menu

Can do: Can’t do!


Do you trust anything this government
says on disability?

No, me neither, so it was with some caution that I approached a press release from them that editor James handed me to write up.

“Celebrities join forces with disability charity on role models campaign” runs the snappy headline, puffing up a new YouTube channel set up by the government to showcase 50 videos that “promote positive role models for disabled people.”

Included are videos from disabled soap actresses, entrepreneurs, paralympians and MPs, all “with a focus on overcoming barriers.”

But hang on, isn’t it this government itself that’s putting up the most damaging and often insurmountable barriers stopping young (and old) disabled people getting on with their lives? Aren’t they the ones gleefully taking away the money that enables people to get out and do things, and in some cases, simply to live?

A lot has been talked about the positive attitudes to disability that people took away from the Paralympics last year, but ask most disabled people and they’ll tell you that what’s bothering them most are the negative stereotypes this government has been spinning like mad. Weigh it all up and it still comes down to the rhetoric of skivers v strivers, the rhetoric this coalition has been more than happy to both spout at every opportunity.

The government buzzwords in this particular press release are “fulfilling potential” so let’s see just how this coalition is helping the disabled fulfill their potential.

Firstly, they’re reassessing people using the disliked French company ATOS Healthcare who many disabled people now live in fear of. People who were given indefinite awards of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) people with incurable disabilities, are being called up every year for intrusive and worrying tests and are being chucked off DLA in alarming numbers.

Both  ATOS and the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) state there are no targets to get a certain amount of people off DLA, even though their published aim is to reduce this part of the benefits bill by at least 20%. Are they just too thick to see that we can put two and two together? Or, more likely, do they think we’re too thick to do the maths? After all, some of us have mental health problems and of course, you can’t trust a mentalist, can you…

Kitty McGeever
Kitty McGeever

Secondly, the very scheme that the likes of Emmerdale actress Kitty McGeever say helped them back into work, the Access To Work scheme, has seen the number of people benefiting from it plummet by over a third since this shower took over running the country into the ground.

The accompanying spiel on the YouTube site says that “The project is about showing what disabled people can do – not what they can’t. This is another meaningless government mantra doing the rounds, just like “we’re on the side of hard working people who want to get on” or “aspiration nation”. Think about them for a minute and they melt into thin air, so insubstantial, ridiculous and nonsensical are they.

Hard working people who want to get on? Get on what? With their lives? Doesn’t everyone want to do that, hard working or not? And what’s all this about “hard working people” all of a sudden anyway? As opposed to lazy people? You know, those scumbags who can’t get a job because this government isn’t doing anything about stimulating the economy as it’s too busy doing a smash’n’grab on the country before it gets kicked out? Those ones, you mean – those feckless feckers? And what is a feck anyway for feck’s sake?

“What disabled people can do – not what they can’t” is one step away from stupid people saying “you can do anything you want, you just have to want it enough.” NO YOU BLOODY CAN’T! I want to have the career of Stephen Fry but I can’t. I want to be able to stand up and sit down without being in terrible pain, but I can’t. I want a yacht, I want a thousand cats, I want a government that will look after me when I’m down. But reality steps in; that nasty creature that DOES limit what you can do; that nasty creature that often takes the shape of a disability and that makes me ineffably sad. But then I suppose we’re not allowed to be sad in these ‘can do’ days either. What the government is essentially saying to all disabled people is: “You can do it, you lazy bastards. You’re just not trying hard enough!”

And I mean, why the hell should a test for your level of disability concentrate on what you CAN do rather than what you CAN’T? You know bloody well what you can’t do: that’s the sodding problem! You also know what you can’t do “repeatedly and safely”, that bit of the test that they’re intent on removing, so that now, if you have a cat and are able to feed it, you’re most certainly able to hold down a 40 hour a week job, plus commute.

I dunno about you but what I want from the government is emphatically not role models saying “Look at me: I can achieve all this,” because right behind the role model is the government itself staring at you from over their shoulder, whispering “Look, you shirker, look. Look at this lass here. She can do it: why can’t you, eh, eh, EH??”

Thus, although I have great respect for the disabled people who have allowed themselves to be used in the videos, used they most certainly have been, as at this very moment we’re engaged in a war, make no mistake about it. It’s this government v this country’s disabled.  They either expect us to ‘take up thine bed and walk’ or give up totally and die.

Mind you, I feel exactly the same way about them….

If you want to have a look at these vids, CLICK HERE:

There’s also a link to a Facebook page in the press release but that’s disappeared already. Now, I wonder why….

Hove MP speaks out for foster children

Mike Weatherley, MP
Mike Weatherley, MP

Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade, has recorded a video message in support of a new campaign which is aimed at giving all fostered young people in England the opportunity to remain with their foster carers beyond the age of 18.

The campaign, Don’t Move Me, has been launched by fostering charity the Fostering Network, with cross-party support from MPs.

Currently, local authority care usually ceases on a young person’s 18th birthday, and what happens to them next is a postcode lottery. Some local authorities help them to stay with foster carers, others rely on their foster carer offering them a home for free, and many more have to move out to live by themselves.

For more information on the Fostering Network, CLICK HERE:  

To see a video of Mike supporting the campaign, CLICK HERE:

Mike said:

“It is completely understandable that children are more often than not staying at home well beyond 18. If the campaign is successful, it will allow for more young people in care to have stability and support so many of us take for granted as they enter adulthood, which will not only benefit them but also society as a whole.”

Peer Action

Peer Action

Peer Action, the local HIV charity offering friendship and support through a range of outings and activities for all those living with or affected by HIV would like to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to Mark and his team at the Camelford Arms in Kemptown for the recent fund raiser for Peer Action which raised in excess of £200.

From Sunday, July 14 onwards, Phil will be running his meditation classes at The Sussex Beacon. Class begins at 11 a.m and runs for one hour. Other social activities include:

Monday: Bingo at the Gala

Tuesday: Lunchtime, swimming: evening Yoga classes with Dan

Wednesday: join Chris and Julia for a games night at the Barley Mo pub

Saturday, July 27: unwind with a wide range of holistic therapies

For full details on all Peer Action events, CLICK HERE:   

Most Peer Action services and events will be taking a break during August and will return in September.

Top cabaret at Church Street in June

Miss Jason
Miss Jason

Every Friday in June at 9pm there is cabaret at 112 Church Street, located opposite the entrance to the Dome Concert Hall in Church Street.

Singer Jason Lee appears on Friday 14;  Jennie Castell the girl with the big voice appears on Friday 21 and the current holder of the Golden Handbag for Favourite Entertainer, the fabulous Miss Jason will be getting up to her usual antics on Friday 28 at the opening event of this years Brighton Bear Weekend. Join Mysterry for Play Your Cards Right from 8pm.If you like your men big and hairy, Church Street is the place to be on Friday 28.

Church Street is the present holder of the Golden Handbag Award for Best Sunday Lunch. Always best to make a reservation on 01273 606864 to guarantee a seat.

Friday 21: Jennie Castell

Friday 28: Brighton Bear weekend opening party with Mysterry at 8pm with Play Your Card Right and Miss Jason at 9pm.

For more information about the Brighton Bear Weekend, CLICK HERE:      

Church Street

 

Kemptown MP calls for action on bin strike

Simon Kirby, MP
Simon Kirby, MP

Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown, has called for a debate in Parliament on the ongoing bin dispute affecting residents of Brighton and Hove.

Mr Kirby raised the issue at Business Questions in the House of Commons this morning.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Andrew Lansley MP, acknowledged the seriousness of the problem and praised Mr Kirby for his efforts in persuading conflicting parties to resolve the dispute in the interests of residents. Mr Lansley also commented on the irony of a Green council administration overseeing the current environmental chaos in the city.

Mr Kirby said:

“My  constituents and I are appalled at the rubbish piling up on the streets of our city and outraged by the Green’s failure to resolve the dispute. With further strikes scheduled I wanted to raise the issue in Parliament to highlight the urgency of the situation and call on Councillors and trade unions to put residents first.

 “The strike is having a direct impact on the people of the city, but the neglect shown by the Green Council also raises wider questions about the responsibilities of local authorities for the health and wellbeing of residents. There are important lessons to be learned from the situation in Brighton, which is why I wanted to call for a debate in House today.”

The seven-day bin strike is due to end today, June 20, but refuse and recycling workers intend to take further action next week in their on-going dispute with the city council over pay and this is expected to further disrupt service delivery.

The dispute dates back to decisions made in January by Green and Conservative Councillors on the City Council, who authorised council officers to implement a ‘modernised pay and conditions’ package for workers. A final offer was made in April which the GMB Union claim included “cuts of up to £4,000 a head from some of the council’s lowest paid employees.”

In the mean time rubbish continues to mount on the city’s streets and businesses in the Tourism Industry are expressing concerns about its effect on visitor numbers to the city.

A meeting is scheduled this afternoon to see if this can be averted.

 

A return to the witch-hunting 1980’s

With reference to the article on Danny Dwer, (The Argus, 08 June) headlined ‘Pillar of Gay Community denies unsafe sex claims’. Upon reading this piece of crude character assignation I was immediately transported back to the atmosphere and climate of the witch-hunting 1980’s; where prejudice was presented as public interest and prurience masqueraded as public morals.

The Argus, proudly promoting itself as a ‘Family Newspaper’, has really slipped back into the hate filled past with this pillorying of an private individual. Where did the author of this
poison gather the background info to cobble together such salacious sanctimony – from trawling sex websites?

One of the worst pieces of gutter journalism I have seen in the Argus in many years.

What disturbs me most is not he contents of the piece but the motivation of the ‘journalist’ who wrote it, and the subsequent editorial decision to publish.

Shameful.

X