Tory backbencher Philip Davies caused outrage today by telling Parliament that disabled people should work for less than the minimum wage, reports Shamik Das.
Tory backbencher Philip Davies caused outrage today by telling Parliament that disabled people should work for less than the minimum wage. The remarks were described as “outrageous and unacceptable” by a select committee chair, and “a preposterous suggestion” by a leading charity. Davies made his comments during a debate on the Employment Opportunities Bill, which had its second reading today.
Anne Begg, chair of the work and pensions committe, said:
“These comments are utterly outrageous and unacceptable. To suggest that disabled people should be treated as second class citizens is shocking and shows just what a warped world some Tories demonstrate they inhabit.”
Davies also said people with learning difficulties should be made to work for sub-standard wages – made to work for less than £5.93 an hour.
Responding, Mind spokeswoman Sophie Corlett said:
“It is a preposterous suggestion that someone who has a mental health problem should be prepared to accept less than minimum wage to get their foot in the door with an employer.
“People with mental health problems should not be considered a source of cheap labour and should be paid appropriately for the jobs they do.”
Last month, Davies described Britain’s contribution to international aid as “stark raving mad”; more sinister were his recent comments that there was nothing offensive about ‘blacking up’.
Davies had said:
“Why it is so offensive to black up your face… I have never understood this.”
As I said before, what a sad, pathetic little man Mr Davies is.
98 Responses to “Tory MP: Disabled should work for less than minimum wage”
Anon E Mouse
Mason Dixon, Autistic – You say: “Your sudden conscientiousness for the truth surprises me Mouse, I would have expected you to outright believe his claim.”
You shouldn’t be surprised, I am nothing if not consistent.
I disagree with your excuse for this body to pay the disabled less, as they clearly do. I do not care if it is a small amount – they should be setting an example.
The difference is 2.66% or 3.8 years worth of the coalition governments current proposed spending cuts at 0.7% / year. And we have seen how hysterical people get over those levels of cuts.
The size doesn’t matter – I say people with disabilities should get equal pay for an equal job. I’m old fashioned like that…
(Not that this government is actually cutting anything at the moment)
Leon Wolfson
Of course they are, Anon E Mouse. They’re cutting corporation tax. /Priorities/, you know.
joe kane
Fancy that. Who would have guessed?
The far right-wing racist tory rodent, Anon E Mouse, who trolls Labour Party associated websites and blogs, tries to deflect attention away from a typical extremist Tory MP bigot onto The Equalities Commission, based on a radio interview by the self-same Tory MP bigot in question.
I say people with disabilities should get equal pay for an equal job. I’m old fashioned like that…
– What they shouldn’t get, of course, according to the resident Tory rodent troll of Labour Party blogs and websites, is any kind of help from a state, which ensures the rich get richer and the poor, weak, sick and disabled are penalised for not being rich and go to the wall. Which is old-fashioned, unlike modern human rights legislation protecting the rights of disabled people, which is only very recent and not old-fashioned at all.
You shouldn’t be surprised, I am nothing if not consistent.
– Exactly tory rodent. Nobody can trust a word you right-wing racist Tory bigots come out with, except when its to express your disgust at the victims of your bigotry.
Mason Dixon, Autistic
Mouse; “You shouldn’t be surprised, I am nothing if not consistent.”
Then you are nothing.
I made no excuses, I showed you the figures and if you really like you can check for yourself if a reasonable statistician would class them as statistically significant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance. I doubt you really think they should be exact, so I’d like to know how similar they would have to be to satisfy you. As you can’t actually tell from those figures whether or not disabled people are being paid less for the same job, you have nothing to support your suggestion that the Commission are not doing so.
For me, I am satisfied if they are not statistically significant, IE: a differential that can reasonably be put down to chance.
Anon E Mouse
joe kane – Since like the BNP you refuse to believe there was a holocaust in Nazi Germany, where millions of people were indiscriminately murdered by right wing sickos like yourself, I’m afraid I will not take any lectures from you.
Despite what you refuse to believe joe kane, Nazi Germany killed thousands of disabled human beings in their “Final Solution” so please excuse me if I don’t take your post seriously. Where in response to a point made to you:
““Reasonably minded people would say that neither Griffin nor Irving represented mainstream British views. They would be accurate. Likewise, for this event, neither Lynn nor Greenstein represent mainstream Jewish thought on the subject of anti-Zionism.”
You say: “Idiotic fucking HP Sauce scum. Typical behaviour one would expect from the trash and vermin that infest that shit hole. The real tragedy is that Socialist Unity are now not only apologists for these infectious human waste but also stand in “solidarity” with them. WTF? Just tell them to go fuck themselves and stop being so fucking soft!”
Charming.
If you need me to upload previous posts you’ve made glorifying the Nazi’s and their Final Solution just let me know. In the meantime reader of this fine blog may be interested in your other comments here:
https://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/06/should-brian-souter-have-his-knighthood-removed/comment-page-1/#comment-116094
Quite frankly joe kane, to have you commenting anything supporting disabled rights is like turkeys voting for Christmas when we all know you’d have them forced into gas chambers if you had your way.
Get help joe kane. You need it…