Disability
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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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Shooting my mouth off
I learned a valuable lesson today. I think. Don’t agree to be interviewed whilst pregnant and highly hormonal/grumpy. I was asked by the Al Jazeera news team if they could come over to interview me for a piece they were doing about disability. My knee-jerk was a definite ‘no’, which I assumed on reflection, was…
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Romania: not just a country of communist blocks
As Daily-Mail readers froth at the mouth about the mythical ‘influx’ of Romanians and Bulgarians expected to descend upon the UK (they might eat your babies!), I for one am hoping that soon, Brits (disabled and otherwise) will soon be descending upon Romania. Contrary to mainstream opinion – Romania is very different to what is…
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Being pregnant and disabled doesn’t get you a seat on public transport
I didn’t always to feel so nervous about assertiveness whilst travelling. I used to think nothing of standing up to bullies at school and intervening when I saw someone being picked on. Even at 17, when I witnessed with horror a load of school kids literally ‘hanging’ a kid by his backpack on a double…
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My journey with Hyperemesis Gravidarum
I’ve decided to do a one-off blog about my journey with Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Maybe this could be deemed as pretty self-indulgent and maybe it is, but it’s been so horrendous, it’s all I can think about. That and counting down the days left until I meet my little girl (154, give or take). I’m one…
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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…