Disability discrimination
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The joke that is the new Conservative cabinet
Prime Minister David Cameron announced his new cabinet this week, the first all-Tory cabinet in nearly twenty years. The first meeting – which TV cameras had been allowed to record – kicked off with Etonian-style table banging and cheers of approval from ministers. So let’s take a look at some of Cameron’s most colourful cabinet…
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Wary of the new government? Maybe there’s another way
It’s been a painful few days for those of us who never thought the outcome of the general election would be as bad as this. From a personal, self-indulgent level, it’s felt like a grieving process: I’m oscillating between denial and acceptance and a thinly-veiled hope that maybe, just maybe, we won’t have to wait…
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“I’d have given you the post, but you’re pregnant”
Pregnancy should be a magical, special time. Magical, that is, unless you’re one of the unlucky 2 per cent of women who develop hyperemesis gravidarum, an extreme form of all-day sickness and nausea in pregnancy. Sickness aside, the months of growing a baby inside you and the time after enjoying your little one should be…
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DWP: “Workfare does not exist”
As part of an article I am writing for a disability magazine, I contacted the DWP press office to get their take on the various work programmes which are floating about. I didn’t want to present an article that could be accused of ‘reporter bias’, so speaking to them to directly was important. (Although I…
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A Welsh Labour MPs office: “rude, sarcastic and impatient”
A disabled woman who suffers with several complex health conditions has spoken of the “unsympathetic, patronising attitude” she experienced from her local Labour MPs office in Wales when she telephoned to ask for advice and help in getting back to work. The 25-year-old, who doesn’t want to be named said: “From the beginning, the woman…
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State-endorsed fascism in Britain – this time they are after the disabled
In some ways, I feel I’ve become a bit too sensitive of late when it comes to “disablist” gags, but maybe I’m just hyper vigilant these days. The smear campaign the DWP and the media are carrying out on disabled people has made me and thousands of other disabled people distinctly uneasy. Why is it…
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If you do just one thing today, make sure it’s signing the petition
I’m keeping this short, because my message needs to be heard. We have just under three days left to pressurise the government into pausing the Welfare Reform Bill. Three days, 72 hours, 4,320 minutes. It’s not long, but I believe it’s possible. After all, we’ve already done the impossible, haven’t we? We, the disabled community…