John McDonnell: Miliband will have to backtrack on spending cuts

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/john-mcdonnell-miliband-will-have-backtrack-spending-cuts

If, come May 8^th, Labour does form the next government it will not be with the runaway majorities it enjoyed in 1997 and 2001. No if we do form the next government it will be in coalition with the SNP, in my view. Add 40+ SNP MPs to the 40 Left-wing Labour MPs and this adds up to a sizable rump.

John McDonnell: Miliband will have to backtrack on spending cuts

John McDonnell, that rare thing in today's Labour Party, a Socialist MP, is of the view that given a win Miliband will be forced to backtrack on spending cuts. On this I tend to agree. 

I’m hoping a coalition with the SNP will mean we are pushed further to the left (how bizarre it is that it could take the party which until relatively recently was dubbed the Tartan Tories to compel Labour to do what it should be doing anyway). If it means we have to abandon some of the anti-worker and working class policies such as zero hours contracts, the WCA, PIP assessments for indefinite awardees, benefits sanctioning, scrapping of the ILF, etc, then so be it.

Labour has lost its political direction, and is in danger of losing its political soul. Somehow or other it must reposition itself to the Left and regain its place as the party of progressive politics; and at the same time regain its credibility amongst its natural core voters who are working people (past and present), disabled who can’t work, and the disenfranchised abandoned on sink estates with little hope for decent education or employment prospects – the second and third generations of Thatcher’s reckless neo-lib policies.   

Ireland should ratify the UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/ireland-must-ratify-un-convention-on-rights-of-people-with-disabilities-1.2157963#.VRlfkXauaSV.twitter

Of course the Irish should ratify the UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities. In this day and age it is the only action for a modern and progressive country to take. 

The UK ratified in July 2009. No slouching there. The UK cannot be accused of shirking its responsibilities to equality. Oh no. 

Sadly last year the UK became the first country to be investigated under this convention; and they are facing a high-level inquiry by the United Nations committee responsible for oversight of disability rights into charges of “grave or systemic violations” of disabled people’s rights.

Another Tory Tosser Cheat

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/tory-backbench-mp-jacob-reesmogg-failed-to-declare-interests-9923362.html


Another Tory millionaire MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, fails to declare financial interests to Parliament. Rees-Mogg entered and influenced debates that favoured companies in which he had a financial interest.

 As a self-appointed Lord of Creation Rees-Mogg and his ilk truly believe that things such as financial probity, taxes and paying their dues and such like are beneath them. For them there is no profit in honesty. Capitalism and the quest for ever greater wealth has taught them this.

Laws, constituted by the likes of Mogg, are only to be heeded by the masses. When MPs get caught with their fingers in the till, fiddling expenses, etc. They plead ignorance. Apologise and are sometimes expected to pay back in part.

Jacob Rees-Mogg demonstrating that modern day vampires are able to cast a shadow

They are allowed to plead ignorance despite the fact they are the very people involved in passing our laws. MPs have staff. They employ researchers. How difficult would it be for an MP to ask a member of his or her staff to look into the rules around members’ interests? If in doubt a politician can always approach the office that deals with members’ interests.

Now look at the other end of the scale. As cuts bite deeper advice to benefits’ claimants is becoming harder and harder to access. There are fewer advice centres catering for greater numbers of benefits’ claimants seeking help.

And yet if we make an error when making a claim the likelihood is we will be punished. Branded a benefits cheat. So here we are once again. When those with the means at their disposal, who are usually better clued-up on their entitlements, are caught wrong-doing they invariably go unpunished. While those with the least access to advice get it unintentionally wrong they are expected to feel the full force of the law.

Our system stinks. It is rotten to its very heart. We need to eradicate greed-ridden neo-lib capitalism and vampire capitalists from our midst. As long as these blood-sucking creatures hold power and influence we are at their mercy.

Zyriza!

I hope the corpse of capitalism

Doesn’t get to cause a schism

Between Zyriza and Anel

Before they have time to gel.

Die?

Die?

Assist me to die?

When I’ve barely lived,

Loved or danced bare foot

At dawn down London’s

Silvered streets.

Why should I die?

When life beckons

Me to sample

Some of what

She has on offer.

Don’t ask me to die

Just because

I don’t fit into

A world order

That celebrates the superficial.

Don’t expect me die

Without a fight

Roaring and scratching

Punching and kicking

Until the lights go out.

Vote in May

Vote in May

There’ll be merry hell to pay

For a Tory win at the polls in May

The poor amongst us may as well

Prepare ourselves for a living hell.

Without a mandate they didn’t wait

But just smashed our welfare state

And given half a chance I guess

They’ll finish off the NHS.

That’s why we need to vote this time

For to abstain would be a crime

It’d let the Tories back in again

To finish loading their gravy train.

Elgin Marbles Head for Berlin

Angela Merkel is at the British Museum tomorrow. According to sources in the know she is taking a look at the Elgin Marbles (or the Merkel Marbles as will be) prior to them being shipped to Berlin as part of the Greek debt repayment scheme.   

The long disputed Parthenon Marbles are to be ceded to Germany in part-payment
 for Greece causing Angela Merkel so much grief with their failed economy

UKIP has lost the rights to its own website.

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/01/06/has-ukip-lost-the-rights-to-its-own-website/

Apparently, UKIP in all its haste to demonise foreigners, vilify gay people, take us out of the EU and generally bollix up what the Tories haven't yet managed to fuck, has lost the rights to its domain name - UKIP.org.

If the domain name is registered by another party or owner then UKIP cannot use the Website name. Nigel Farage can only hope and pray that the new owner doesn't bring UKIP's name into repute!

The UK Government's 'Light Touch' Impoverishes Millions

In response to a debate Facebook about the UN and the UK’s distinction as being the first state to be investigated on disability rights violations, Malaysia’s conviction of Bush, Blair, Cheney, etc on war crimes was broached.

This led to comparisons between the UK and Malaysia. Then one user contributed the following:

  

"As for ruling classes, in comparison I think ours has a very light touch."

Which is of course relative. If you are hungry, homeless, unemployed, disabled, etc then it would be reasonable to believe you were being ruled with a fist of steel. Ruled by a callous bunch of bastards.

The fact is our rulers are the masters of spin. They are able to of convey an image of benevolence while pushing through policies that are a death sentence to thousands. Tell us the economy is picking up as food banks proliferate, the benefits bill rises and tax revenues continue to tumble.

Ruled with a ‘light touch’? No. We are ruled over by as nasty a bunch of politicians that ever got their snouts into the trough of state; and a royal family populated by ponces and nonces who hoover-up benefits on an industrial scale.

Make 2015 the Year to Eliminate Tax Cheats

"£120bn Tax avoided, evaded and uncollected... £1.2bn lost in benefit fraud."* A 100% difference in the two sets of revenue losses. While I don't purport to be an economist, a banker or indeed Chancellor of the Exchequer, I can see some contradiction in this government’s ‘we’re all in this together’ approach of protecting the State’s coffers.

If you tasked a group of ‘A’ Level Economics students with solving the problem of benefits’ and tax cheats, I’m pretty certain they’d solve the problem pronto. Easy peasy. You employ more tax inspectors the salaries of whom would be returned several fold; and you employ fewer benefits’ inspectors who actually make a nett loss.

There are ways and means of tying up and closing loopholes used by tax cheats; and their numbers are fewer. However, in order to accomplish this it would require a government who had the political will. That would appear to eliminate all major political parties who are too deeply mired in the self-interest of personal gain. 

If we ever needed proof that this government’s aim is to enrich the few over the many, their refusal to properly chase tax cheats is it. Or further evidence that this government’s entire austerity programme was an ideological attack on the poor. Then the protection of tax cheats over the harassment of benefit cheats proves that point.

*These figures are estimates taken from the HMRC and DWP websites 

Crappy New Year

Just watched Cockneys Vs Zombies. Basically a summary of 2014. Oh well, with the zombies gone that just leaves the vampires and the Tories.

An example of a Conservative vampire, proof that the Tories have
crossed the species barrier to successfully breed with vampires 

Happy hunting in 2015!

Fuck the New Year

If the past few weeks are an indicator for the year ahead, I’m screwed. At the moment I’m awaiting an Access to Work review decision. If negative I’ll have to stop work. Even if positive there is the small matter of payment for October, November and December; a sum amounting to £2,940 – money which I don’t have.

In two weeks HMRC will be expecting in excess of £2,500 from me – money which I don’t have.

Up to now I’ve managed to juggle things around in order that my PA’s are paid. To me the most important thing. However, now my local authority has failed to pay this month’s Direct Payments which means I don’t have enough money in my ‘Care Account’ to pay my PAs in time for the 1^st of the month.

So with unemployment a very real possibility in the New Year; HMRC coming for me for their pound of flesh; and bankruptcy a near neighbour, I doubt I’ll be looking forward to two fucking thousand and fucking fif fucking teen.

We are in the Middle of a Class War

Asked to: “Stand up if u hate David Cameron and the Coalition” Helen on Facebook stated: “I don't hate them ,I feel really sorry for them , because they are going to have to carry the burden around with them for the rest of their lives...”

I'd not waste pity on such a shower. To them it's not a burden but a means to an end. The end being the enrichment and hegemony of their class. If they're kicked out in May next year, and I hope they are. They will slide and crawl back to their sponsors who will give them cosy jobs as a way of a thank you for services rendered.

As for hating this coalition, I’d say don’t. Hate is an especially self-devouring emotion. One that too easily hurts the hater over the hated. So, don’t hate; but don’t forget. Our day will come and when it does we should rain down a terrible retribution upon those who are killing disabled people, starving children and making thousands homeless.

 This is a class war; our enemy is well aware of this and is fighting to win. We must gain the same determination and fight for our class. 

Is the Scum Press to Blame for all the Ills of the Country?

Can we blame the press for everything that is wrong in our society? Bad government. The promotion of greed above all else. A growing intolerance of anything different. Are these all the fault of a predominantly right-wing press?

Sure many aspects of our press are scum. Indeed the quality and objectivity of the press is about as low as it could ever be. However, we as people must accept some responsibility. The fact is too many of us have lost the ability of individual thought; far too many newspaper readers allow editorial bias to form their opinion.

A newspaper is merely a tool. As cognitive beings we should use the information printed within a newspaper to come to our own conclusions about articles published. If we feel the newspaper is being overly subjective in its presentation of the news, stop buying the rag; use it as chip wrapping or in the Khazi, not as a vital means of information.

The biggest sin in the modern age is the way in which we have surrendered our individual means of reasoning and allowed the media to overly influence almost every part  of our lives from what we eat to who we voter for to how we appear. 

Anger as Black Actor Idris Elba is Considered as the Next 007

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/23/idris-elba-james-bond_n_6371644.html?fb_action_ids=10152925856048879&fb_action_types=og.comments

White or black, doesn't really matter as James Bond is a fictional character from a novel given another lease of life through film. If people are seriously demanding he has to be white on account of Ian Fleming creating him as a white character, then let's stick with 'reality' and feature a 95-year-old James Bond (because if we're going to be purists that's how old Bond is now) tearing around a retirement home at 2 mph on a mobility scooter in elasticated-waisted jogging pants, a tatty cardigan giving a clue to his culinary choices from the past few weeks and tartan slippers with Velcro fastenings.

Lessons ignored are costly to humankind

George Santayana said of war, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". Variations and paraphrases such as “Those who do not know history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them.” have all too frequently been invoked as conflict after conflict reap their bloody harvest of children, women and men.

Simply put Santayana and others were saying the study of history is necessary in order to stop mankind endlessly repeating the mistakes of the past. And for years I observed these prophetic words, usually as I read or heard of yet another conflict tearing humans from this life.

In the past few months however I’ve began to revise my views on these quotations. The Gaza onslaught by the IDF this summer saw the relentless bombardment and slaughter of innocent civilians in in this tiny strip of land by the IDF.

It isn’t a matter of Israel not remembering its past. Nor is it a case of Israel being ignorant of history’s mistakes. How would they considering their history of persecution, pogroms and the holocaust.

No, it goes deeper than that. Israel, the US and the UK, countries with bloody pasts, don’t enter into conflict situations misguidedly. They haven’t perused the books of history and somehow misinterpreted the message.

We need only to look at the way the Tories are trying place a revisionist spin on the ‘Great War’. Instead of viewing this war, as generations have, as a bloodbath on a mass industrial scale waged by belligerent Empires vying for power, the Tories are now trying to sell it as a ‘just war’.

In conclusion, people and more particularly countries don’t forget or repeat the mistakes of the past. Instead they set out wilfully to add their own to an already oversubscribed catalogue of wanton death and destruction. So maybe we should begin to regard history and its lessons merely as theoretical abstracts whose only purpose is to hold up the past as a mirror of what will surely happen in the future.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

Nasty Party or Nazi Party?

Come next May there is a real need to beat the Conservatives. Another five years of a Tory-led coalition, as I'm guessing the two horse race for No 10 is a thing of the past, will be catastrophic for the country.

As a disabled person I fear for my future under a Conservative-led coalition made up of Tories, UKIP, SNP (??), and assorted Ulster unionists. Depending on how many seats they win, UKIP would push the coalition further to the right. With Duncan-Smith in charge of the DWP there is no hope for a last minute reprieve for ILF, universal credit will be deployed, it will be business as usual with the Work Capability Assessment WCA and Access to Work will see further cuts.

Yet within 5 months to a general election I'm disappointed that people within the disability movement are still screaming ‘Nazi!’ at this government; and deploying concentration camp imagery in support of their disapprobation with the government's disgraceful and inhumane treatment of disabled people and other target groups in our midst.  

This country has a government mainly dominated by nasty Tories. The policies this government has put in place, especially the  (WCA), benefits’ sanctions and the bedroom tax (with a universal credit to come), are forcing millions into real poverty. It is also criminally responsible for the deaths of thousands of people wrongly assessed by the WCA or taken off benefits through sanctions.

The difference between this Tory led coalition and the Nazi Party in the 1930s and 40s is that the latter had programmes in place specifically to kill people, including the use of euthanasia as part of a wider eugenics programme. This resulted in the legalised killing of up to 200,000 disabled people.

Later the Nazis began the extermination of European Jewry. Again this programme sprang from a policy that deliberately set out to order the annihilation of an entire ethnic/religious grouping.

Are there parallels between the Nazis and the Tory led ConDem government? The answer is obviously ‘yes’ in that both regimes had or have a low esteem of disabled people. Both have used propaganda to demonise and vilify those they wish to attack politically. The policies of both parties have resulted in the deaths of thousands of disabled people.

What we as a movement need to do is to hold up neo-liberalist economics as the malignant force behind this government’s neglect and attacks on sections of the population such as disabled people. In my experience calling this government, or its predecessor, ‘Nazi’ does not resonate with the majority of the country. Much of the public is turned off when they see us using Nazi and concentration camp imagery to get our point across; because they don’t identify the government in those terms.

Nazism was a phenomenon that captured and ensnared great swathes of Europe eighty years ago; and enjoying power in the Iberian Peninsula as recently as the mid-1970s. This doesn't mean we should not remain vigilant and resist the Fascism and Nazism when and where we can.

However, at the same time we must get across to the public the message that neoliberalism is a harmful and hateful ideology. That neoliberal economic policies are to blame for the current deficit; a direct result of casino banking. That disabled and unemployed people did not cause the crisis; but rather an under-regulated banking system operating along neolib lines was responsible.

Left High and Dry by A2W

Arrived home to a letter from DWP Belfast. Confirmation of my A2W payment I guessed. After all A2W owes me over £1100 for October and just below £900 for November.

I guessed wrong. Instead a JCP form telling me that A2W cannot pay me as my funding ran out on 26/09/2014. The date they received the A2W support worker claim was 11/11/2014; yet the date the decided to send me this ‘reminder’ was almost a month later, 08/12/2014.

On September 26 I called A2W to enquire about a late payment and to ask how I would need to go about getting a three-yearly review. In the first instance I was told the late payment should arrive in my account the following week, and that my review had taken place in August and A2W would fund me for a further 3-years.

Today’s letter totally floored me. On calling A2W it was explained that my A2W funding had run out on 26/09/2014. According to A2W they had called my mobile phone twice on 08/10/2014 and once on 09/10/2014.

Yet they left no messages; try me on my landline; leave a message on my landline; phone me at work; leave a message on my work phone; email to either my work or home email addresses both of which they have.

No, instead they waited a further two months and then sent me a letter. Thanks A2W. Your efforts to contact me were absolutely heroic. The pains you went to contact me barely register on the ‘I-can’t-be-fucking-arsed-to-bother-ometer’, which believe me is a takes some fucking stooping to achieve.

The soulless person I spoke to could only inform me that an assessor would contact me sometime up to 22 December. Not a lot of leeway this side of Christmas if they miss the bus into work; or go under with stress.

So, I’m £2K+ short. Come the end of the month I have a wages bill in excess of £2200; by the middle of January HMRC will be sharpening its beak and looking in my direction for the best part of 3 grand!

Looks like I’m up to my chin in the doo-doos; and I can’t feel anything solid underfoot.  

Vacuous Peer in 'Poor too Poor to Cook' Slur Stir

So what if poor people can't cook it's no excuse to starve them to death. Equally there is no justification in smashing in the heads of vacuous Tory peers who don't have a scintilla of a Scooby about real life.

Tory Baroness Jenkins preparing to spread Christmas 

bile and hate in stating poor people depended on food banks

because they lacked cooking skills

So, the poor can't cook so have developed a dependency on food banks. With that logic it is safe to say that Tory MPs can't work out their expenses due to the fact they are addicted to freebies and state hand-outs; or bankers have an inability to balance their books as it's easier not to bother because if they get it criminally wrong the poorest in the country will pay for their mistakes...

ILF, we lost a battle... the war is there to be won!

It’s not been a good day so far for disabled people. To begin with there was a ruling against wheelchair users having the right to priority over buggies in wheelchair designated areas on buses http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-30376446. This was followed by the decision from the High Court to find the government’s closure of the ILF lawful.

For Duncan-Smith and the coalition this is yet another victory of common sense neo-liberalism against the tyranny of the welfare state. Because that is exactly how they perceive the situation. Thus should we get another Tory-led coalition then the ILF will end.

We must also be aware that Labour is harbouring similar plans for the ILF. Which does not bode well for us, however I think we as disabled people still have some bargaining chips remaining; and I’m not writing us off while there are still five months of campaigning left.

Though not an ideas person, I am willing to get behind the campaign and help spread the message amongst trade unionists. So it looks as though there will be no let-up in 2015…

Wheelchair users denied access

In the case of Doug Paulley against First Bus the test of reasonableness found that it was not reasonable to expect a bus driver to require that a pushchair vacate the space on a bus ‘reserved’ for wheelchair users. Instead a bus driver could only request a parent with an occupied pushchair to vacate the space; and of course a request can be turned down.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-30376446

Buggies versus wheelchairs - is there a middle ground?

However, the judge attempts to lessen the impact of the decision thus:

"It has to be accepted that our conclusion and reasoning in this case means that wheelchair users will occasionally be prevented by other passengers from using the wheelchair space on the bus.

I do not, however, believe that the fact that some passengers will - albeit rarely - act selfishly and irresponsibly is a sufficient reason for imposing on bus companies a legal responsibility for a situation which is not of their making and which they are not in a position to prevent."

In all respect, your Honour, your ruling will give a green light to the selfish and irresponsible. This I can state from experience as a wheelchair and bus user.

These days I rarely use buses. There are a number of underlying issues that make travel by bus difficult, not least having a neurogenic bladder. Yet on those occasions I use buses I invariably meet with problems, most of which involve other travellers.

In rush hour, bus stops heaving with people in a hurry to get to work are not the best places for a wheelchair user to get a driver’s attention. Even when my PA has alerted the driver, by the time I board the bus the vehicle is so crowded that manoeuvring anywhere is an impossibility.

Forget about trying to claim the wheelchair ‘designated’ area. It isn’t going to happen.

Off peak times while easier to board buses can be equally as fraught for us. Most of the time our ‘reserved’ spot is occupied by a buggy user; and a lot more times than ‘occasionally’ we meet with resistance. That is the other passenger refuses to move.

While this is for the most part pushchair users. I’ve also had other passengers insisting they have a right to use the space as they’ve purchased a ticket; and that I’m travelling free!

If this ruling is the way forward for wheelchair users then there will be a decline in the numbers using buses. Once again we’re becoming marginalised through the findings of the judiciary. While the test of reasonableness may be claimed to underpin the decision arrived at by the judges in the Court of Appeal, I not overly confident that we will be reasonably treated when it comes to competing for space on buses.

As someone has already suggested in a letter to the BBC News site first come first served. Since wheelchair users are often allowed onto buses after all other passengers have boarded and alighted…you get the picture.

Peaceful non-violent revolution

On the last night’s ‘Late Late Show’ Sinéad O’Connor was discussing the 1916 uprising in relation to water charges and the possibilities of this developing into a peaceful revolution in Ireland. Sinéad’s sentiment of “…an absolutely non-violent revolution…” is laudable. The idea of peaceful civil disobedience is something I also hold dear.

Join together a non-violent revolution through peaceful disobedience and we have the ideal solution to changing our world for the better.

However, I envisage a major problem with this course of action. The problem being that the state doesn't respect any disobedience as peaceful. We've seen this in recent weeks when peaceful groups have tried to exercise their democratic right of protest in Parliament Square only to be met by excessive force from the police.

The 9/11 attacks in the US created a heightened level of security in many countries outside America, including the UK. Then the bomb attacks on London’s public transport system on 7^th July 2005 ratcheted-up security, and especially police powers, in this country.

Both liberal commentators and many on the political Left objected to the extra powers being dished out to the police and security services. We complained, with justification, that these powers would be abused and once set in train they are difficult to relax.

To prove our point that these powers would be abused we had the Jean Charles de Menezes execution in Stockwell tube station in 2005 through to the kettling of peaceful disabled demonstrators outside Westminster Abbey in June this year. Yes, 300 police, including Armed Response Police Units, were summoned by the 2^nd Estate to kettle 100 peaceful disabled people protesting for social justice for all.

When we view Robocop type police personnel laying into, and sometimes killing people, remember Ian Tomlinson, we must question the possibility, or likelihood, of peaceful and non-violent revolution. The police and security services appear to be more aggressive and violent than ever before, at least in the modern era.

From their day to day demeanour with the general public, often brusque and unhelpful, to their over-the-top restraining methods, they are at one level unfriendly and at the extreme plain dangerous, unconcerned about the health or wellbeing of those they’re detaining.

Mix into the equation governments that are ideologically set against the majority of the population. A government which is indeed waging a class war against the poorest people in our society. A media, particularly at the newsprint end, that has forgotten how to report on political issues from a position of objectivity. Which instead tends to report political news straight from statements penned in the various ministries by propaganda machines. Then we see a stage set for some kind of public outcry, sooner rather than later.

If the Tories manage to get back into power, with the support of UKIP maybe, then we’re in for the worse 5-year period since the 1920s and 30s. Say goodbye to the welfare state; wave ta ta to the NHS; and watch as poorer working class, long term unemployed, single mothers, disabled people and the generally disenfranchised of our society are out-priced from our major cities and inner cities.

I wonder if by 2017 or 2018 the masses will still be in the mood for peaceful civil disobedience. Will disabled people, many more of whom will be living in abject poverty as they fail to qualify for PIP and other gateway benefits, be content to watch their peers dying, committing suicide or being forced into residential care and enforced social exclusion. Or will we turn to the age-old method of resistance against the oppressors of our class.

The political Left needs to reinvent itself

Politically, as well as in other areas, I’m on the Left. When I view the political landscape in the UK I find it isn't only the Labour Party that's the problem.

The Left in the UK, but particularly in England is in a mess. When the banking crises hit the cry of 'capitalism is dead' was heard, especially from the SWP. What did the Left do? We argued and disagreed. We insisted on a recount of the number of angels that could sit on the head of a pin.

While we looked inward; while we refought the intellectual battles that should have been moved on from decades ago, the capitalists regrouped and came back stronger. They reinvented themselves to more easily fit in with the changing world order. The problem we on the Left have is an inability to reinvent ourselves; and so appear to much of the population as being out of touch with the modern world.

Be bold Labour...move away from austerity

To Liken Labour to the Tories is, in my view, wrong. Of course there will be a difference between a Labour and Tory government in 2015. When people comment on the lack of difference between the two it is usually a comment borne out by frustration.

Sadly, Ed Miliband making a very good speech in front of a friendly audience will not win us the next election. What could win us the next election is if Miliband was less timid. If he began to move away from an austerity programme and offered the country something more progressive.

There are millions of disabled people looking to a political party that will tell them it will not continue attacking their means of income and vital services. Labour should be the natural ally of disabled people. Yet the disabled people I speak to are totally disillusioned with what Labour is offering.

Instead of tinkering around the edges of the Work Capability Assessment Labour has to scrap it in favour of an examination system that is fair and transparent. A system that does not call for continuous assessments; but rather one that recognises that some conditions are long lasting and without prospect of a ‘cure’.

Other vote winners would be the scrapping of PIP, the continuation of the ILF, a real commitment to Access to Work, an introduction of an Access into Work scheme and portable social care packages. Most of these would be fairly inexpensive to implement; indeed there could be savings in some areas.

Finally, Labour needs to make these kind of commitments very soon; and they need to advertise them. People will not have faith in a Labour Party that says ‘Trust us, we’ll do alright by you once we’re in power’. We did that in 1997 and were let down quite badly.

Promise, comments and when we said...

In 2011 David Cameron in true Blue Tory style announced: “But with us, our borders will be under control and immigration will be at levels our country can manage. No ifs. No buts. That’s a promise we made to the British people, and it’s a promise we are keeping.”

OK, let’s give the PM a bit of political licence, after all this was said within the first year or so of a new government. That period of time when they still feel confident enough to use rash terms such ‘promise’.

Fast forward three and a bit years; in a period six months before a general election and suddenly words such as ‘promise’ become impossible to say. On the Today programme on Radio 4 today the home secretary, Theresa May, downgraded a promise made by the PM in 2011, to a ‘comment’ and ‘when we said…’.

“When we made that comment, when we said … we would be aiming to bring the net migration down to the tens of thousands and we wanted to do that within this parliament – yes we were very clear that was what we wanted to do.”

Theresa May, longest serving Home Secretary, but what promised to be a promising
career could be ruined because she could not get herself to utter the word 'promise'

Dissemble, dissimulate, mislead, cover up, deny, deceive, lie, fib and tell porkies as much as you want Ms May. We could all tell you where lying this morning. You know how we knew? Your lips were moving. Always a sure sign that a politician is dissembling, dissimulating, misleading, covering up, denying, deceiving, lying, fibbing or telling porkies.

The fact it was on the radio is immaterial as the above is a given; a truth universally acknowledged.   

Nuisance calls from stairlift companies

Just remembered a funny thing that happened a few years ago. My old mum fell down a couple of steps and received a spiral fracture of here femur. Nasty break. She was laid up in a lovely cottage hospital in Edenbridge. Poor old darling was in a bit of a state with scaffolding protruding from her thigh.

But she came out the other end fairly well. Though she now tended to shuffle around rather walk. Though mobile on the flat, stairs were a problem.

After much discussion a stair lift was agreed upon. Not too many of stair lift companies around when you begin to search. Nonetheless I whittled the number down to three all of whom I met with to look at their products, prices and maintenance offers.

We ended up plumping for a particular company who in time came along took various measurements of the staircase and a few of my mum. Weeks later and my mum chugging her way up and down the stairs on a state of the art chairlift.

Good deed done, I thought that would be that. No. Over the next couple of years I continued to receive emails and unsolicited telephone calls to my mobile from the two unsuccessful stair lift companies wondering if I’d come to a decision about a lift; and would I like to view a catalogue of their new improved range.

Politely, to begin with, I’d thank them saying ‘no thanks’ and can you take me off your contact list. One of the companies did this, but the other one continued trying to sell me a bloody stairlift. After possibly the umpteenth time of ‘hello sir, we have you on record as being interested…’ I gave in. It was a total capitulation; they had won; and I’d invited one of their sales reps over to my flat to discuss the advantages and merits of owning a stairlift that defined the cutting edge of mechanical stair elevation.

On the appointed day said rep turned up to chez Seán and was admitted by my PA. Being of a hospitable disposition I invited the salesman to take a seat and to share in a cafetiere of freshly made Arabica. Chewing the fat for a few minutes I discovered it was quite chilly out; but not yet chilly enough for a heavy coat; and that the word amongst aficionados of things climatic we were in for a parky winter.

  

“OK Mr McGovern. May I take a look around?” queried the rep. Who by now wanted to get down to the business of the visit, namely flogging me a stairlift.

“Fine, where would you like to start?” I responded eager to get the business out of the way and this geezer out of my drum.

“How about the stair case. Always a good place to look at especially in my line of work,” chortled the wag.

“Stair case? What stair case?” said I, with enough puzzlement in my voice to force him to say, rather brusquely, “Yes, staircase!” You made an appointment for me to come around today with a view to you purchasing one of our products!” he spat out.

“May I?” he asked walking into the hallway. On opening all five doors in the passage (three of which were cupboards) the realisation that I lived in a single-floor flat hit him in the kisser.

“Are you taking the piss?” he wondered. “Why did you invite me to a flat without a stair case? Me a bloody staircase salesman?”

“Well mush” I replied. “Your company has phoned me 27 timers over the past year pestering me to buy one of their machines. I’ve told them. I don’t want one. I’ve explained I don’t need one. I’ve even confessed to not owning a fucking staircase. And finally I’ve asked them politely on twenty occasions to take me off their hit list. But no. They totally blanked my requests and so I thought. Fuck it. If they want to send a rep around that badly who the fuck am I to deny them this simple desire. So, there’s your fucking light autumn coat; now get the fuck out of my flat and tell your company to stop fucking hounding me!”

He left. I never did see him again. Not even to tell him his forecast was way off target as we ended up having one of the mildest winters on record. Sadly I still get the odd call from the stairlift company. I still say I don’t need one. That I don’t have a staircase, this despite moving home. So as I’m taken up an interest in climatic affairs myself in recent years I may make another appointment t chat with a stairlift rep and swap weather forecast anecdotes. 

A burden on whose State?

Listening to Radio 4 just now. There is a news item reporting that young immigrant workers on the whole give more than they take. That is their tax and insurance contributions are a nett profit for the Treasury; and the fact that they’re less likely to claim benefits, use the NHS less and don’t access areas such as education, social care, and pensions.

It is quite refreshing to listen to a report on immigrants that doesn’t paint them as scroungers over here to rob our benefits. Indeed it’s encouraging to hear someone actually telling it as it is; that immigrant workers in the UK are a boon.

Unfortunately the report was marred by the reporter’s need to describe those accessing areas of the welfare state such as benefits, schools, the NHS etc as being a burden on the State. He stated that though these workers were a nett gain at the moment that as they got older, had children, used the NHS more, etc they would become a burden on the State.

Then as though not wanting to put too much emphasis on immigrants being a burden he went on to say that all UK citizens became a greater burden on the State as they get older, have children, use schools, etc…

Sorry for the break in service, had to go to work. Now, where was I? Oh yes. A burden on the State. How when we are part of a social compact, that is we work, we pay our dues, Income Tax, National Insurance, VAT, etc are we a burden? We pay our way and from time to time we dip into the pot. That’s how the social compact, or contract, operates.

How dare politicians and media commentators reduce us to a bunch of scroungers demanding hand-outs when the reality is that we are the wealth creators; we are the multitude who keep the country’s coffers topped up. Therefore we are entitled to tap into, when we’re ill, unemployed, need social support, etc, the resources that the State looks after on our behalf.

The real burden on the State are those who don’t pay their taxes; employers who refuse to pay decent wages while at the same time are subsidised by the rest of us; banks that despite protecting their profits still turn to the State for hand-outs.

Hyde Park Speech 18 October 2014

"Hello Comrades, I’m Seán McGovern of Unite the Union and the TUC General Council

Comrades, the speech I originally had planned for today was a scathing attack on this government.

It spoke of the endemic rottenness that permeates through ConDem policies.

Their attacks on disabled people through:

·       the Work Capability Assessment,

·       benefits cap,

·       benefits sanctions

·       bedroom tax,

·       and ending of the ILF.

And of course Lord Freud’s that we’re only worth £2 per hour comment.

But, why I thought?

What’s the point in stating the obvious that Tories are the nasty Party?

That the LibDems sold their principles for power.

No, today’s message has to be aimed at a future Labour government.

Here is my message to that Labour government.

Drop your agenda for austerity.

It hasn’t worked so far for this mob.

Stop the cuts in disabled peoples’ benefits and services.

Instead introduce progressive policies.

Bring in disability assessments that are transparent and fair.

Assessments that address the needs of the person.

Not the balance sheet.

If people cannot work due to disability, don’t hound them.

Bring an end to repeat assessments.

For those who can work, help them into sustainable and meaningful employment.

Prosecute employers who discriminate against disabled job seekers.

Introduce an access into work scheme for disabled people.

Disabled job seekers have the same support needs as disabled workers.

Make entry to Access to Work easier.

Stop the decline in the Access to Work scheme.

Plough greater resources into Access to Work.

Properly organised this scheme is a money spinner for the Treasury.

End the vicious sanctioning of benefits.

Make the Personal Independence Payment fit for purpose.

Scrap the unrealistic 20 m ruling from PIP.

Labour, bring back fairness into social care.

Properly resource the services.

Cease the social care postcode lottery.

Make social care packages portable.

Thousands of disabled people with complex care needs depend on the Independent Living Fund.

Stop the closure of ILF.

And finally Labour.

Put an end to government complicity in the demonization and vilification of disabled people via the scum press and media!

Finally Comrades after this demo make your way to Parliament Square to join DPAC in the democracy camp!"

A Freudseye view of the world

Referring to Lord Freud’s disgraceful comments on the worth of disabled people one Facebook user believes that disabled people should be willing to sell their labour for whatever the market offers. Apparently starvation wages are better than no wages at all.

“His language was totally inappropriate, but the underlying point mustn't be lost by shrill PC activists - we could work for less rather than not at all!”

 

Lord Freud feels some disabled people are worth only £2 an hour 

More importantly here we have a man charged by the government to oversee the reform of the welfare system who harbours views shared by Nazis and supporters of euthanasia.

How exactly can we work for less? Should we set our sights so low that we remain forever on our knees? Our dreams; our aspirations. Don’t these count for anything? Why should we surrender to a fate dictated to us by unfeeling people who seek only to profit from others? People whose view of the world is distorted by balance sheets. People who judge us to be worthless because we are viewed as unproductive and a drain on resources. Worthless because we are unable to jump through the hoops they design; or surmount the unclimbable barriers they erect to keep us on our knees.

Personally I say fuck the attitude that would value me less than my worth as a worker and a human being. I say fuck the views of a man born into privilege who has not known want; who has not gone hungry. And I say fuck the defeatism of ‘some crumbs are better than no crumbs’; the kind of mind-set that accepts the myth that we’re all in this together.

Boris Johnson is a nasty Tory...the avuncular image is a front

Why are we calling the privileged vicious neo-lib Johnson 'BoJo', or even Boris? All this does is add to the chummy matey image he has cultivated for himself. Such familiarity, especially the chirpy 'BoJo', lends a sense of Johnson being one of the crowd, someone who's approachable, a man of the people.

Yes, Johnson does have a personality; for that matter you’ll probably find shit-house rats who have personality. He is also charismatic; but then so were Rasputin and Hitler. He undoubtedly has a sense of humour; as did Bernard Manning and Jim Davidson.

Come on people let’s expose Johnson for what he is, a racist misogynist who is not too fussy about setting violent thugs onto his enemies. We should tear down the genial façade he has erected to cover his nastiness; rip off the mask of the ditzy funny man he wears, and expose the bare bones of the repugnant Tory bastard he really is.