The Condoning of the Outrageous Slurring of Disabled People In Tory Britain

This is the type of misleading headline that is encouraged by David Cameron and his government
in Tory Britain today!

Do the Tories and their supporters really feel proud of their government? What do people think when they read banner headlines like this? They do not even have to buy the paper it can be read instantly on passing and the damage done almost as instantaneously. Newspapers like the basket cases Express, Sunday Express, Mail, Mail on Sunday and Rupert Murdoch's Sun have been running headlines like this for about a year now, true these papers have always gone from the sublime to the ridiculous with their hysterical headlines which have until a year ago mainly been reserved for "immigrants" but now seem to have a new cause and purpose in their existence - to bash disabled people. What these so-called newspapers have deliberately engaged in for this past year with their headlines which boarder on the hysterical, has been taken to an altogether different level and there is a reason for this.

Ever since this "pretendy" coalition government managed to assume power, cabinet ministers, government ministers and even MPs from both parties have engaged in a systematic attack on the claimants of all benefits, but nowhere has this government from the prime minister, David Cameron down been more vitriolic and vociferous than on its "attacks" on those who claim disabled benefits of any kind.  In my opinion it appears as if there has been some kind of briefing message gone round and MPs briefed to sing from the same hymn sheet and if this is the case then most have stayed "on message" throughout the year.

This Tory government (I make no apologies for calling them that, because this is what it is) right from its "coalition" birth and the ripping up of the Tory and Lib Dem promises in their manifestos and the rapid publication of the "coalition agreement" (which was forgotten about just as fast) declared an all out "assault" on benefit claimants, they have in my opinion made a conscious commitment to divide the nation and set ordinary workers against other ordinary people and they have used the politics of hate, bitterness and envy to do it and disabled people have been caught in this, I believe intentionally, in order to allow this Tory government to get through its draconian welfare reform bill with as little protest and as few lost votes as is possible. they got elected ( or nearly elected) posing as sheep but they had hidden their wolfs clothing.

I am not going to point out the "blindingly" obvious about the state of health of disability benefit claimants, I would not blight their cause by doing so. In this country of the so-called civilised, disabled people should not have to defend themselves against such attacks and justify their needs to people that know "naff all" about what they criticising and opining, let alone be forced to defend themselves to our own prime minister and Department For Work and Pensions and sadly the minister for the disabled Maria Miller- right? Especially because our prime minister had a little disabled son who so sadly passed away. When our prime minister was in opposition he reiterated time and time again to disabled people, to their carers, their parents and relatives and friends, to anyone who would listen, that he knew "personally" the uphill struggle some faced when they have a disabled child/relative/friend, he knew how they depended on the NHS and the "system" and he knew how badly the "system" could let some people down. David Cameron leader of the Conservative opposition maintained this stance right up until May 5th 2010, then a week later when he managed to get himself into number 10 and become the nation's prime minister he seems to have had some kind of attack of amnesia and he has forgotten all he said and promised to disabled people.

Getting back to the rancid headlines in the hysterical rabid right wing press. These headlines are being actively encourage by our prime minister and his cabinet and his government ministers, since becoming prime minister Cameron appears to have declared war on those claiming benefits and has not missed an opportunity to label people as "welfare scroungers" and "benefit cheats" and "fraudsters", here is a quote from the prime minister "There is no way of dealing with an 11 per cent budget deficit just by hitting either the rich or the welfare scrounger," and of course hardly surprising it was published in one of Rupert Murdoch's papers The Times which is behind a paywall (Murdoch wants us to pay for our news).

The situation against disabled people has deteriorated so badly that disabled Labour MP Anne Begg is forced to defend disabled people's rights in parliament when "Benefits assessment firm (Atos) are causing fear and loathing among claimants".  All this stress would have a dreadful affect on able bodied people's lives but to heap this on top of the fear and distress that disabled people suffer day in day out because of their conditions is unforgivable and disabled people are having to fight 24 hours per day and wade through a sea of prejudice actively being encouraged by prime minister, David Cameron, until it gets to this stage where disabled people are being physically and verbally and abused  in our streets and car parks in Suffolk a 60% increase in attacks on disabled people has been recorded since Cameron and the newspapers have embarked on their "attacks" on so-called "benefit cheats" and this is the story across the country. Some disabled people are in such fear of these attacks and of Atos appraisals that they have taken their own lives and others are contemplating such a horrendous move. The government's flagship Welfare to Work policy is inciting hatred and violence towards the disabled by portraying them as cheats and benefits scroungers, an alliance of charities has warned. The Daily Mail is forced to clarify one of their misleading articles, yet still cannot bring itself to apologise and as usual it is tucked away in some obscure part of the paper and online, why doesn't the Press Complaints Commission force them to retract such articles and also apologise in the same banner headlines it misleads people with? See here how minister Chris Grayling has been forced to deny fuelling "attacks on workshy".

 Does Cameron and the newspapers accept their part in the way that people now think it is socially acceptable to abuse and treat disabled people so appallingly? These levels of government "attacks" have only started since this Tory government came to power. The abuse is even happening in our care homes! Do the same newspapers who scream abusive untrue and misleading headlines from their front pages, the headlines that encourage the abuse that is now taking place against disabled people the length and breadth of this country report the assaults and abuse against disabled people that is now taking place which can in large part be seen to be encouraged by this kind of totally spurious and scurrilous misleading reporting? Is this what really passes as journalism in the UK in 2011? So much so that it is now got so serious that it is having to be debated in parliament? Is this really what the British prime minister wants when he utters his careless words in order to appeal to the base instincts of the masses so he can push through his welfare reforms largely unchallenged?

Finally after a year of pure hell disabled people get a response like this "fit to work tests are flawed - MPs say" really?No s*** Sherlock, I guess disabled people would not have known this if someone in Westminster had not finally - *finally* noticed that "Atos kills", yes it does and so does the cheap and nasty comments purposefully put out by prime minister David Cameron, Deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg and our "mystery disappearing man" Tory chancellor, George Osborne, Chris Grayling, Iain Duncan-Smith and Disability Minister Maria Miller (call for Maria Miller to be investigated) and all the rest of them who have gleefully joined in with the Westminster bullies and merrily taken up the new craze sweeping Britain seemingly "endorsed" by the prime minister's careless words and acts and got "benefit bashing". They have bashed and bashed, through TV, radio and newspaper headlines and internet blogs and messageboards until some disabled people have caved into into submission, until some are so weak, so tired and so ill, and so mentally affected by all of this they just stop claiming, *NOT* because they are not genuine, but because they just haven't got the strength left to continue their fight - Welcome to Tory Britain in 2011 - some "civilised caring" and "big bloody society" this country and this government turned out to be!


If this government are doing everything they can for disabled people, then why did thousands of people attend a rally of the "Hardest Hit" in London recently at great cost to themselves and their health? A rally that our "esteemed" prime minister totally ignored, yet he above all should know the true cost to the majority of those who attended the march and rally and how much personal organisation attending such an event had to be undertaken, yet his silence was "deafening". Why are newspapers like the Guardian being forced to run articles like this to try and raise awareness of what is happening to disabled people and the problems they are facing as a direct consequence of this government's actions?

Why have we got a Tory government that allows its MPs to infer that disabled people should work for less money than the national minimum wage because they are less productive than able bodied people and think that it is a perfectly acceptable to portray disabled people as second class citizens? Where were the banner headlines on the Express Group newspapers, the Murdoch Newspapers and the Mail group newspapers condemning such a despicable and outrageous inference as this from Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley? Especially when the same unbelievably hypocritical Tory MP rakes in large amounts of cash for himself.

I don't really want to hear from those that protest about the  cost of welfare, I have heard enough of that particular brand of "sickness" to last me a lifetime and I point out it never seemed to be a problem before the recession hit, when mostly people were happy and content with their lot and before we had a government that blamed a global financial recession on just one man and then proceeded to talk the UK economy down (just to get elected) and before we had a government that is actively using the so-called "deficit" as an excuse to attack us ordinary folk, and it is an excuse, because this country has run on larger deficits than this (and under the Tories) before without a government purposefully harming our economy just so it has an excuse to rid us of the welfare state, the NHS and state education. I would also point out that so-called "fraudulent" welfare claims pale into complete insignificance against the tax dodging Tory financial backers in the shape of individuals and corporations, companies like Vodafone for example, where the chancellor Osborne has waived their £6 BILLION tax bill owed to the UK Treasury and where collectively these elitist  mainly Tory voting, Tory doning people and companies. BANKS and hedge funds owe upwards of £120 BILLION to the UK treasury per year. yet this Tory government does absolutely nothing other than utter a few mealy mouthed words about closing tax loopholes, that NEVER EVER come to fruition. I would like to remind people at this point before we see the complete demise of everything we hold dear in this country, that absolutely none of us know what life has in store, or when we or our loved ones may need the help of the welfare state or the NHS and if people think they can afford the insurance it will take to cover them and their families against such events in their lives, then I say good luck to them and it must be really great to be so well placed as to be able to pay out approximately a quarter of your income each month to some insurance company, that should you claim will do everything in their power to bring your attention to small print that actually voids your entire claim - good luck with that.

When a country has a government that actually cares about its people, it is a true mark of decency and democracy, by and large under Labour we used to have such a government (I fully acknowledge the labour government's total and utter mistake by introducing Atos etc in the first place and hopefully it is something that a new Labour government will immediately correct) but now it is all disappearing in amongst Tory manipulation and deliberate misleading of the general public, for all their faults (and there were many) the previous Labour government were never like this and now to our immense shame our country can be compared with other profoundly undemocratic countries, where there is little or no decency and where corruption is rife and the rich prosper and the poor are just stamped on and kicked out of the way and hidden as an embarrassment. I used to be proud of my country, today, I have never felt more ashamed of  it and believe me, this is a first for me. The way we are allowing ourselves to be influenced by the likes of the privileged elitist millionaire Tory government that now runs our country, the way we are allowing newspapers like the Sun, Express and Mail etc to colour our better judgements and attack those less fortunate than ourselves and the way most of us in pure ignorance sit in judgement on others who we know precious little about, is not only excruciatingly embarrassing, it is truly and profoundly degrading to us as a civilised nation, it is also an exceedingly dangerous position because it literally fosters hatred and the the kind of fascism this country fought so hard against throughout its history and for that we can thank Messrs. Cameron, Clegg and Osborne, Grayling, Duncan-Smith and Miller etc who in barely one year have managed to turn our country from a civilised caring society, to one of narrow minded mean spirited and wholly prejudicial towards disabled people and others less fortunate, and have turned many into people who have it seems lost the ability to reason and logic and see beyond their noses, that is if they haven't yet got around to cutting it off  to spite their faces, because none of us know what is around the next corner! We are fostering a deeply uncaring and dangerous society for our children and grandchildren etc to inhabit and that is just about the most awful legacy we can leave future generations.

Is this government really what the people of Britian actually voted for? Are people really happy to have themselves branded as "haters" of others who are less fortunate? There must be some truth in it because if there wasn't, then many more people would protesting to this government about this sickening abuse than currently is. Or is it that this government are so devious that they have successfully moved to the politics of governing by fear, hatred, confusion and chaos? They have certainly caused chaos, disruption and confusion in every major reform from Welfare, Education, defence, Policing to the NHS and have shown themselves to be totally incompetent and completely out of their depth, yet such is the copious amounts of spin from Cameron's spin doctor and the rabid right wing press, this evil government are just being allowed to get away with it.

The newspapers will only print their prejudicial garbage if they think we will buy their papers to read it. However, what I really would like to know is why isn't the Press Complaints Commission taking action against such despicable behaviour?

What I also want to know is why the Conservative government under the leadership of prime minister David Cameron, DPM Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, Works and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan-Smith, Minister for the Disabled Maria Miller and Employment Minister, Chris Grayling in what seems to be a concerted effort by the whole government - have decided to turn citizen against citizen and portray all those on welfare or disability benefits as "cheats and scroungers and fraudsters" even though they fully realise that the vast majority of claimants are actually *genuine*? and why has the Tory government apparently actively engaged certain newspapers to run their spurious and misleading reports? Among them the Murdoch press?

It's abuse Dave - pure and simple.

If Rupert Murdoch really, truly and genuinely wanted to atone for what "gutter-press reports" its papers have published for the past 3/4 years, he could do no better than start printing the truth and unbiased reports and start publicising the plight of disabled people and those others who are in genuine receipt of benefits and the way they are being shamelessly used, abused and deliberately singled out for "attack" by the British Conservative government today.