All votes exercise conscience

Don’t we exercise our consciences as part of our thought and decision-making processes?  

So this week’s talk of votes of conscience and of giving free votes on non-political issues is interesting. Thinking things over every vote in Parliament is a political vote; and each time MPs are asked to consider a motion their consciences will be a considering factor.

Give Corbyn a chance!

A FB friend commented: "I was enthused by Jeremy's huge win as Leader, It was inspiring to see the Blairites roundly thrashed".

I responded:

“You make it sound as though it was a grudge football match. Winning the leadership can only be viewed as the first step in changing Labour. For all those who joined the Labour Party as affiliates, voted for Corbyn, then walked away. Well, they did him a massive disservice.

If they had the conviction to vote for him as leader, on his winning they should have joined the Labour Party as full members (obviously those who were permitted – and yes the party needs to root out all corrupt rightist elements) to help Corbyn win from the bottom up.

People are joining; they’re beginning to populate Branches and CLPs. Will they win over the Labour Party to a body that looks to the interests of the 99%? Is 4.5 years enough time to cleanse the party of twenty years of Progress neoliberalism? Many doubt it. Yet unless those of us who are willing to give Corbyn a chance fight on the right will prevail.”

If only our bombs fell on Daesh alone

If only we confined our actions to bombing Daesh. In recent military adventures overseas, and nearer, has this country’s armed forces been able to restrict its action against armed forces or military targets alone?

The civilian bloodbaths of Iraq and Afghanistan stand testimony to the inability of armed forces, with or without ‘smart’ weaponry, to contain their violence. Of course civilian deaths in these conflicts have been sanitised in the Orwellian-speak of collateral damage; the language of the accountants of death who measure life in ‘bottom lines’ rather than in lives of children, women and men.

Modern methods of bombing densely populated towns and cities have proved that this method of warfare does not discriminate. From the Blitz 75 years ago to Syria today we know that the greater causalities will be non-combatants, often as not women and children. Sure a few of the wring ‘uns get caught up; but enough to justify the deaths of those innocents?

On the question of our support for right wing politicians in the past – ok, let’s leave that in the past and move forward. One way of moving forward is to tell any MP – and I don’t care if they’re called Beckett, Benn, Umunna or Watson – that if they can’t accept our Labour values then they stand a strong chance of being deselected.

Finally, statements such as: “But to simply withdraw support for MPs who want to fight Daesh in a different way to ours…” are an obscenity. 

In the first instance those MPs who voted for war last night will not be fighting; no they’ll be sending others to fight and to fight from the relative safety of 15,000 feet and higher.

In the second instance it isn’t only Daesh who they’ll be fighting, as it is inevitable they will draw civilians into the fighting arena they create with their bombs. And anyway, isn’t a fight a two-or-more sided affair with all parties trading blows? How can bombing civilians be classed as a fight when only one participant is actually raining down blows?

Here we go again

As I was in bed before the 'War' vote was carried last night I awoke today to the sad news that we were once again raining death down upon innocent civilians.

Thanks to Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and all those other MPs who voted against the terrorising of women and children; and thank you to Helen Hayes, my MP, for voting against the air strikes.

Listening to the odious rat Nick Robinson interviewing John McDonnell on Radio 4 this morning strengthened my resolve not to support the BBC if it runs into problems. How can the BBC claim to be independent; where is the journalistic objectivity when this public news service tows the government line.

Nick Robinson’s disgraceful interview of John McDonnell on Radio 4 shows just how low the BBC has sunk. Robinson, a rank Tory, demonstrated no objectivity at all. In my view the BBC is finished. I certainly won’t support the corporation when the vampires come for it.

The Social Cleansing of Brixton

The demand for housing in London is becoming so great that poorer areas of the city once overlooked are now becoming 'desirable'. Places like Brixton with a large pool of older housing stock as well as lots of social housing along with good public transport links relatively close to the centre of London are in high demand.

Venture around the back of Brixton and you'll see a house building boom. Places such as  Myatt's Fields, Robsart Street, Stockwell Green and Coldharbour Lane to name but a few have hundreds of new units being built. 

New low-rise flats being built around Myatts Field most of which will
start at £400,000 

Little or none of this building work is for the social housing market. This government and the Mayor of London Johnson are also proposing that council and housing association rents should rise to 80% of private sector rent prices. This will socially cleanse Lambeth, and Brixton, of thousands of tenants. 

Add to the equation what's going on in Brixton Town centre, the railway companies raising rents of railway arches way above that affordable to small, often family run, businesses. These the very backbone of community traders in touch with their working class customers.

Act as Usual Day

Trick or Treat, high school proms, Dress Down Friday and Black Friday traditions or practices that have seeped into our lives from the USA. In my view most of these practices promote a negative rather than positive side to American culture as they celebrate materialism and addictive consumerism.

Conversely creating and supporting a Buy Nothing Day in opposition to Black Friday is merely pandering to the tyranny of consumer capitalism. Drawing attention to Black Friday by forming a counter Buy Nothing Day is not the solution to curbing consumer excesses. Rather it comes across as a smug reaction to the more consumerist among us.

Instead of one or the other why don’t people simply carry on their lives as they would normally? If you need a new pair of shoes, go out and buy your shoes.

Progress Adds Nothing to Momentum

Lambeth Momentum met last night. It appears we are an open and inclusive group. Now I'm all in favour of openness, however as inclusiveness is an absolute I'm more inclined here to be careful. Why we allowed Progress members into the group I'm unsure. This poisonous group of right-wing Blairites is doing its utmost to stymie Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, just as they tried to derail his bid for the position.

After a good debate on Syria it was decided, almost overwhelmingly, to put forward a motion to the three Lambeth CLPs. The motion is to call for a No vote next week to the UK's military involvement in Syria. 

However, the Progress member present did not agree with the motion calling for the UK not to bomb or go to war in, Syria. Arrogantly he tried to put his argument across despite 60-odd people agreeing with the motion.

The Chair, Ruth Cashman, quite correctly moved business on not allowing this minority voice the oxygen of Blairite publicity.

If it were my decision Progress members would not be welcome to Momentum meetings. Last night's Syrian motion showed the massive gulf between the two groups. We are inconpatible having very divergent opinions on everything from austerity to Syria.

He's appealing cos he's not kneeling

I can think of nothing more obscene

Than to having to kneel before the queen

Who’s only royal by accident of birth

And has an overblown sense of self-worth.

At the Cenotaph Corbyn respectfully stood

But this was deliberately misunderstood

By our vindictive redtop fourth estate

More interested in promoting hate.

Jeremy can’t do right for doing wrong

Even in parliament he doesn’t belong

As straight talk and being basically decent

Are terra incognita to the most recent

Parliamentary set of grey-suited yahoos

Better identified by their guffawing boos

And their lazy Lords of Creation attitude

That gives approval for their being bloody rude.

However, Corbyn is a politician of honest conviction

Unlike those others, just poor works of fiction

Whose pages are read but nothing stick

As they pursue fleeting fame and the quick fix.

I love the sound of breaking glass

Pop, crack, tinkle. The noise of me having a leak in the White Horse pub on Brixton Hill. Went for a couple of wet ones with a departing workplace colleague. My colleague, Anna, qualified as a full blown British Sign Language Interpreter this summer; recently she succeeded in finding a job in her chosen field. Well done Anna. The BSLI’s gain is our loss.

With a neurogenic bladder it doesn’t take long before the call of the loo comes. It didn’t help with me drinking a triple espresso and a strong Americano coffees earlier in the day.

(Note to self: avoid coffee on days you’re going for a beer. Reminder to self: remember to look at this Blog on days you’re going for a beer.)

We used the pub because I knew they had an ‘accessible’ toilet. However, on arriving at the WC armed with my Radar key I noticed a large beer keg gas bottle. This wasn’t a problem for me as it stood to one side of the toilet bowl. Opening the door wider I noticed boxes stacked at the back of the toilet. Around 16 boxes of GLASSES!

Having locked the door, had a pee and arranged myself back in my wheelchair I began a 33 point turn. As I began reversing I heard; POP! Followed by CRACK! Followed by TINKLE! With each manoeuvre the same riff.

When I told the bar worker she looked aghast. She apologised before asking whether there were any breakages to which I informed her in the affirmative.

Who the fuck leaves glasses in an adapted toilet? Mops, cleaning paraphernalia, spare chairs and Christmas trees I can kind of see how people pub people would abuse adapted toilets this way. But glasses?

What’s the strangest thing with which you’ve shared an adapted toilet?

How do we break down barriers for disabled people?

How do we break down barriers for disabled people?

To begin with let's hold rogue employers to account. Strengthen, or better still, actually use current legislation to its full extent. Years ago I recall Margaret Hodge claiming that disabled people shouldn't rush to litigation when confronted with discrimination, but rather they should negotiate.

The days for negotiation are long gone. Successive governments tell us that employers need education not legislation. I don't see this applied anywhere else. Why can't we educate benefits claimants rather than using sanctions against them? Why not educate 'debtors' instead of evicting them?

No, let's use legislation as a blunt instrument to bash recalcitrant employers over the head, in the same manner the Tories are planning with their vicious anti trade union laws.

Tom Shakespeare, in every other area of civil life there are laws and rules by which we live. If and when we stray across the boundaries within which these laws and rules are set, we are punished.

In attempting to make a case for the use of law I am also aware that this government and its predecessor have ensured that millions of us are denied access to the law by placing, often insurmountable, financial barriers. As we are left with fewer 'legitimate' avenues from which to fight our corner alternatives such as taking to the streets and civil disobedience are all that remain.

Demo and Rally Against the Cuts and Capping of Access to Work

Yesterday, Saturday 26^th September 2015, saw the coming together of around 700 disabled people to protest at the cuts in Access to Work. Deaf workers are particularly hit by the cap on Access to Work; and yesterday they came out in their hundreds to show solidarity with other disabled workers and BSL interpreters also affected by the cuts.

Yesterday's march to Downing Street to deliver a petition calling
 for the government to put a halt to the capping of Access to Work  

In my capacity as Unite Executive and TUC General Council Councillor for disabled workers I would like to thank all those involved in making yesterday a success. So thanks to the National Union of British Sign Language Interpreters (NUBSLI), Inclusion London, DPAC, and all others who participated.

I was privileged to be invited to speak at the event. Here is my speech to the rally opposite Downing Street:

Sean McGovern speaking to the rally at Downing Street

“Hello Comrades, I’m Seán McGovern of Unite the Union and the TUC General Council and I bring a message of solidarity from both these bodies.

Comrades, you can always tell when a Tory is lying…his lips are moving.

You can also tell when they’re being disingenuous for that’s when they call taking away our disability benefits and services Welfare Reform.

But the deceit does not stop there.

No.

This Tory government perpetuates its great lie by telling us that the root of our poverty lies in our idleness.

Get a job they say and you will be lifted from the abyss of poverty.

Get a job they say and we will make work pay.

Well Cameron, Duncan-Smith and Osborne lots of us who can work have got jobs.

Indeed Remploy workers had very good jobs until you in your wisdom scrapped them; throwing thousands of hard working disabled people out of work and on to benefits.

Oh, and by the way, Duncan-Smith, whatever happened to the scores of millions you saved when closing down Remploy factories and doing away with Residential Training Courses for disabled people?

You put a measly £15 million into Access to Work over 3-years.

And you have the gall to tell the world you’re serious about getting disabled people into work.

Access to Work is a winner.

For every pound spent on Access to Work the Exchequer recoups £1.48.

This is the goose that lays the golden egg.

But what does this government do?

It puts up barriers to the scheme such as introducing ATOS as the assessing agent.

It overcomplicates the process so that those claiming it spend inordinate amounts of time on bureaucracy.

Not satisfied with making life difficult for us they’ve now placed a cap on Access to Work.

This cap particularly hits deaf people using Access to Work and will restrict their use of qualified interpreters so necessary for them to carry out their jobs.

This government looks after hedge fund managers and merchant bankers who create capital profit, usually for their own ends.

Yet when a highly skilled group of workers such as British Sign Language interpreters demand a decent wage this government fails to recognise the social capital they generate.

Comrades, we call on this government to stop the changes to Access to work for disabled people, their support staff and British Sign Language Interpreters.

Solidarity Comrades!"

The Craicling Was Good

The Craicling Was Good

The last thing I expected when I was dead

Was a Bullingdon penis shoved into my head

But that’s exactly what happened in my case

When Cameron smacked his cock in my face.

When I was alive and well I was hardly a prude

In fact between the sheets I could be very rude

But as with all others of my kind I drew the line

And only had sexual relations with other swine.

The word in the pigsty is that Tories are depraved

They will give anything a go if it’s tight and shaved,

Anything that had a pulse and that they could kill

Is fair game for sexual pleasure and a bit of a thrill.

Jeremy Corbyn Wins the Labour Party Leadership Contest

Great news. Jeremy Corbyn has won the Labour Party leadership race. Admittedly Jeremy was the frontrunner; he was also the favourite in the polls. Yet we saw the polls at the recent general election get it monumentally wrong; so it was with trepidation that I viewed the leadership race proceedings on TV. 

Of course when it was announced that Jeremy had polled in excess of 250,000 votes I knew we had the result. The fact that he was able to capture almost 60% of the vote was a tremendous achievement.

Now the real work begins. Thus, those people who joined the Labour Party as affiliates must now join as full members. They must get involved in their CLPs and push for progressive policies.

Jeremy Corbyn is leader of the Labour Party, but he is one person. In order for him to scrap Trident, reverse the Tory austerity programme, build affordable housing, etc, is if he has the support both of the PLP and CLPs.

Re-join the Labour Party today. We have won the leadership battle. Now get inside the heart of the party, its CLPs, and wrest them back from Blairite control.

Jeremy Corbyn Speaks out Against the WCA

"In response to figures released by the Department of Work and Pensions on the known number of deaths while claiming incapacity benefits, Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn said:

"It is clear that the work capability assessment has failed to adequately assess support needs, and has caused immense distress and suffering for thousands of disabled claimants.
"I voted against the legislation* that introduced the WCA and have campaigned alongside disabled people's organisations to scrap it ever since. The assessment process needs to be completely rebuilt in partnership with disabled people and health professionals."
*Welfare Reform Act 2007

The figures, published under freedom of information laws, show that more than 2,500 sick and disabled benefit claimants have died after being found 'fit for work' in just two years."

Though statistics, appeals and sadly untimely deaths, some by suicide, have shown the WCA to be a deeply flawed system I was frustrated that both Rachel Reeves and Kate Green kept insisting that it would be retained under a Labour government.

The system is broke. It is known to be broke. Yet it is kept in place as it fits in with the Tory ideology of removing people from higher paid benefit; or indeed taking them out of benefit altogether.

An independent and objective media, especially press, would of course have picked up on the criminal use of the flawed WCA years ago. A properly functioning opposition would have been pushing for Duncan-Smith to be forthcoming with the number of deaths associated with the system.

However, and because neither the media nor the opposition carried out their duties thousands of disabled and sick people lost their lives; scores of thousands more were placed in an impossible position that forced them to seek work that they were unable to get or carry out, many have been sanctioned as a result; while countless others simply fell off the statistical register.

At last we have a prominent MP in Jeremy Corbyn addressing the unfashionable issues such as the horrors of WCA. Now the issue is out in the 'mainstream' maybe it will attract some positive attention from both the opposition and media.  

Andy Burnham finally wakes up to the Tory infiltration of the Labour Party

It would appear that Andy Burnham and his campaign for the leadership of Labour is concerned that there has been a large scale Tory infiltration of the Party.

Tory infiltration into the Labour Party? Sounds like Progress.

You are correct Andy. However, the infiltration is not that difficult to pin down, they're known as Progress.

Progress progresses Party purges

As the Labour leadership election pushes towards its finale the Blairite/Progress faction within the party is carrying out a frenzied programme of purges. The three CLPs in Lambeth, Dulwich and West Norwood, Streatham and Vauxhall all came out for Liz Kendall. Given the composition and nature of these CLPs this is hardly surprising.

But when the MP for Vauxhall, Kate Hoey, heard that a former Labour leader of Lambeth Council, Joan Twelves, was denied a vote she commented:

“Joan Twelves, a former Labour Leader of Lambeth Council has been rejected even though for many years she has not been involved with another Party. Indeed she did some delivery of leaflets for me in the General Election.

Am I just being too suspicious that it seems anyone who is suspected of not being a Progress supported Liz Kendall fan is subject to instant rejection if they are known to leading Councillors?”

At the moment I’m unable to attend my CLP meetings because of the late hour they are held. Maybe that’s a blessing as I’m fairly sure my working class, pro trade union and anti-neoliberal values wouldn’t resonate with many in the Dulwich and West Norwood CLP.

Anyway, Kate was my MP up until last year. Though I disagreed with much of her politics she is a first class constituency MP; and she assisted me on a few occasions.

Just before the reselection process last year she called me to ask whether I was attending my Labour branch meeting. Mine was the last to meet and its result was purely academic as Kate was already reselected by the rest of the branches; but I guess she was looking for a clean sweep.

My old branch is full of political wannabees. The leadership is composed of councillors other halves and mates or Westminster spads associated trades in and around Parliament and Portcullis House.

On the evening in question there was a full house at the branch meeting, which had the appearance of a Progress breakout. The first few speakers stuck the knife well and truly into Hoey; and it looked as though she was sunk.

I piped up giving my support for Kate; stating that though we didn't always see eye-to-eye that I would far rather see Hoey in Parliament than yet another grey faced man in a grey suit pushing even greyer neo-lib policies - aiming my barbs at a particularly grey wannabee sitting beside me.

However the night was won by the contribution of a very elderly Afro-Caribbean woman who upbraided Councillor grey suit. She said, in a matter-of-fact way, that she had known A since he was a little boy; that she was most perturbed to hear him criticise Kate Hoey in such a way; and that he had changed from the polite little boy that she had watched grow up.

Brilliant! I could feel the embarrassment as it radiated from under his collar; and as for his colour, a delight to see. Her contribution encouraged others to come forward in support of Hoey; and the vote went in favour of reselection.

While Kate Hoey is not my political soulmate I would still rather her in Parliament with her maverick ways than another Blairite helping to push Labour out of the reach of ordinary people.

Placing a value on social profit

Labour was rejected at the ballot box a few months ago. The electorate didn't want the shoddy austerity-lite Labour was peddling. This left the Tories. Thus many floating voters voted Conservative; and around a third of the electorate did not exercise their right to vote.

Therefore it is very worrying that experienced politicians such as Andy Burnham show an inability to grasp the lessons of history – even that history they helped to create just a few weeks ago. Andy, trying to compete with the Conservatives on tuition fees by introducing a tuition tax is not a vote winner.  

Don’t you get it, Andy? The public expect a choice when voting. Labour’s manifesto at the last election did not offer enough of a difference to qualify as an alternative to the Tories. Austerity-lite policies are not a real alternative; they still pander to the neoliberal line.

Conversely, Jeremy Corbyn’s agenda does look different. It feels different too. He is not afraid to talk about raising taxes on the rich; and clawing back the £120 billion cheated on taxes. He’ll seriously close tax loopholes; unlike this government who are afraid of upsetting their friends, the tax cheats. Corbyn would give benefit claimants more protection – imagine a politician who doesn’t feel a necessity to attack the welfare state; one who understands the importance of social profit; of how social profit adds value to the lives of millions.  

Whether it’s foreign policy, defence, education, housing, the NHS, transport, or energy, Jeremy’s policies are progressive giving people a distinct choice. His policies share the values of the majority. They do not serve to protect the rights and privileges of the few. 

Corbyn's Values Reflect those of Millions of Workers

The problem with the right-wing of the Labour Party is it has enjoyed ascendency for far too long. Forget the right’s whinge that Miliband was too far left. I don't consider Ed Miliband a truly left leader.

In its right-wing direction the Party has lost touch with the very people it set out to represent, the working classes and poor. Since Blair we have lost direction. Blair, and the right, latched on to a winning formula by tweaking around the edges of neo-liberalism and selling it as palatable economic system.

Since then Labour's objective has been win at any cost, even if winning meant a total abandonment of its core values. For instance, Rachel Reeves views just weeks before the General Election:

"We are not the party of people on benefits. We don’t want to be seen, and we're not, the party to represent those who are out of work. Labour are a party of working people, formed for and by working people."

These outrageous right-wing sentiments could have been voiced by Iain Duncan-Smith or George Osborne. They represent Conservative values. Yet here was a Labour Shadow Minister showing utter contempt towards benefit claimants. A sentiment also applied to disabled people.

Such inflammatory language served only one purpose. It was intended to ‘out nasty’ the Nasty Party. Labour had reached a point where it was willing to abandon its principles of fairness to pander to winning at any cost.

After the inevitable defeat came the recriminations. Labour’s right-wing sought blame figures. However, rather than looking at the bloody obvious, the fact that their policies offered little difference than those being flogged by the Tories, they turned their guns on Ed Miliband.

Too left-wing; in the unions pockets. Then their sights targeted the unions. In particular it turned on Len McCluskey of Unite. Not forgetting to throw some blame at the Scottish voters who had turned their backs on Labour in favour of the SNP.

The one redeeming thing to have come out of this election defeat is that Jeremy Corbyn put his hat into the ring for the Labour Party leadership fight. Yet at that point in time most of us were pleased that the Jeremy’s inclusion just might push the debate a few degrees to the left. That his presence and policies could just force the Burnham, Cooper and Kendall to make some concessions in areas such as welfare.

Instead Corbyn’s campaign has captured the imaginations of scores of thousands of natural Labour supporters. His honesty and his alternative agenda to that of tired and jaded austerity measures has enthused the political left. Corbyn is no longer the makeweight candidate; he is no longer the right wing’s concession to the left to make the leadership contest a balanced affair. No, Jeremy Corbyn is now the front runner with the rest of the field running to catch him up.

For the sake of the Labour Party and the future of our country let us hope that Jeremy Corbyn can keep the momentum going until the Labour Party Conference in September. 

Propagate the Corbyn Message to the Millions of Disenfranchised Poor

Jeremy Corbyn, whether by design or not, is creating a ‘Scottish’ moment within sections of the labour Party, and maybe beyond. Just as politics took on a new lease of life in Scotland last autumn Corbyn is reenergising political debate and discourse within, particularly though not exclusively, English politics.

Last week’s welfare reform vote has, even if inadvertently, brought about discussion within the Labour Party and most definitely beyond. People, other than political activists, are beginning to question Labour values; and the answers point unquestionably towards Jeremy Corbyn.

The prize now is to get this debate out into those areas where Westminster politics doesn’t reach. We must draw the working classes and those millions disenfranchised from politics back into the debate. We must get the Corbyn message out to them so they realise that at last they too have someone who is speaking for them.   

How Dare the Left Lead the Labour Leadership Race

Incredible. Corbyn gets onto the leadership ticket as a makeweight for the debate, in order to mollify the Left, but allowing for one of the right of centre, or blatant right-wing, contestants to win the leadership contest; and the future of Labour Party is in question.

If Cooper, Burnham and Kendall were making the front running we’d not hear rumblings of discontent about the direction of the leadership race; there wouldn’t be calls to stop the contest on the grounds that the wring candidate is in the lead.

The right is complaining that it suspects that many of the 140,000 newly joined members to the Labour Party may have only joined so they can vote for Corbyn. That’s like the management of the National Lottery complaining that people are only buying tickets because they want to win a lot of money.

Corbyn is being blamed for embarrassing the party in its recent voting performance on welfare reform. Heaven forfend that a Labour MP should ignore the whip and vote against a policy that only serves to impoverish millions of poor people.

Yes, the Labour Party is in crisis. And it’s a crisis created by the right wing of the party. It is not a situation created by the one leadership candidate who is adhering to what can only be described as traditional Labour values.

Corbyn has reignited a belief that Labour can and should resort to acting like a party of the workers. A party that gives succour to the disenfranchised and the poor. A party that looks to governing for the majority; not merely pandering to the banks and big business.

Don't allow the NHS go the same way as British Rail

This government’s drip-feeding of bad news days in the NHS is the same game played by Thatcher and Major throughout the 80s and 90s with British Rail. Years of disinvestment to BR in conjunction with a negative press and media campaign of the service soon portrayed it as the sick man of British industry.

Eventually it became a laughing stock; synonymous with all that was considered wrong with public ownership of industry. In the view of the Tories only the private sector could efficiently run a national rail service.   

So by the mid-1990s BR had been set-up to fail through a combination of disinvestment and propaganda. This allowed Major to break up the service into hundreds of pieces and sell it off. A whole bunch of millionaires were created overnight as senior BR managers scooped up shares in the newly privatised industry.  

Today commuters pay three times more of their salary just to get to work and back compared to Germans, French and Spaniards making comparable commutes. Plus the tax payer is paying out more in subsidy to the private companies who own the railways than when the system was in the public domain.

Imagine an NHS alternative. A privately run health service paid for at the point of need yet still receiving a subsidy from the taxpayer. Such a service would disenfranchise millions of low paid workers as well as disabled and elderly people who could not afford to pay per GP visit, let alone for medical procedures in hospitals.  

The Tories and their predecessor coalition have and are doing exactly the same thing to the NHS as their counterparts in the 80s and 90s did with BR. That's why it is so important for us to support our NHS and propagate good news stories and successes that this service accomplishes every day.

London's Inaccessible Public Transport System

Some years ago the late Simon Hoggart wondered, in his Guardian column, why people were complaining about disability access on the London Underground when he saw so few wheelchair users actually using the system. Of course Simon was lambasted for his gaff.

The image below shows just how poor a service wheelchair users are offered by the London Underground service. Accessibility ranges from no access on the Waterloo & City Line to 3 out of 5 stations usable on the Jubilee Line.  

With such a pitiful underground system available to wheelchair users it is just as well we have an excellent bus service to fall back on. Except, this isn't always the case.

While London buses are undoubtedly more accessible that they've ever been, there are still major issues with the system. The endless feud between buggies and wheelchairs continues; and of course the judgement made that states parents don't need to vacate the 'designated' wheelchair space on a bus in favour of a wheelchair user doesn't help.

Yet the buggy is not the biggest problem faced by wheelchair users in Central or Inner London. As a wheelchair user I would not attempt to board a bus say in Brixton or the Elephant and Castle during rush hours; Oxford Street's another place I'd avoid.

As a wheelie trying to board a bus at a busy stop is problematic, especially if you're alone. In the first instance you must rely on the kindness of other travellers to allow you to indicate to the driver you wish to board. Sometimes a kind stranger will inform the driver for you; at other times it's the luck of the draw.

Even when the ramp is deployed and you're on the bus, trying to get to the designated wheelchair space can be very difficult. You'd be surprised just how many people can occupy such a small space; and attempting to displace them and manoeuvre the chair through a throng of bodies is no fun.

Passengers seem to think that by moving an inch or two they have performed their civic duty for the month. Good grace is furthest from people's minds as their routine of inching along the bus a bit to accommodate another passenger is massively compromised by a git in a wheelchair expecting them to actually get out of the fucking way!

Thus, until other bus users learn to understand the needs of wheelchair users I can't see any solution to the problem of wheelchair users accessing buses in busy traffic locations.