Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/Z46oJv3 writes @suey2y #hardesthit

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y

RT @FalseEcon: RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/Z46oJv3 writes @suey2y #hardesthit

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y

“@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/fW1Iyyv writes @suey2y” @BrokenOfBritain

RT @leftfootfwd http://bit.ly/mvHFBe – society failing the disabled. don't forget the elderly, either. great piece on the march.

RT @Puffles2010: “@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/fW1Iyyv writes @suey2y” @BrokenOfBr …

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y // Great article .

"Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled" by @suey2y http://bit.ly/jNe1Gy <- insidious demonisation continues. GRRR!!

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y

“@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/5Ike7jK writes @suey2y” #HRW #disability #socialjustice

“@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/94vFwq4 writes @suey2y” #TBofB

“@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y” #TBofB

RT @BrokenOfBritain: “@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y” #TBofB

RT @BrokenOfBritain: “@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/94vFwq4 writes @suey2y” #TBofB

RT @FalseEcon: RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/Z46oJv3 writes @suey2y #hardesthit

RT @BrokenOfBritain: “@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y” #TBofB

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y

Brilliant post, Sue. I found it so heartbreaking that the largest protest by sick and disabled people, at a time when our very lives are at stake, was ignored by the media. I’m getting worried – scared, even – that society now sees the sick/disabled as a cost they can’t (or rather, don’t want) to afford. We’re constantly told we are worth less because we often are unable to work, and because we tend to not be big consumers. People are being reduced to their economic usefulness, it seems, and where does that leave the weakest people in society? It leaves us f***ed.

We’ve been shouting and screaming, but the government definitely has the media on-side now. We’re all “scroungers”, we’re scared because we “don’t understand” the reforms. It is almost as if this is a deliberate campaign to make the weakest in society the victim, to blame us for the economic mess we are in.

And I almost wonder if it is even more shameful, as you say, that many fellow progressives, socialists and left-wingers can’t be bothered to stick up for us and stand in solidarity.

I really despair for the future. I really do.

If you wish to take part in a virtual protest to call for a vote of No Confidence in Maria Millers as Minister for Disabilities, please send the letter below to you local MP and news agencies and pass along to all your contacts to do likewise

Many thanks

————————————–

Dear Sir(s)
I with many others, believe that there should be a vote of no confidence in Ms Maria Miller MP Disabilities Minister for the following reasons:

1) For failing to fight hard enough to ensure that disabled people receive a fairer assessment of capabilities (specifically the Work Capability Assessment implemented by such companies as ATOS) and which is generally acknowledged to be a flawed test.

2) I and many others believe that, in the light of the recent/threatened cuts to benefits for disabled people, and the cuts affecting disabled people generally, will bring harm, a loss of dignity and a loss of independence to disabled people both at home and where applicable, in their working lives. I and many others believe that her absence at the ‘Hardest Hit March’ on the 11th of May 2011 shows that she is reluctant to engage directly with disabled peoples concerns.

3) To the best of my knowledge, I and many others believe that Ms Maria Miller, in her role as MP has not taken a sufficiently strong public stand to protect disabled people from disability hatred. Such disability hatred may include acts perpetrated by the media or individual perpetrators of verbal abuse, violence and/or criminal damage when it occurs.

It is for the above reasons that I and many others believe that Ms Maria Miller MP is out of touch with the worries, concerns and outrage felt by disabled members of society and therefore, urge ministers to press for a vote of no confidence in Ms Miller.

Name, Address.

RT @BrokenOfBritain: “@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y” #TBofB

Another great post from Sue.

PPI — isn’t that the one pushing banks into the red for mis-selling, he asks innocently…

Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://dlvr.it/RcshQ

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://bit.ly/keX8m4

Mark Littlewood = blood boiling rage! RT“@suey2y: RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick & disabled http://t.co/jRIDbrS

Sorry but why should the media say anything, when the march in London it was the riots which were picked up. As for Labour speech why is it we are now marching when the Tories are in power, nobody was interested when New Labour called us all scroungers, and then went ahead with the new medicals.

In the end we have two parties Labour and the Tories having meetings to discuss welfare then coming out to tell us we need welfare reforms.

We have government who would love to take up back to charities collecting money to pay for us to die on the streets.

Life is great

RT @suey2y: RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://bit.ly/keX8m4

Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://bit.ly/klDzyS

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y

“@suey2y: RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://t.co/8YzQg7r >>a must read.

An excellent post, Sue, and I also thought your analytical piece in the Guardian this week was clear and to the point, which much comment is not. Where next? What role can trade unions play in the fight?

RT @yorkierosie: “@suey2y @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://t.co/8YzQg7r >>a must read. <THIS

Shocking lies in media: RT @leftfootfwd Society & media are failing the sick & disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe

George – False Economy (TUC blog) have been very supportive and helpful in getting our message across, but of course, you’re right, we don’t have union support really either, because, yep that old chestnut again – we don’t work.
It really is a case of those unaffected deciding that they will stand in solidarity with those affected. That takes a large degree of empathy if you’ve never been unwell or disabled. Sadly, I fear it will take visible results of these policies to change things. Of course, by then it will be too late.

Robert – I’m not sure how many more times I can tell you I’ve been opposing ESA since it was announced. I’m regularly critical of Labour on my blog. All the same, if I can make them or the other parties to change their minds, I have to try. They get to vote, they get to veto, they get to decide.

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y

George – Reading my comment back, I realise it is very misleading. Of course many of us DO work, a point I go to great pains to make regularly. I’m tired and a bit useless today.

I suppose I was pointing out that by definition many can’t work and wouldn’t have access to union support. WITHIN the workplace, the unions are of course great defenders of sick or disabled workers and provide most of the back up to achieve fair treatment

“He claimed it was our “responsibility” to overcome our conditions and take out payment protection insurance (PPI).”

What? Brilliant timing, given the few weeks the banks have had with that…

At any rate, the fact is that there’s a revolving door between the right wing press and the Coalition on welfare reform.

Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled | Left … http://bit.ly/mdiG3n

RT @BrokenOfBritain: “@leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe writes @suey2y” #TBofB

RT @FalseEcon: RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://t.co/Z46oJv3 writes @suey2y #hardesthit

Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled | Left … http://bit.ly/mUG4Sh

RT @TheRightArticle: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://bit.ly/klDzyS

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled http://bit.ly/keX8m4

Here’s something I wrote yesterday about the apathy and lack of media coverage:

Don’t look now.

Pull down the shutters, put the cameras away-
it’s not pretty.
Turn a blind eye; the others cheeks will take the slap.

Don’t look now, just walk on by-
Hurry.
It’s really not your business. It’s not you. Yet.

Lock the door and close your ears-
Don’t listen.
It really doesn’t matter what their voices say.

Pull the wool over your eyes and the sheets up over your head-
Look the other way.
Make sure you see no evil, hear no pain that’s not yours.

Hush your mouth and keep it quiet-
Don’t make a fuss.
Ignore it and it will go away. For now. It’s not you. Yet.

Close the blind and turn away. Take the phone off the hook-
Look after yourself.
Make sure your voice is silent. They don’t mean you.

Pull the rug out from under them. Put your fingers in your ears-
They haven’t got a leg to stand on.
Don’t worry. It’s not you. Or yours. Not yet.

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick & disabled http://bit.ly/keX8m4 Classic lies from Disability Minister #Miller

RT @leftfootfwd: Society and the media are failing the sick & disabled http://bit.ly/keX8m4 Classic lies from Disability Minister #Miller

Thanks Sue for taking on this fight; many of us don’t have the means to do so. I listened to your item on Radio 4 and you provided a good defense to the absolutely maddening ‘experts’ and misguided callers.

It makes me literally sick to continue to take the flack for all that is wrong in this country. Even a few years back before I had to finally give up work, friends and others told me that I should not have any more financial support than an able bodied person and that particularly I shouldn’t have had the support Access to Work provided for me (transport by taxi to wherever I had to work in the county). I felt that I just couldn’t win because whether I was in work or not I would ‘get it in the neck’. I feel ashamed to live in a country where the genuinely disabled are viewed in such a negative light and where propaganda is left unchallenged in the mainstream media who have generally become a mouthpiece rather than a platform for serious journalism.

I’ve said here before, in just a few years time I face losing my home of 24 years with absolutely no provision for me to afford to live elsewhere, as well as losing my care and the income provided to enable me to live a dignified existence.

This is why many of us feel that we are staring death in the face. I will not survive for very long sleeping rough.

Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe #disability

RT @myinfamy: Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled: http://bit.ly/mvHFBe #disability

Oldie but a goodie. The invisibles in society. http://t.co/XXMUG4FI

[...] Society and the media are failing the sick and disabled – Sue Marsh, May 13th [...]