Why do the mainstream press let the Tories get away with systematically abusing disabled people?

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.

 Another Angry Voice  is a "Pay As You Feel" website. You can have access to all of my work for free, or you can choose to make a small donation to help me keep writing. The choice is entirely yours.

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The Labour Party manifesto is fantastic for disabled people

After seven years of systematic Tory abuse of disabled people Labour have come out very strongly on the side of disabled people and their families.

Here's my breakdown of the main Labour Party policies relating to disabilities in the 2017 Labour Manifesto:

• Labour will make it a priority to repeal the numerous Tory cuts in social security support for people with disabilities. They will do this through a new Social Security Bill that will be passed within the first year of the new parliament.

• Labour will end the pointless and needlessly expensive continuous reassessments of disabled people with permanent disabilities such as paralysis or permanent degenerative diseases. The Tories try to claim that permanent degenerative diseases get better, but Labour accept that they don't.

• Labour will scrap the discriminatory and degrading Work Capacity Assessment (WCA) regime that costs more to administer than it actually saves in reduced payments in social security support for disabled people.

• Labour will end the privatisation of disability assessments so that disabled people never again have to face the indignity degradation of having to prove their disability to some corporate bureaucrat with targets to throw as many disabled people off their benefits as possible.

• Labour will scrap the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment regime too. An astounding 65% of appeals that go to tribunal are upheld. The PIP assessment regime is blatantly unfit for purpose and Labour will scrap it.

• Labour will replace the WCA and PIP assessment regimes with a system where personal advisers help to provide every disabled person who feels capable of work to develop a tailored personal plan. A holistic approach to social security planning sounds like a real challenge to implement, but surely it can't possibly be as bad as the current dehumanising and discriminatory regime that disabled people are forced into?

• Labour will reverse the £30 per week cut that the Tories recently imposed on disabled people who receive Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).

• The Tory government has been slammed by the United Nations for "grave violations of disabled people's rights" [Source - UN report PDF] . Labour will incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into UK law.

• Labour will scrap the "Bedroom Tax" that has cruelly hit over 400,000 families with disabled members with punitive charges for "spare" rooms that are often used to store medical equipment, or for carers to sleep in.

• Labour will scrap the Tory sanctions regime that has consigned hundreds of thousands of disabled people to absolute destitution. The sanctions regime is particularly harsh on people with mental disabilities because they're often the easiest to trick into making sanctionable mistakes, and they're also often the least capable of appealing when they've been unfairly sanctioned too.

• Labour will increase the Carer's Allowance by £11 per week to bring it into line with the rate of unemployment benefit. This will benefit Britain's unpaid carers to the tune of  £572 per year. It's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but if you care for someone who is sick or disabled then it's a clear gesture to show that you are appreciated by society.

• Labour will reverse the Tories' assault on the Bereavement Allowance, so that if you die of your illness or disability your surviving family will get the long-term of support families have had since the 1950s, not the new cheaper "here's a lump sum and be off with you" approach of the Tories.

• Last but definitely not least: Labour have announced that they're adopting the social model of disability. This would mark a profound step-change in the way the UK government deals with disability issues, from the draconian Tory approach of bullying, humiliating and intimidating disabled people, to restructuring society in order to remove social barriers and allow disabled people to live up to their potential.

The Labour Party manifesto is a fantastic demonstration that they have been listening to the concerns of disabled people and their families, and that they've put together a set of policies to make people's lives better.

How to vote

In light of these policies that have been designed to end the systematic Tory abuse of disabled people, you should vote Labour if:

• You are disabled.

• You have a disabled family member.

• You know anyone who is disabled and give a shit about them.

• You have the self-awareness to realise that you may one day become seriously ill or disabled.

• You have a shred of basic human empathy.

If you can read an article like this and still conclude that the Tories deserve to get your vote then you should be ashamed of yourself, but then shamelessness is one of the main elements of the self-serving "I'm alright Jack" attitude isn't it? 

So you'll probably just perform some ridiculous mental gymnastics to conclude that voting to continue completely shafting disabled people is the right and decent thing for you to do won't you?

What we can do

• Make sure you are registered to vote so that you can vote in favour of this fantastic Labour manifesto for disabled people.

• Encourage others to register to vote too.

• Spread awareness by sharing this article. Please also consider sharing this one too in order to spread awareness of how bad things have been for disabled people under Tory rule.

 Another Angry Voice  is a "Pay As You Feel" website. You can have access to all of my work for free, or you can choose to make a small donation to help me keep writing. The choice is entirely yours.

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The systematic Tory abuse of disabled people

Don't pretend you don't know. You'd have to have been living in a lead box for the last seven years to not know about at least a few of the disgusting ways in which the Tories have been systematically abusing disabled people.

Here is a far from exhaustive list of examples of the systematic abuse of disabled people that has been going on since 2010.

• The government's own figures admit that thousands of disabled people have died within six weeks of being declared "fit for work" and stripped of their disability benefits by the Work Capacity Assessment (WCA) regime.

• The WCA regime was declared unlawful for the way it discriminates against people with mental health conditions, but the Tory government carried on regardless.

• Appeals against botched WCA rulings have been costing £50 million a year. This cost is paid for by the taxpayer, not the profiteering corporations that made the botched assessments in the first place.

• The WCA disability denial regime costs way more in corporate outsourcing contracts to administer than it will ever save in reduced disability benefit payments, meaning the Tories are forcing the taxpayer to subsidise their systematic abuse of disabled people.

• An incredible 420,000 disabled people were hit by the Tory "Bedroom Tax", many of them for "spare" rooms used for medical equipment, or for carers to sleep in. The financial stress caused Stephanie Bottrill to commit suicide leaving a note blaming David Cameron and the Tory government.

• Tens of thousands of disabled people were forced onto the Tories' shambolic Work Programme, but the outsourcing companies running this scheme knew they could never make a profit from helping "difficult to place" clients, so disabled people were just "parked" while the corporate parasites focused on cashing in on easy to place clients. Just 8% of disabled people to be put through the Work Programme end up finding jobs!

• A United Nations investigation into the treatment of disabled people in the UK found that the UK government was committing "grave and systematic violations" of disabled people's rights.

• In March 2016 309 Tory MPs voted to cut the Employment and Support Allowance by £1,500 per year. Not a single politician from any other party voted in favour of these cuts. As a result of this brazen economic assault on disabled people, several Tory MPs were sacked as patrons of disability charities.

• The Tory party claimed to be scrapping the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and replacing it with Personal Independence Payments (PIP) in order to make sure the money went to the right people, but in April 2017 they slashed PIP payments by 33% using the perverse excuse that this would incentivise them to find work (despite there being no evidence whatever to back up this claim).

• Disabled people undergoing PIP assessments have routinely been asked "why haven't you killed yourself yet?" by their assessors.

• An incredible 65% of PIP decisions that go to appeal are overturned, yet the profiteering outsourcing corporations making these botched assessments (Atos and Capita) just had their contracts extended by two years by a no-bid process!

• The Tory party constantly claim that the purpose of their disability cuts is trying to get disabled people into work, but they deliberately laid off 1,500 disabled people by shutting down Remploy factories, many of whom are still out of work years later.

• Despite constantly going on about the importance of helping people with mental illnesses, the Tories have been doing precisely to opposite; slashing funding for mental health services and actively instructing it's corporate army of disability assessors to discriminate against people with mental health conditions.

• The Tory government are confiscating an astounding 900 adapted motability vehicles from disabled people per week. In one case they confiscated the motability vehicle to save £6,000 and then agreed to pay £65,000 in taxi fares so that the disabled person could continue going to work!

As I said at the beginning, this is a far from exhaustive list of examples of the systematic Tory abuse of disabled people.

Are you honestly going to endorse this?

If you vote Tory on June 8th, you'll be endorsing the continuation of this disgusting Tory agenda of abusing and impoverishing disabled people.

If you know anyone who has a disability and you actively endorse the continuation of this systematic abuse of disabled people, you know perfectly well what kind of person that makes you.

If you have a rudimentary level of basic human foresight, you must understand that one day it might be you, or a member of your family, or a cherished friend who develops a disability or seriously debilitating illness. Which means that by endorsing the continuation of this systematic Tory abuse of disabled people, you're stupidly inviting it on yourself and the people close to you.

Please share

Please share this article as widely as you can to help people understand how appallingly the Tories have been treating disabled people. It's especially important to share it with people who don't have social media or even Internet access. Show them on your phone, or even print it off and hand them a physical copy.

 Another Angry Voice  is a "Pay As You Feel" website. You can have access to all of my work for free, or you can choose to make a small donation to help me keep writing. The choice is entirely yours.

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