Sue Marsh reports on the largest march of sick and disabled people in UK history in reaction to the savage, barbaric, inhuman government cuts to vital support.
Sue Marsh blogs at Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
On Wednesday, at least 5000 people in the largest ever UK protest of sick and disabled persons, took to the streets of London. It was supported by leading charities – Mind, Scope, Parkinson’s UK, RNIB, Mencap, Arthritis Care and many, many others. It was also supported by social media groups, campaign groups and by The Guardian and The Mirror. It was a peaceful, successful protest, but that seemed merely to encourage much of the UK media to ignore it.
Did you know, for instance, that protesters carried a vote of no confidence against the minister for Disabilities, Maria Miller? I imagine you didn’t because no-one reported it.
When the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the British Medical Association (BMA) take such action, it makes front page news, but when the sick or disabled do so, it goes unreported.
Did you know that Liam Byrne, shadow minister for Work and Pensions, made a well received speech in a tone that seemed to break away from Labour’s previous line on welfare reform? Did you know that he urged the Conservatives to “force the unemployed into work, not force disabled people into poverty”? I imagine you didn’t because no one ran the speech either live or later on in the day.
Did you know that when the BBC did carry the news, they carried an interview with Miller who claimed: “more people claim DLA for alcohol or drug abuse than for being blind”? Did you know that is simply not true? I imagine you didn’t, because the interviewer didn’t challenge her on it. Nor did any so-called investigative journalist spend a few minutes checking her claim for later bulletins.
The images of people in wheelchairs were followed by Miller trying to distinguish between the “deserving” and “undeserving sick” in a way that ignores all scientific evidence and aims to cause division.
In perhaps the worst ambush of the day, we were asked to take part in a Radio 4 “You and Yours” debate that simply felt like a political broadcast for the coalition, in which callers suggested sick or disabled people had no right to go to a pub, or meet friends for coffee or own a car. Mark Littlewood, director of the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) was on the show as an “expert” who clearly knew nothing at all of the issues facing sick and disabled people.
He claimed it was our “responsibility” to overcome our conditions and take out payment protection insurance (PPI). These “solutions” totally missed the point that many people disabled from birth would never qualify for PPI and that many conditions will never be overcome, they will only get worse.
This really must stop. While there is, in fact, broad support for some form of welfare reform amongst sick and disabled people, the message that some of the measures being introduced will cause serious suffering amongst this most vulnerable group of all must be addressed and reported on. We are constantly pointing out that people will lose the means of supporting themselves, lose independence and dignity and in some cases lose their lives.
A blanket and lazy acceptance of the government position is ensuring that these measures may well pass into law without undergoing the scrutiny they should.
For how much longer will people stand up to save their trees and their libraries and their allotments, but turn a blind eye to this terrifying attack on profoundly sick and disabled people? If we were cute little puppies, millions would spring to our defence. It is a mark of our society how we deal with more uncomfortable or less glamorous causes. At the moment, I can only conclude that we are failing miserably.
For those who would like to learn more about the protest and why it was necessary, Scope have put together this video of the day; for now, it seems that we will simply have to carry on speaking up for ourselves.
51 Responses to “Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled”
salardeen
RT @FalseEcon: RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/Z46oJv3 writes @suey2y #hardesthit
Helen Woods
RT @BrokenOfBritain: “@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y” #TBofB
helenlp
RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y
Douglas
Brilliant post, Sue. I found it so heartbreaking that the largest protest by sick and disabled people, at a time when our very lives are at stake, was ignored by the media. I’m getting worried – scared, even – that society now sees the sick/disabled as a cost they can’t (or rather, don’t want) to afford. We’re constantly told we are worth less because we often are unable to work, and because we tend to not be big consumers. People are being reduced to their economic usefulness, it seems, and where does that leave the weakest people in society? It leaves us f***ed.
We’ve been shouting and screaming, but the government definitely has the media on-side now. We’re all “scroungers”, we’re scared because we “don’t understand” the reforms. It is almost as if this is a deliberate campaign to make the weakest in society the victim, to blame us for the economic mess we are in.
And I almost wonder if it is even more shameful, as you say, that many fellow progressives, socialists and left-wingers can’t be bothered to stick up for us and stand in solidarity.
I really despair for the future. I really do.
Jean Eveleigh
If you wish to take part in a virtual protest to call for a vote of No Confidence in Maria Millers as Minister for Disabilities, please send the letter below to you local MP and news agencies and pass along to all your contacts to do likewise
Many thanks
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Dear Sir(s)
I with many others, believe that there should be a vote of no confidence in Ms Maria Miller MP Disabilities Minister for the following reasons:
1) For failing to fight hard enough to ensure that disabled people receive a fairer assessment of capabilities (specifically the Work Capability Assessment implemented by such companies as ATOS) and which is generally acknowledged to be a flawed test.
2) I and many others believe that, in the light of the recent/threatened cuts to benefits for disabled people, and the cuts affecting disabled people generally, will bring harm, a loss of dignity and a loss of independence to disabled people both at home and where applicable, in their working lives. I and many others believe that her absence at the ‘Hardest Hit March’ on the 11th of May 2011 shows that she is reluctant to engage directly with disabled peoples concerns.
3) To the best of my knowledge, I and many others believe that Ms Maria Miller, in her role as MP has not taken a sufficiently strong public stand to protect disabled people from disability hatred. Such disability hatred may include acts perpetrated by the media or individual perpetrators of verbal abuse, violence and/or criminal damage when it occurs.
It is for the above reasons that I and many others believe that Ms Maria Miller MP is out of touch with the worries, concerns and outrage felt by disabled members of society and therefore, urge ministers to press for a vote of no confidence in Ms Miller.
Name, Address.