Do you remember when the mainstream media whipped up a storm of condemnation of Theresa May and the Tories after a study at Herriot Watt university found that the Tory Work Capacity Assessment regime is "fundamentally discriminatory to people with mental health conditions", that staff carrying out the assessments were unqualified to make mental health judgements, and that the discriminatory WCA process actually intensified the mental health conditions of many of the people who were forced to go through it?
No. Because it didn't happen.
Just like the UK press failed to whip up a storm of condemnation of the Tory government when the courts ruled that their Work Capacity Assessment was discriminatory towards people with mental health conditions in 2013, yet they carried on regardless.
Just like the UK press failed to whip up a storm of condemnation of the Tory government when it was revealed in January 2016 that this discriminatory Tory Work Capacity Assessment regime actually costs far more in corporate outsourcing fees than it will ever save in reduced benefits payments, meaning the whole traumatic farce actually relies of taxpayer subsidies to keep going.
Just like the UK press failed to whip up a storm of condemnation of the Tory government when the United Nations produced a scathing report into the way disabled people's rights are being systematically violated by the Tory government.
Just like UK press failed to whip up a storm of condemnation of the Tory government when they were caught specifically instructing the corporations who administer the Work Capacity Assessment regime to actively discriminate against people with mental health conditions (whilst simultaneously dressing themselves up as champions of mental health!).
Why the media blackout?
The suffering of people with mental health conditions under this discriminatory Tory assessment regime just isn't considered newsworthy by the majority of the mainstream press.
It's not newsworthy for two main reasons.
The first is that, even though there are millions of disabled people in the UK, the suffering of disabled people just doesn't sell enough newspapers or generate enough website clicks. A significant swathe of the mainstream media won't touch stories like the ongoing systematic abuse of disabled people, because they'd make more money by churnalising sensationalist guff.
The other main reason the systematic Tory abuse of disabled people given so little prominence is that it runs counter to the pro-Tory bias of the mainstream press. They're not going to expend time on holding the Tory government to account for their callous mistreatment of disabled people when their billionaire bosses are fanatically pro-Tory. It's a matter of self-interest for most mainstream media hacks. Push the agenda that their sociopathic right-wing billionaire bosses demand, or get pushed out of the door at the next round of redundancies. Stay on message or face the chop.
What we can do
- Spread awareness that the Tory government has been systematically abusing disabled people, and that the Labour Manifesto pledges to put a stop to it.
- Support independent media because independent journalists have the freedom to write what they want to write about, and don't have to worry about getting sacked if they stray from the propaganda lines imposed by the fanatically right-wing billionaires who own the publications they work for.
- Share this article to let more people know about the way the mainstream media consistently under-reports the savage Tory mistreatment of disabled people.
- Speak to disabled people because although articles like this are useful in providing evidence, they're no substitute for hearing a first hand personal account of how devastating Tory policies like the WCA assessment regime, the ESA cuts, the confiscated motability vehicles, the under-funding of social care, the still ongoing mental health budget cuts, and the scrapped Remploy centres have been.
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