Conservatives are the Nasty Party

As a disabled person I've been reluctant over the years to cry the mantra of ‘Nazis’ against Conservative governments. Yes, this government, and its Coalition predecessor, have introduced a draconian punitive benefits’ system, particularly the Work Capability Assessment for ESA and the PIP assessment; and such policies are detrimental to disabled people as well as others.

However, in my mind the Nazi comparison shows a degree of political naïveté and to some extent laziness on the part of some of my Comrades in the disability movement.

Comrades, let’s get it correct. The Conservatives are not Nazis. No, they are the Nasty Party. They are free market neoliberalists. As we know this economic model pushes deregulation of industry, commerce and financial services as far as it can; and some would argue beyond.

The model also demands the elimination of ‘big government’, in that they seek to remove the running of public services from central and even local government. Cuts in public expenditure and the take-over of public services, in a deregulated state, by the private sector is the classic way neoliberalism works.

Increasingly the services that administer our benefits system are being privatised. Our job centres are being closed as more and more of their services are tendered out to the private sector. Medical assessments for ESA and PIP are being carried out by companies whose only obligation is the creaming off of profits at the expense of fair and transparent ‘medical’ assessments.

As many inside and outside of the disability movement are aware the current benefits assessments have, and are, responsible for thousands of premature deaths. These deaths are through suicide where people are so ground down by a system that totally disregards human feelings. Some premature deaths are through the neglect that often attends the cutting and removal of benefits and services.

The Bedroom Tax and now Universal Credit are ratcheting-up poverty; and with poverty we get the associated evils of debt, hunger and homelessness.

When we add to this forced self-employment, ‘zero hour’ contracts, under-employment, below inflation pay rises and no pay rises, we begin to see exactly how neoliberalism works to impoverish and kill people.

Finally, before we cry ‘Nazi’ at the next vicious and draconian policy brought in by this Conservative government, think on. Every time we stand and call Tories Nazis we distance ourselves from our natural allies.

Instead let’s explain to people the corrosive and destructive nature of neoliberalism. Let’s not let this government, and its vicious attacks on our benefits and services, off by palming them off as Nazis. By doing this we merely sow confusion. By confusing Nazism with neoliberalism, we allow the march of neoliberalism to proceed unchecked.