tax rate from 50% to 45% for people earning over £150k, and send money for overseas aid...

 

 

The reason they cut the tax rate was to try and prompt more of those earning over that sum to actually pay their tax instead of wiggling through legal loopholes to avoid it. Or to stop them moving to other countries.

 

I agree that we should not be committed to so much overseas aid. Contribute to disaster funds, yes.. but some of the countries we send money to seem to be using it even less wisely than Gordon Brown did..

[Lilly_Monroe]

Gordon Brown as Chancellor inherited coffers stuffed full of money in 1997. He sold off our Gold reserves to boost those coffers. Please tell me exactly how we were/are so much in debt when he left office ?

 

What would the Labour party be doing now if they had not lost the last election - who would they be targetting to make cuts? They would almost certainly be targetting the same groups as are being hit now.

 

Why did they not start the belt tightening when the Global meltdown started, because it sure as hell had started whilst they were in control. I have no time for any of the parties but IMHO, the present and disastrous coalition are doing the best they can and keeping us from falling apart like some of Europe.

 

If you personally were in charge.. how would you be sorting out this mess ?

 

 

Stop sending aid overseas, get out of the EU that costs us more than we ever gain.

Collect the taxes from the those overseas companies, like Starbucks etc.

Collect the taxes from all those who have evaded paying for donkeys years.

Cut needless expenses to MPs and the likes, (small fry) but as Mr Tesco says, every little helps.

Help more people to help themselves become self employed (real help).

A few starters.

 

I have no time for any of them either, and all we succeed in doing is, when we get fed up of one lot, we vote the next lot in, and we start all over again.

Its a merry go round nothing more than that.

The MPs know that, and sit waiting their turn for their ride.

[Lilly_Monroe]

The UK can't be that broke if it can afford to cut the tax rate from 50% to 45% for people earning over £150k, and send money for overseas aid...

 

It's broke to the likes of you and I - the well to does, always survive.

As for aid overseas, who ever sends us any!

[osdset]

The reason they cut the tax rate was to try and prompt more of those earning over that sum to actually pay their tax instead of wiggling through legal loopholes to avoid it. Or to stop them moving to other countries.

 

 

"Oh please, if you feel like it give up a bit more". Get real! That was never going to happen, and if the flighty wealthy want to move abroad..............let them, the real money will always stay here.

[down'n'out]

Please tell me exactly how we were/are so much in debt when he left office ?

The banking crisis??

Labour in 1997 inherited a debt of 42% of GDP. By the start of the global banking crises 2008 the debt had fallen to 35% - a near 22% reduction. Surprisingly, a debt of 42% was not seen as a major problem and yet at 35% the sky was falling down?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ramesh-patel/growth-cameron-austerity_b_2007552.html

 

If you personally were in charge.. how would you be sorting out this mess ?

Probably something really silly, like stop handing over billions to the banks/private sector/ over-seas, and invest in infrastructure?