Where are the rights that disabled people are supposed to have?

This is the transcript for my YouTube video "Where are the rights that disabled people are supposed to have?" 

Rishi Sunak has said that he wants to replace Personal Independence Payment cash payments with a voucher scheme, presumably to control what PIP claimants can purchase that aids their day to day living and where they can get those items.  If my presumption is correct, the scheme will probably enrich a Tory donor’s business as it will be one of the only places that you can exchange the coupons for the items or the coupon scheme will be administered by a Tory donor’s company. 

Again, if my presumption is correct, this is another way of controlling and abusing the sick and disabled through undue interference in their personal lives.

I don’t know how far the proposals regarding the PIP voucher program has gotten but I think Sunak has forgotten one of the guiding principles of Tory ideology in proposing this idea.  The principle to which I refer is that of personal responsibility.  If the government is going to restrict what a claimant can buy the goods or services that aid their day to day living it is taking away the claimant’s responsibility to use the money they currently get to buy what they deem helpful.  Very anti-Tory thinking that also flies in the face of their hatred of the ‘nanny State’, a term which has always confused me as most Tories grew up having their backsides wiped by their devoted nanny so their parents could ignore them until they became the hateful adult babies we know and despise.

Ultimately, a voucher scheme in place of PIP cash payments is an infringement of our Human Right to have a private life free from interference by the government and will more than likely cost the country more than it saves the public purse but as the goal is control and abuse I doubt that would matter to the current Tory administration or, indeed, a future Labour administration led by Mr Kid Starver.

Of course, this isn’t the only potential future attack on disabled benefit claimant’s rights as the DWP want to give themselves the power to monitor claimant’s bank accounts, another breach of the Human Right to a private life and weapon to attack those whose bank accounts are being monitored.

The disabled benefit claimants are a casualty of the culture wars being fought by both the Right and the Left wings of politics, the politics of division, used as a scapegoat and political football rather than address the real causes of society’s problems.  The Tories and the Right blame benefit claimants, immigrants and anyone other group they can think of for the mistakes they’ve caused and Mr Kid Starver’s ego party are going along with it while the Left fight for the Rights of increasingly smaller minority groups as the basic Human Rights for all are eroded by the incumbent administration, ironically weakening the rights for the smaller minority groups as well.

The disabled have been chosen as an easy scapegoat despite not being responsible for the mess the country’s in.  Screwing over disabled benefit claimants is described as “making the hard choices” when it is nothing of the sort.  The real hard choices are the ones that would put the blame and the responsibility of the mess we’re in on the shoulders of those who really did cause the problem and have the resources to mitigate the damage.

Of course, we’re just disabled people and not seen as worthy human beings by the politicians who suckle at the teat of the public purse in greater amounts than a single disabled benefit claimant could ever hope to achieve.  The politicians who are so out of touch with reality and lack the compassion and empathy needed to be a human being with their snouts firmly stuck in the trough while punching down on some of the most vulnerable people in the country, stripping away our rights as they do so.

Does anyone really care anymore?

Disabled People STILL Deserve Better

Below is the transcript for my YouTube video "Disabled People Still Deserve Better":

I can’t believe that it was 31 Jan 2019 when I posted a video called “Disabled people deserve better” and, unfortunately, things still haven’t gotten any better for us.  Indeed, the war against the sick and disabled has entered a new phase, given that the anti-migrant message isn’t cutting through as well as the Tories have hoped.  With nothing to offer the ordinary citizens of the UK, the Tories have decided to scapegoat the sick and disabled again because they are cruel, cowardly and totally without conscience.

I would like to say that things might get better under an alternative government but Mr Kid Starver’s party seems to want to punish the sick and disabled for being the victims of circumstance.  The rhetoric coming from the likes of Liz Kendall and Rachel Reeves is chilling, leaving the impression that the scapegoated vulnerable people of the UK would probably be better off under the Tories than under a government led by Tel Aviv Keith which is a horrible thought in its own right.

The UK is going to be having a General Election soon and the vulnerable people of the UK are going to have very little option in whom to vote for to improve our circumstances.  We have little hope for our future whichever major political party takes the reins of government as they seem intent on punishing us for the mistakes both parties have made.

We understand that the Tories are hostile to the sick and disabled and that we will always be treated as third class citizens by them when they are in power but we now have an opposition party that says “you think you’re hard on the disabled?  Hold our beer ‘cos you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.

Disabled people deserve better treatment than this from a government that is meant to protect its citizens.  If we had better support, perhaps more disabled people could enter the workplace and become so-called “productive members of society”.  If we weren’t treated like criminals and fraudsters and forced to undergo humiliating assessments, we might become more able to cope with our disabilities, especially if those disabilities are of the poor mental health variety.  If the services we rely on weren’t cut to the bone we might have the slightest chance of recovery or simply coping.  If we were given hope we might not be so downtrodden and defeated.  We certainly don’t need the further indignity of not being able to use our Personal Independence Payments for whatever aids our ability to live with our disability by having our cash payments replaced by a voucher scheme which will, in the long run, cost more to administrate than it’ll save, much like the constant disability benefit assessments.

To put things in terms politicians can understand – good, well-funded public services create happier and more productive citizens, disabled and non-disabled alike and, if you provide concrete improvements to people’s lives, give them hope, it’s a definite vote winner.  The Prime Minister and party that delivers hope could stay in power indefinitely.

The current crop of politicians have to understand that the disabled vote is up for grabs and, in the current climate, could well help swing an election one way or another but to do that the parties have to offer something other than abuse and scapegoating of the sick and disabled.  Offer us hope, offer us a future where we are no longer looked down upon and, more importantly, deliver that future.  Disabled people deserve better and it’s about time we got it.