Thursday 1 March 2012

A Post About Pooh

I know, the Welfare Reform Bill passed.

In a fizzle of shame, it gasped it's way through the Lords last night.

But we always knew it would, so I'm going to talk about pooh.

If you have Crohn's disease, you live in fear of one thing - the Gastro Bug.

My bowel is knackered already. I mean completely and utterly borked. It's had bits lopped off, bit's sliced and stitched, bit's stuck together, bits that just gave up and exploded fairly dramatically, bit's that turned into huge weeping abscesses and bits that sprung holes like a leaky bucket.

Thanks to the NHS, it's been repeatedly fixed, glued, joined, patched and soothed but I haven't got as much left as you lot and I have permanent gastro-enteritis.

Have you had food poisoning? I mean really? Have you spent all night on the toilet groaning, seriously thinking you're going to die? Did you pass out as the clammy sweat of nausea crept through every atom of your body? Did the pain feel like a red hot poker, stabbing through your guts and out through your spine? As the colour drained from your cheeks and you dripped with a shivering, cold, sweat? Did you pull all of your stomach muscles retching endless burning acid into the toilet bowl? Did you break a rib, the spasms of peristalsis racked your body so hard?

You couldn't believe it was possible to feel that ill and keep breathing could you? Come on really think about it! That dodgy curry after the rugby, the shellfish in Marbella, the gastric-flu that kept you in bed for a fortnight?

Well that happened to me when I was about ten and never stopped. Never. Not for a week. At first, I thought it could only be a matter of time - no body could repeatedly go through that endlessly, a horrific, grinding Groundhog Day and survive.

But you know, somehow, it can. I've never worked out how, but even when you want to go to bed and never wake up, when the pain is so bad you can't think, when you can't remember the last time you slept for more than an hour of two, you go on. I went through university and worked for 10 years through that. Every day.

28 years later, I'm slowing down a bit. My body is complaining, I have deficiencies of this and crumbling bits of that. My bones haven't developed properly and already have osteoporosis. My teeth have crumbled away from the steady coating of vomit acid. I can't walk very far or stand up for long or pick up my children - I'm really, really tired.

But some days, if I'm really lucky, once in a blue moon, I might be that fraudster on the water slide, pretending she's disabled. The "cheat" who dared to risk all of the above but still go to London for a day trip or cheer at the sidelines of my little boy's school football tournament. I'll be the one who defiantly hangs on to pleasure when it comes my way - it comes so rarely.

2 days ago, I caught a Gastric Bug. I've been lucky - it's been years, but the particularly snippy diarrhoea and vomiting bug that's putting healthy people in bed for two days has found me.

My bowel is their favourite playing ground of all. They will set up camps in my leaky bits, have parties in the pockets and loops that shouldn't be there. Last night, I broke my personal-best poohing record. My bowels exploded in agony 28 times!! 28!! I have no idea why I started counting, there was a point to it last night, but I've forgotten now. I may as well have cholera now, and I'm off to bed for a bit.

So why the graphic, uncomfortable, faecal, vulnerable post this morning?

Because the Welfare Reform Bill, 2010 passed last night and people like me just lost everything. Regular readers will know, I have been told I don't qualify for DLA and I almost certainly will lose Incapacity Benefit as nothing in the ESA descriptors would mean that I qualify for ESA. Even if I did I will lose it after a year as my husband earns more than £7,500 a year. I'll never qualify for the Long term Support Group because I will never be "completely incapable of any kind of work at all". Also, with a bit of luck, they'll never actually tell me I've only got six months to live, I'll just burst somewhere at some point. So that means I'll never qualify because I'll never be "terminally ill" (Though of course, I will be, potentially, every day.)

People with "moderate needs" like mine - I'll leave you to judge how moderate my disability sounds from the description I just gave above - will no longer qualify for any kind of Social Care. Nor will my children unless I get to the stage where I physically can't get them to school.

I won't qualify for the new PIP - my incontinence is not severe enough to qualify. I was incontinent 7 times last night, cleaned myself up, changed my own clothes. But I did it myself, which means my disability doesn't affect me, according to the new rules.

My husband won't get carer's allowance, we won't qualify for any of the things the Government say are exempting the disabled from the worst of this bill because look! They've de-classified me!! Evil genius isn't it? We won't be able to earn a little more before we lose support because guess what? I'm not disabled now, so I won't qualify for the "help disabled people are getting".

So if you haven't read my blog before, I hope all the talk of pooh didn't make you feel too uncomfortable. But I hope more than anything, that what we just did to compassion, dignity and the lives of sick and disabled people up and down the country makes you feel very uncomfortable indeed.

29th Feb, 2012. The Welfare Reform Bill, 2010, became an Act.

And everything changed.

















114 comments:

  1. My heart is broken http://jaynel62.blogspot.com/

    Please visit

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is the first time I've read this blog, & I am totally at a loss as to how this poor lady can be classed as not needing help for her & her family.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  3. Cant even say we have our dignity left as that will diminish over time. Again it will be peoples unfortunate deaths that will eventually highlight the concerns with this terrible bill. We have fought and lost we could never compete with the media, or politicians though

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sue, I never cease to admire your grit through all you have to endure. Your pithy style gets straight to the core of what is so very, very wrong with this government's attitude. It may be too late to save the Welfare Reform Bill, but it's never too late to get the point across that in spite of all its hollow rhetoric, the Tory-led government doesn't give a toss about ordinary people. Post shared on FB and Twitter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sue, if this doesn't demonstrate to people how utterly and definitively wrong and ill-conceived this Act is then they they have no heart, no soul and no right to call themselves human!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Bill became and Act... and I cried. I cried for you, and me and all of us.

    We tried. We tried so hard, but our elected representatives didn't represent us.

    The country hangs its head with shame (I do hope).

    ReplyDelete
  7. I wrote a blog post about the same topic, although I have the good fortune to have a much healthier inside. I mention this because you are one of the people who never throws the metaphorical sh*t at the wrong people. I admire your courage so much, and thinking about you does make me less of a wimp on occasion.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Heartbreaking & terrifying, for you, your family and all of us who will be so abused by the Welfare Reform Act 2010. Unthinkable in this day and age, but the Tories (and their Lib Dem pawns) simply have no empathy or humanity.

    Sending you much love and gratitude for all your hard work - x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Carol Edgington1 March 2012 at 10:18

    Your blogs always hit the spot and yesterdays description of how you spot a hypermobile person was a perfect description of my daughter and I.Like many other I will lose everything except my Rheumatiod Arthritis which gets worse everyday. It's the stress. But I will stand and fight them for as long as I have breath. They will not be allowed to forget what suffering they are causing or the deaths they are responsible for. We will shout until the rest of this country hears us and realises the mistake they have made by allowing this to happen. They will not stop us We are Spartacus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Like you i have RA and FMS very concerned abt PIP,

      Delete
  10. So what we've got now is any number of people who can't get benefits because they're classed as perfectly fit but can't work because they're really dreadfully ill. It's the Unum way! I wonder if all the work programme providers realised this when they signed their contracts with the government, or whether the government lied to them and said the 'disabled' were all perfectly well and faking it? The shit's going to be hitting the fan there soon as processions of broken bodies start puking and bleeding all over reception... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. And it will be no better under Labour, I doubt they'll try to repeal what has gone through and as I said earlier they'll just say we did not make the law so don't hate us.

    Amongst the campaign did we see many Dr's, Consultants or health professionals speaking out for their patients(there must of been some surely?)I don't remember seeing or hearing any.

    I really wonder if I can be bothered to vote at the next election. Or just to spoil my ballot paper or vote one of the candidates that stand but haven't a hope of getting in.

    "A Life on Benefits" is a life choice our PM keeps chanting of course it is, tell that to Sue. I'm sure Sue never asked to have the medical problems she has.

    As for the £26,000 cap we've said before few if any ever see anything like that figure. They won't now. As entitlement to one benefit led to others but if the first has been withdrawn.

    But its as Sue says its not just the money its the other help that you lose access to.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anyone want to join me in a chorus of REM's It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)? How about We're On A Road To Nowhere?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How about Infant Sorrow's timeless, 'You've got the Clap'?

      Delete
  13. Oh Sue, just when I think you've had more than enough to cope with, yet another horror comes your way - so, so sorry. How on earth the government can manage to construct a welfare system that completely fails you and your family is beyond me. But however futile it may seem, we have to try to get them to see reason in relation to the PIP criteria. Most of your readers will already be aware, but the website on which the Spartacus team (of disabled and sick people, who are worn out now!) has published help and guidance to enable people to respond to the Government's consultation on the proposed PIP criteria is Wearespartacus.org.uk

    We need as many people as possible to respond to the consultation in the hope that the Government will listen; we're aiming for 10,000 responses. But we know the government may misrepresent what we say, so we're also asking people to copy their responses to us at pipresponse@spartacusforum.org.uk

    We have to try...

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sending healing thoughts, hugs and thanks

    ReplyDelete
  15. I am so sorry to read this, Sue.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We still won't give up campaigning Sue, there has to be something else we can do. I don't care about myself anymore, I will survive what's going to happen to me, it's people like yourself that I am fighting for now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed it's the likes of sue that we will still need to fight for as there would be no way she and others like her could fight like i have done and continue to do so

      Delete
  17. Your blog has left me at a loss for words, Sue. So eloquent and profound. I have had serious gastro twice in my life. Even to this day I worry that it will happen EVER again, so horrendous was it. I can't compute what you are experiencing. If there was any doubt left, let me make myself clear. I, as a journalist, will support your aim as much as I possibly can. It is a scandal that more journalists aren't. This is a national - international - scandal, but it will change. The fight is ON, it is certainly not over. Bless you Sue and your family. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sonia - Channel 4 news has been good on Workfare and on Cathy Newman's FactCheck blog picked up on the "disappeared" DWP documents:

      http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-update-dwp-fail-to-explain-disappearing-workfare-document/9652

      Could you as a fellow journalist sort of join up with Ch4 to highlight what Sue has said, the terrifying future of people like her now the WRB is here to stay? And thankyou for all your support.

      Delete
  18. One would hope, if nothing else, someone is in a position to finance a legal challenge if they lose benefit & take it all the way to the European courts.

    It never ceases to amaze me how badly sick & disabled are treated in this country. I worry for the future for my husband and I (both disabled) and for all disabled people :(

    ReplyDelete
  19. I am at a loss for words - both because of your eloquence, stamina, and zest for life despite everything, and because I cannot believe that in twenty-first century Britain we as a state can fail people so badly.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Well as you all know i did say right at the very beginning of the welfare reform bill that this would happen
    It wasn't that i was being negative it was because that at the last election David Cameron said that this is what he had planed and it was my interpretation of what he said was indeed correct

    Interpretation is the key in life when someone talks to you and it is with much regret the public interpreted his view point wrongly

    My speciality in life is interpretation just as Sue's is writing they are both poles apart but at the end of the day interpretation of a speech like David Cameron a master of words fooled the vast majority of the public and we are all now in a situation in which we have to fight our own corner

    I have as many of you know been fighting the DWP for over 30 years and with a body to prove that fact and to the day i die that fight will continue and that my friends is the reality of not understanding at the outset on what will become reality

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes you were right all along Fourbanks, My hat off to you sir

      Delete
    2. Thanks but i don't take any comfort in being right all the time in fact the complete opposite as i have had to live under a permanent cloud being sensitive in today's world with the likes of David Cameron around has been a complete disaster

      if i had been clever i would have left the uk when i was 18 instead of going in to the bank of England so i sure have my failings

      Of course had i been fit prior to my eightieth birthday then i would most certainly have left the uk

      Any fit young person needs to think very carefully today if they wish to stay in the uk my advice to them would be to get a good an eduction as possible and leave "where" Perth Australia Barbados and the likes even some parts Canada are good with good ongoing prospects with reasonable housing costs and a good outdoor life

      Even Japan which is superb in parts despite what has gone on their recently with the nuclear accident

      Even just some basic countries like the Seychelles will give you a quality of life that the uk would never be able to give you and never could remember that a quality of life revolves around the people already living their get that right and you've cracked it get it wrong and that is how your life will end up

      Delete
  21. Sue, I wrote you a long, appreciative and supportive response, which my phone promptly ate. Have a hug & a plug in heated blanket instead. X

    ReplyDelete
  22. Renny Proudlove1 March 2012 at 13:55

    Sue. I have Crohn's as well, my (late) sister also. I can really relate to this as i've been there myself. Are you on Facebook? Renny

    ReplyDelete
  23. This is not being vulnerable it is a powerful reality check for the desensitized and denial purveyors of the WRB spleen. Libdems should hang their heads in shame at their propping up of Tory dogma supported by the DWP and much of our media to distort the reality through a hateful narrative of fecklessness and undeserving. The Equality and Human Rights Commission are eerily silent. Maybe the LibDem Spring conference will be vocal on this alongside the NHS and Legal Aid reform.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Sue, none of us voted for this... let's not forget this govt weren't even voted in, they were cobbled together. I have no illusions though, Labour will never reverse anything done by the condems. Why? Because it's the system stupid and as sure as the poor, sick and elderly are the first to be sacrificed, the system will take no prisoners. It will eventually come for us all except the very wealthy. I understand completely. I've lived at the bottom all my life but thank goodness I've had my physical health if not always my mental health :) My daughter, on the other hand - a healthy young lady until struck down with ulcerative colitis at the age of 23, the prime of her young life. We've been battling the system for over 2 years with not a penny to show for it yet. She has secondary RA, raynauds and is waiting for diagnosis for an extra condition which is also auto-immune. I'm praying for fybromyalga - seems the least offensive out of the 4 options. Anyway, I've advised all 4 of my young uns to get the best education they can and then bugger off. There's nothing here now, a country that can treat it's population with such venom is a country heading the way of the US. I wish you well Sue. All of us must keep up the fight, together we can at least say we did what we could. Even if you can't continue you know that you fought with everything you had and at least grabbed the attention of some of the media. It's criminal that the majority of the people who could and still can make a difference chose and still choose not to.....

    ReplyDelete
  25. None of us are alone, and we DO have the power to change things. The campaign against workfare is prove of that. Sending love to you Sue, and everyone else like me who is in fear xxx

    ReplyDelete
  26. Fibromyalgia probably isn't the most desirable of the options. I would literally rather have cancer, or pretty much anything 'serious', 'real' and curable than this. It's an invisible illness which is disbelieved by most people. And there's no treatment really. Out of all my many accumulated conditions, the fibromyalgia is the very worst as it has surpassed just pain and regularly limits my movements so I cannot go out, work, and am bed bound. My muscles just go stiff and won't even move. And by regularly, I mean nearly every day. And on those rare good days where I can make it outside, having an invisible illness only perpetuates my bad days as nobody recognises what effect having to queue or stand up on the bus has on me. Even the bus driver who sees my disabled bus pass. Not one of them has EVER asked anyone to move to allow me to sit down. God forbid an elderly person should stand up though. And the DWP will surely concentrate on that one good day of seven that makes me bed bound for the remainder of the week. Considering that any medical assessments would obviously be on that good day or I wouldn't be able to make it. I honestly wish I'd been aborted so I didn't have to suffer through this existence. Maybe, just maybe, if the public, government, education, friends, family, employers and service providers were sympathetic and supportive of disabled people such as myself, I could endure my limitations and try to concentrate on the good parts of my life. But as everyone has a compassion deficit, what good parts do I have to live for? I'm just a burden on everyone. Nobody gives me the chance to live as fulfilling life as I can hope for.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope I didn't appear flippant to you, that really wasn't my intention. My daughter has 3 diagnosed conditions and a stomach ulcer for good measure. I said fibromyalgia because the other options are progressive and deadly from what I've read. I'm not dismissing the condition, I know what my daughter lives with every day. I'm really just hoping she'll be around as long as possible! That's just me being selfish I guess, I haven't asked her what she wants, I know the answer would be to be her old self again and we both know that's not gonna happen. Please just know that not everyone has a compassion deficit, there are many, many good people with good hearts just trying to make the best of whats going on around them. Best wishes, Namaste

      Delete
  27. We need a party to start up possibly the Unions are the one's who should consider putting candidtaes forward to fight at the next election and they can do so to try and get back some of the pensions/jobs they've loist but also take on a better way of helping the disabled/sick/unemployed and poorly paid people in work because Labour, Lib Dems and Tory's won't be doing anything different to what they are now...

    The Labour party came out of a movement fighting for the worker(after all years ago we only had the two parties Liberals and Tories)and now Labour has forgotten its rots even if it gets a lot of its money from Unions.

    We need a kind of Labour Mark II. A party with a very strong set of morals and social justice.

    And we need some kind of outlet in the media to get the truth out there because our present media isn't doing the job.

    Sadly, even if it happened many will have already found themselves already affected by the changes because if they com in by 2013 there is still approx a couple of years before the election takes place and then it takes a few years to try and reverse or change what's become law.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. there are some good guys trying to change things in Labour:
      http://www.l-r-c.org.uk/

      (not a party political advert - I think the labour leadership are worse than useless, and have my doubts that socialist ideals will ever permeate the party - but many don't know about what's going on with the Labour Representation Committee.)
      Sue: Hope you feel better soon xx
      You are a amazing, btw, Sue!!!

      Delete
  28. I am so sorry Sue - we are next, all of us. They can take our lifeline away, our food, our, care, our wheelchairs. They can use the media to distort and manipulate public opinion, they try to break up our families - BUT THEY CAN NOT BREAK OUR SPIRIT.
    NOW is the time to step up. We used the internet, the bloggs, the petitions, the marches and the protests. Now its time to form our political party for the next election, to form unions to use the UN conventions.
    We are the new christians, prosecuted and fed to the lions to please the naive crowds.

    A 5min clip for all who HAD ENOUGH.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ELleCQvew

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good film clip for our times. "I am mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore"

      Or as Michael Moore would say "I REFUSE TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY LIKE THIS. AND I'M NOT LEAVING"

      Delete
  29. Lets hope the committee will do something about it..
    JOINT COMMITTEE PUBLISHES REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RIGHT OF DISABLED PEOPLE TO INDEPENDENT LIVING - and it looks pretty bad...

    http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/human-rights/087%20EasyRead%20Ind%20Liv%20substantive.pdf

    Also in a more official wording:
    http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/joint-select/human-rights-committee/news/publication-of-report-on-the-implementation-of-the-right-of-disabled-people-to-independent-living/

    ReplyDelete
  30. Lord Freud in the Lords yesterday grinning from ear to ear after the toxic vote - he has a very strange presence in the House, rather like a malign Thunderbird puppet. He clearly sees it as his destiny to make the lives of disabled people as miserable as possible.

    There is no logic to the ghastly monstrosity of what will now become an Act of Parliament. How can this be acceptable? The answer is - it is not.

    So very sadly we have a government of bullies and liars and live in a country where to be disabled is to be presented as a crime against the healthy.

    This is meant to be a Diamond Jubilee year full of Olympic celebrations, not the sight of Freud celebrating with his SPAD-pack as he screws the disabled.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Thank You For posting this. Sorry it is so painfully true for you. Our Government really does not understand us as a nation.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Well the wrb and workfare was a topic on Max Kieser recentley and it was said on there that we now have facsism and corporatism as policy and it is basically the new fuedalism.People are not people anymore but work fare units.I mean when you consider the fact that there has been over 30 million pounds of our money,with ten of that alone going to mucdonalds,given to some of the participating companies of the workfare scheme and not one REAL job has been created from it and in fact most companies have used it to ,as one put it,upskill thier existing workforce, then we know that Max is right.
    The attitude of this govt,and lets not forget Labour started the ball rolling,is one of entitled betters and serfs below who should know thier place.
    Stand up to em like people on here and the Right To Work guys and you get caled trotskysists and lazy luddites..
    The Corporate run govt is now a fixture and they will keep on treading on people like us and getting away with it as any opposition is hidden from the mainstream and never appears on or in the media.
    Now unless the maimstream become affected soon this will continue until its too late and any reference back to how this happened in the 1930s in germany and europe is not scaremongering.The loss of liberty and dignity is done by increments so small we dont notice it and therefore do not react....The time is now to get tougher and as i said earlier in postings ,and as said above, we need to form our own political party and fight fight fight.Remember i said when we have nothing left we have nothing to lose.....The Million man maarches in the states got things changed and we now need something similar here.......

    ReplyDelete
  33. Sue, you are so brave. I can't believe you and your family suffer so much. THe worry of this bill and just reading it on the internet contributed to a massive flare up that left me 'spoonless' I am petrified that I will get nothing soon- People consider me to be 'severely' affected by my condition and I think that will mean nothing. My partner and I have been together 13 years, for access reasons we live apart but he still does all my cooking cleaning. we had plans for him to move in but he takes home just over 10k and I don't think we could afford to lose all my support, live on that and if they havent raped me of my DLA/ equivalent benefit lose 50+ quid a week for the car, which the powerchair goes in. I am scared, scared scared. I would consider chucking myself of a bridge if I became that much of a financial burden! but i sometimes think that is what they want so there is less of us to support!

    Sue, please, please keep trying to claim 'DLA'. if you havent use already CAB/DAB (citizens/disability advice bureau) to help you.its not fair thaT ANYONE shoyuld suffer that much.

    I would like the MPs to read some of these blogs or talk to us but they woulnt.Theyll be all happy to wheel out(no pun intende) the parlympians and boast about accessable london transport but the rest of us don't matter. seems a double blow with the NHS reforms- how long will it before before mine and others out of county hospital visits for specialist treatment gets stopped. Sorry for ranting, I jusst had to gewt out how I feel

    My love goes out to all disabled folk xxx

    ReplyDelete
  34. The Parlympians have not got where they are with any help from the Government. Any financial help from the appropriate departments would have been withdrawn.

    But they'll take the credit for any success...I hope if they try that, they'll tell them where to go...They won't but ideally when they have the ears of the press it would be nice if they'd speak up for the ordinary people who are being affected by what's happening.

    But I don't like what is going on whether you are disabled, working or unemployed(Everyone is losing out)and I have said before isn't there something wrong that people working are having to have their wages made up by in theory still getting help from the Government. Why are people not being paid a decent living wage?

    ReplyDelete
  35. Sue - you are an extraordinarily admirable person; I am constantly amazed by your courage, not to mention your terrific writing skills. What you have written today should be forced down the throats of all the MPs and Lords who have voted through this execrable bill which will be the death sentence for many ill and disabled people.

    Jane Campbell in the Guardian:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/01/disabled-people-have-come-far?commentpage=1#end-of-comments

    ReplyDelete
  36. I have just spent 3days nursing my frail and elderly mum through the virus you describe - on the 2nd day I caught it myself - indescribable night of misery for both. My heart goes out to you that you suffer this constantly.
    I have CFS and am now exhausted - my disability benefits are under appeal and I was greeted this morning by a letter from DWP informing me payments are suspended due to my missing an appointment. Much as I felt like giving up at that point you have inspired me to keep on fighting. x

    ReplyDelete
  37. I really hope that the reality of Karma is so.What goes around comes around.
    And those that purported,supported,lied and cheated to get this welfare reform bill on the statute books,get there's.
    I am not a vengeful man,but I would love to gloat at there downfall.And perhaps see some justice.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I feel much like you Anon Mar 1,2012 11.08am but of course the MP's and Lords have one big advantage over most of the population, they have plenty of money to get the best of care. That doesn't mean they'll survive but it gives them a good chance especially as some of the other stresses are removed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is true that ghastly creatures like Freud, Cameron, and ther rest will never know what is like to live in fear of losing vital benefit or go through the humiliation of being assessed, but that doesn't make them fireproof. They will grow old, and lose power. And they may just lose the latter rather sooner than they expect. The dim Daily Mail reading majority may have been taken in by the "spin" that has been put on disability, but I suspect this legislation may cause them some unexpected problems.

      My daughter CANNOT clean herself up, so she will qualify for PIP. To my surprise, it looks like she may qualify at a higher rate than now. We applied for the "night time rate" some years ago, in one of those patches where economies were being made, and she was turned down. It never seemed worth appealing, so I didn't. Now, it seems she WILL qualify for the higher rate - and she can't be the only one. I suspect that many pensioners, or people in work, did not realise they were eligible, and now they will. Under-claiming was always a larger figure than fraud, so the Government may find they have some explaining to do to the "not on my taxes" brigade when the costs of appeals, assessments are added up. And that is not to mention that decent people have been alerted, and with luck will continue to made aware that these are savage cuts to vulnerable people.

      Today, the press is full of sympathy for the policeman who lost his sight, his job, his family, and sadly could not cope with such a sudden and drastic change in the active life he took for granted. It is very, very sad, and the reasons for his despair may well be very complex, but sudden disability appears to have been part of it. No-one can count on being immune to that forever.

      As my daughter's disabilities are severe, she has slightly less to fear than many. But the country has just become a meaner, colder place - and not just for the disabled. I didn't see Freud grinning. The idea is revolting enough to turn anyone's stomach. But I still felt dismay and disbelief that this ghastly legislation got passed. We just, somehow, have to hang on to courage and hope and go on fighting any way we can.

      Delete
    2. Yes, interesting isn't it that the public understand and sympathise with the despair of the blinded policeman.

      Yet according to the government ONE YEAR on ESA is sufficient to come to terms with and "adapt" to being blinded (or any other sudden disablement) and return to work.

      On channel 4 news another man, suddenly blinded, explained how he went into a spiral of depression and it took him 4 years to adapt. That only with the help of a friend and opportunities for work put his way by the RNIB.

      Delete
  39. There is no doubt about it that David Cameron and his government are very dangerous people where the sick and disabled are concerned

    My interpretations in going forward are that the government will put as much pressure on us to take our own lives this will pave the way for them in going much further with welfare reform

    They will save a vast amount of money and that is the key and which drives them

    Is their anyway that they can be stopped ? Not really you would need to have a very high suicide rate before they backed down and i mean high at least 5 a week maybe even higher

    i don't see like in Syria a way in which David Cameron will back down the only group of people that COULD stop him would be the police and that is all there is no other group that has the power to do so as all of the mp's and lords are all tied up in these reforms so they must all share the blame at a later date on any deaths related to the welfare reform bill

    The queen has the power to stop him as a last result but i cant see her doing that the death toll of DWP related suicides would have to be very high 20 or so a week at least

    with regret i have to tell you in that the government will destroy us to an extent that we will not be able to go out of the home and to do things as we wont have the money and it will be on our own heads on what and how we cope with being housebound and of course we wont know that until that times comes

    At worse your mind will pack up and you'll end up in care and you will need to be on your guard their to make sure your mental part of you is ok if you feel that it's not then you will get help from your local MHT via your doctor

    I myself am mainly housebound because of my long term illness of over 30 years and one could say that i am use to it but personally that's not the case as you never really get use to it I'm at a stage of just like most long term people with illness or disability and that;s in just getting by and living day to day

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://calumslist.org/ was keeping a list of all the suicides put down to the Atos medical assessment.(20 verified at last count) He had reported it to the police for investigation. Also Peter's list was keeping a tally of all those who died while waiting for an appeal tribunal against the decision they were fit to work.

      IN THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS THE SITE HAS BEEN TAKEN OUT (yes, another one)with a 403 FORBIDDEN notice appearing instead.

      This government is manipulating the media and silencing dissent. We are meant to be a democracy and the public should not tolerate this.

      Delete
    2. Anon - yes this seems totally awful, but I'm hoping there may be a ray of hope. Sorry to be a bit vague but I seem to remember reading on Callum's List a while back words to the effect that if the site suddenly disappeared, it could be because the allegations were in fact being investigated, ie it all becomes sub judice. I really hope this is the case, and not censorship...

      Delete
    3. calum i'm sure will wont to make sure that only confirmed DWP deaths go on to the register as it will look bad to include non related DWP deaths
      It could thou well be censorship as it is treading on bringing on the government down if the police got involved

      Suspicious deaths are always looked into by the police and if it has been found that the DWP has played a role in a person taking their own life the police will bring criminal proceedings against the DWP/IDS and that is a fact which even IDS cant get out of

      Delete
    4. Yes. Calum is ex police officer and all deaths confirmed as related to ESA assessments by coroners. I too read that if the site went down it would be because sub judice. I am not that optimistic given the number of takeouts of unwelcome sites. Yet the information still exists.

      I suspect the government is rattled as Katy Clark (Labour) asked Grayling in Parliament on jan 23rd if there was exposure of the DWP to the Corporate Manslaughter Act:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yRaBth9w6Q

      Delete
  40. But don't forget the good news that at least you won't be 'languishing' on benefits any more. Good old ConDems eh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. we will have to eat a lot more bread and cheese no doubt having said that cheese is getting expensive so some of us will end with bread and soup hopefully with some butter

      Delete
    2. I cannot survive on bread and cheese. I am hypoglycaemic ( among many other things) My food bill is ENORMOUS. Without DLA, (which helps me pay for extra food among other things) I will end up being constantly hospitalised. How much will that save?

      Delete
  41. Hello

    We read your post and felt it deserved a wider audience. I represent a Scottish news site Newsnet Scotland. We are a pro Scottish independence site and are read by politicians from all parties in Scotland.

    If you are agreeable we would like to reproduce this piece. We can be contacted at contact-at-newsnetscotland.com, replace the 'at' with @ of course.

    Good Luck
    NNS

    ReplyDelete
  42. This is the first time ive read your blog. And loved the way you have sumed up individuals who are "in-between" and nobody wants to talk about, recognise or give any support to. Unless you are either end of the spectrum, you're a nobody. And they are the people the people need to help.

    ReplyDelete
  43. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I love reading this blog, with it's brutal honesty.

    I get sick a lot, and be up all night. I have prostate cancer, and have to sit on the toilet for hours, sweating, nausea, head spinning, exhaustion. I received two treatments, but no follow up, and the urology department has moved, now I have been waiting 7 months for more biopsies and scans. I'll have to travel 200 miles, so unless they give me an ambulance, I might as well forget it. Apart from that, I don't want to knock the NHS, they have been kind to me, and it's not their fault they can't afford more than one urology Dept in Northern Ireland.

    The blog says everything I was feeling. About 3am last night, I typed welfare reform into Google, hit the news tab and hoped for a miracle. But then I read Cameron's usual rhetoric about the feckless scroungers, and his glee that the WRB had finally passed.

    There are just too many aspects of the bill to know how I will be effected. I know I under occupy a Council home, my Father took this house forty years ago. I grew up in it, I left for marriage, and returned when that failed. My Mum moved into a fold, and I took tenancy of the home. I had spent time in homeless hostels and have lived rough for three years. I still feel traumatized by that time, with many of the memories suppressed. I'm so scared of being forced into communal living feeling so ill now. I hate clinical living and institutional life.

    I was more fortunate than you Sue with my DLA. I did hear your interview on Radio with Maria Miller a while back, and I remember you feeling your rejection letter was wrote for someone else. But the battles I fought to get my DLA almost killed me. I didn't even have a person to put on the form saying they knew my illnesses. So they sent an Atos Doctor. He was so ignorant, but strangely before he left my home, he shook my hand and said, Good Luck. I got both high rates for life.(indefinitely) Then two weeks later the new government was formed, and it's been Hell.

    Well, I needed a ramble, I'm so depressed these past few months, and I knew what was coming, maybe the apprehension is even worse than the stark reality. Sometimes I just wish the worst was already here, but I should be careful what to wish for.

    Best Wishes. I believe it is a damn disgrace that you are not getting DLA with a condition like that, and the threat of death that must always loom large in your mind, especially with children. Very very sad times.

    ReplyDelete
  45. my heart goes out to you. i have an assessment next week. i'm so scared.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Take a friend with you. We also now have the right to ask for medicals to be recorded, and to be given a copy,although this must be requested in advance.

      The government has deliberately failed to publicise this. The hope is then they can say the take up was so low it will not be allowed under PIP.

      Everyone ask for a recording before we lose the right to have one!

      http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/latest-news/1531-dwp-sabotaging-right-to-record-esa-medicals

      Delete
  46. I notice that like me, everyone commenting on this heartbreaking piece shows no surprise at what the Conservative government has done. They always attack the most vulnerable people in order for the better off people to maintain their betteroffness. I begrudge nobody anything but everybody deserves a decent standard of living and I know we cant all be the same, but the suffering this bill will cause is dreadful and alarming and unnecessary.

    ReplyDelete
  47. There is enough money to afford welfare. They can also find money for wars and other things that they believe in...and let us not forget we are always being told that much of what can be claimed remains unclaimed.

    How about this? The money they pay private companies to do the medical assesments such Atos would be better spent by being invested in the care of those they are trying to shaft.

    There still seems something wrong about companies making money out of the disadvantaged.

    ReplyDelete
  48. The bill has become an Act but it is not over. I suspect it has only just begun in a way -------- the fight back that is! This govt have been very clever. They have attacked everything at once so that everyone is in a spin not knowing which "fire" to fight first. I know that when a persons life is practically depending on it the momentum seems to be gathering too slowly but it is gathering. We will reverse this awful legislation! We have to. Susieb1211

    ReplyDelete
  49. Appeal, appeal and appeal some more, its all we can do. Fight for what you deserve, never say never, never give up.

    ReplyDelete
  50. By the way, is anyone planning any national protests outside the dwp or jcp over these changes? Coulb be a good fightback platform amd would get media interest.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Perhaps they should view this this disabled man’s interview and reflect upon it

    Returned to tell his experience http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3BTtii4fIY

    ReplyDelete
  52. David Cameron warns of Syria's 'day of reckoning'
    David Cameron David Cameron is in Brussels for the EU summit

    David Cameron has said the West should "build evidence" to "hold Syria's leaders to account" for their crimes.

    And that is good news for the sick and disabled an to all of those that have died and will continue to die under the new welfare reforms
    We here at a later date will hold him to account for the crimes that he has committed and no doubt will allow to be committed on the sick and disabled over the coming years he wont have as in Syria blood on his hands but he sure well will have death

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I couldn't agree more. We are here to tell the story Fourbanks and we will tell it.

      Delete
    2. Hi fourbanks,

      Yes too true - I often wonder if he is aware of the irony of making such pronouncements about dictators killing their own citizens. Or is he just so deluded he doesn't realise his own hypocrisy?

      This is what HIS regime has in store for those who dare protest in this country. have a look and see where we are heading:

      Seen for the first time on British streets, when the NHS workers went on strike on 1.12.11. Ten foot high police steel barriers "protecting" Parliament from any access:

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2068180/Public-sector-strikes-Incredible-police-barrier-used-anti-cuts-demonstrators.html

      Even worse, asking UK scientists to prepare nerve agents for use in crowd control:

      http://sovereignindependent.co.uk/2012/02/08/weapons-of-mass-destruction-to-be-used-on-the-british-people-we-paid-for-these-weapons-folks/

      Delete
    3. David Cameron needs watching as a lot of the bills like the welfare reform bill are carried out on a local level and if you show a weak hand to the DWP they can and will abuse you in your own home so you all need to watch out for that if that should happen to you you must tell the police straight away so that they can take action on the DWP

      Delete
  53. The DWP are consulting on Clause 99 of the Welfare Reform Bill by 4th May.

    This will mean that anyone who wants to appeal their Atos decision on ESA or DLA will have to have a "Revision" by a Decision Maker first. There is no time limit on how long this can take. During this time the ESA assessment phase rate will NO LONGER BE PAID.This means people will either have to claim Jobseekers Allowance (which is ridiculous as appeal is that not fit to work)or go without any income indefinitely.

    http://www.dwp.gov.uk/consultations/2012/mandatory-consideration.shtml

    ReplyDelete
  54. This is about the sixth attempt to get this message on-line, I must be doing something wrong though I have posted before

    Oh Sue sorry to hear you are just so ill, surely you must qualify for DLA? How can you not? Surely if a person as sick as you cannot get DLA or soon PIP what hope is there for anyone else. This morally bankrupt government should be ashamed, we have taken a step back to darker times that most of us thought were long one.

    You are one brave lady to do all you do. What a sad day when the government turns its back on the sick and disabled.

    We need to stop the same thing happening to the NHS reform bill, we have to protest about the NHS reforms which if they go through will be an added detriment to all of us who struggle with illnesses and disability.

    38 degrees are running several campaigns
    http://www.38degrees.org.uk/

    I intend to write to every Tory and lib/dem MP asking them to oppose the NHS reforms and express my concern about the passing of the welfare reform bill.

    This government has no sense of decency, of morality, of compassion or empathy, as another poster so rightly says they have no right to call themselves human.

    “Human beings are all members of one body.
    They are created from the same essence.
    When one member is in pain,
    The others cannot rest.
    If you do not care about the pain of others,
    You do not deserve to be called a human being."

    Quotation from Saadi a 13th century Persian poet

    Thank you for all you and everyone else involved have done, at least we have not gone down without a fight, and we do need to keep fighting.

    My best wishes and hugs to you


    Christine

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's lovely. Believe it or not, one of the nicest things I heard about all this came from George Galloway the other day.

      He said "You are our brother, and we are the keeper of our brother, and we have failed"

      Soon, enough people "get it" and that's the moment the tide turns. I think we can see it a bit already.

      Delete
  55. A4E's work programme performance data has been leaked

    http://intensiveactivity.wordp...

    Their results are an absolute disaster for Grayling, who is apparently in meltdown mode. A4E's website is offline under orders from the DWP.
    The penalty for leaking data was termination of all work programme contracts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you will find once the police are involved things will turn up and many will be arrested the same with ATOS

      Delete
    2. You have no idea how much I've wanted to see that chart. I've tried really hard to know for sure what the performance of A4E was. The info was probably out there somewhere, but I couldn't get it. And I have a pretty remarkable contact list now.

      To see that 6 "providers" didn't even place ANYONE in work - no-one at all was jaw dropping. The average performance can't be more than about 8% but I'll work it out properly tomorrow.

      shocking. I believe over 3 billion of taxpayers money has gone to these schemes haven't they? I need to confirm exactly what that figure relates to, but the public have every right to be utterly outraged if the figures on first glance are as they look.

      Delete
    3. Hi Sue,( hope you are feeling somewhat better)

      Hard to know exactly what happened here but from Ipswich Unemployed Action it seemed all A4E data was just freely available through google searches either on the night of wed 29th Feb or AM of Thursday 1st Feb.

      Someone there has worked it out as:

      "From 20362 referrals only 1.9% outcome rate / 8.9% Job Entry Rate…

      20,362 total
      386 for outcomes
      1,812 got a job of some description (sustainability/length unknown – 1 day/week?)"

      The A4E website was taken down and didn't go back up till Saturday.( but too late to stop several hundred downloading all the files!)
      No doubt Grayling will claim it was hacked but apparently just freely available as uploaded to wordpress site. I have seen a couple of links to the info on Independent and Telegraph comment sites, but still no great breakthrough with the media.

      It shows that A4E's record with millions in taxpayer's money,is worse than jobseekers being left to their own devices to find work for themselves. Or may in fact be worse, since the time spent on free work prevents job searching and takes real jobs out of the market.

      No wonder Grayling has forbidden Work Providers from publishing their stats. But since the site is back up, the guess is that they hope to blag their way out of this.

      Have fun!

      Delete
  56. Above link not working, try this.

    http://intensiveactivity.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/a4e-work-programme-performance-revealed/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A4E leaks:
      Workfare scheme may be INCREASING unemployment

      http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/the-5-billion-workfare-scheme-that-still-exists-and-may-be-increasing-unemployment/

      Delete
  57. Today for the first time evr i bought the morning star becuase i noticed the glaring headline...True face of the big society...disabled fear a summer of evictions.
    Inside too is an artcile on how IDS has attemtpted to hide the failing of a4e by having it sneakily exempted from any Ofsted investigation and you now cannot get any oinfo on its performance figures as its compliance report is deemed commercially sensitive info....SO a company that costs the tax payer..us...millions is now not accountable.Well i have not read that link in the post above yet but it makes me bloody wonder what they are hiding and if they can hide thier darling emma's shennaigans then any info we could get on Atos and Unum will be concealed the same way i reckon...So no democracy here folks...you keep paying for it and we will keep denying you it.....Dont complain cos we wont explain...
    Yeah its all linked in we can see that now.Give old macdonald 10 million to spend on those already in jobs and spend millions on workfare that doesnt work.....never did never will....and spend millions on atos and unum...give em loads who cares as long as we get some says the men at the ministry...BUT actually care for anyone...DONT make us laugh .We dont like you so we we only want your vote when we need it otherwise fuck and die....
    WEll anyway..speaking of fighting back and forming a union
    i did find someting that might interest sue and the rest of you (it did me so i am looking in to it) and its the Democratic reform party...they are on facebook and have a website but if you are going to look check the facebook page first as i think they said thier website might have a virus on it and to check the fb page first before looking at thhe site.
    The name sounds promising cos lets face it we bloody need some democracy reform i this country....worth a look anyway.
    I might even get the morning star again......or would i then be accusewd by camclegg of being screaming commie trot...for what biting back.....
    Hmm if they think we are biting now...WAIT while election time you bunch of bastards.....see hwo many million votes you have all lost by then..... To quote a famous punk song
    theres nobody listening ...theres no reply...THEY will listen then....

    ReplyDelete
  58. Thanks sarcboy
    All of their websites at this time have a frame virus on them so you will need a proper anti virus to view them to start off with like nod 32 which will allow viewing and keep the virus off your system by blocking the frame
    if you don't know what your doing then it's best to stay away

    quote sarcboy
    theres nobody listening ...theres no reply...THEY will listen then....

    The damage will be done by the next election so they still wont listen

    It would take a minimum of 25 years to get another political party up and running and fit for running a government at least as their are many people in this country who are like the government and wont to see the money spent on the sick and disabled spent on themselves

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the facebook page is clear thou from a virus
      http://www.facebook.com/pages/Democratic-Reform-Party/185370051497344

      Delete
    2. Yes it probably will take some time ,dont know about 25 years,but each journey begins with the first step and we have to start somewhere so it might as well be from here so to speak.WE now know there are thousands of like minded souls its just getting them all together and getting the momentum to get a going......in a very real sense sue,kaliya nd the rest of the team started us off and now ,as we all keep saying, we need to up the game and all join together so maybe JUST maybe the democratic reform party is the place to be...or at least worth looking at...They seem to be crying out for people with the skills that people like sue,kaliya,yourself and the others have so why not maybe contact them...The very least we get out of that is shared ideas and contacts.....it all helps or as one purveyor of the workfare fiasco says...every little helps.By the way sue i do hope you are feeling better and i also hope you had tea and cakes..or was it ice cream and cakes......:)

      Delete
  59. Brian McAlorum2 March 2012 at 20:56

    “Diary of a Benefit Scrounger”
    Poem: Written for Sue Marsh

    You are not a benefit scrounger Sue
    Neither a cheat, fraudster nor bum
    More exactly… a human with a disability
    That any-one, at any-time, can become

    To be chronically ill and withstand this suffering
    Is to be in a world already decided and frozen
    To live a life of courageous austere limitation
    By treading a path we may have otherwise not chosen

    But here we are, surrendered, to our bodies broken
    And now, insufficient in a land where we may do time
    For being vulnerably ill, sick and disabled
    Appears fast becoming the verdict of our crime

    Can I thank you Sue for highlighting our plea
    To the many individuals you spoke to in position and rank
    To our elected honourable parliamentarians and law makers
    But for the sick, ill and disabled –
    There was never going to be enough coffers in the piggy bank

    Let’s hope we meet kindly individuals on our way
    Who are not contaminated by money, propaganda and lies
    But who are compassionate, honest and fearless
    Before too many of our sick friends have died…

    Thank you so much for your Diary Sue. It has been an inspiration to read your journey through the desert of the real… Maybe a journalist one day soon will turn it into a documentary, or a publisher into a book. My Love & Best Wishes to you and your family... I know how important and challenging Self-Care can be when there’s a weighty world in & out there to negotiate – but I hope you find that illusive balance…

    With sincere gratitude
    Brian

    ReplyDelete
  60. Its repeated again tomorrow on Radio 4 and probably will be mentioned in the follow up programme Any Questions it comes up about how the poor are being affected by the cuts and the laughter of the audience at a conservative on the panel who says how much they have/are doing for the disadvantaged of the UK...

    ReplyDelete
  61. Well it looks like it's all over now until the fat lady sings as the saying goes or like in the dying seconds of a football match where your one nil down and then the other team score again which in this case is the government

    so yes it's all over who would have thought that at the last election a complete overhaul of the welfare reform bill and that of the NHS in which the sick and disabled would lose their independence and dignity and that for the rest of their lives they will be regarded by their government as the group of people that made the uk bankrupt and as a punishment for the rest of their lives they will have to be reassessed and fill in forms and if they are out and about they will be looked down on by others in society particularity by the government

    And that they will be classed in going forward as scroungers by everyone at best and scum at worst

    What will happen to the weakest that is my main worry i was once strong but I'm now very weak will my mind be able to carry on after 31 years that i have had to endure so far would it even be possible to go any longer with the tears that i shed everyday

    I think for all of us it will be ultimately be how our minds will react the mind is a dark force and can play up at any point from stress but being free from stress is easier said then done

    We will either sink as a group on mass or rise up and face our poverty lifestyle of being housebound with courage and fight

    Whatever path we do go down we have the knowledge in that we are all as one and in this mess together every one of us and if darkness should fall upon us we must remember that

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Large island comes to mind where we can live our lives free from hatred and abuse, but then thats giving in

      Delete
  62. Our PM is defending the welfare and NHS changes today saying that again that if you can work/no one who gets benefits that are able to work should but he's making it so that even if you are ill, help is being taking away so who exactly will be left that our Government can say they are allowed financial help and care?

    He says he did not come into politics for the soft option and knows his policies are unpopular so he's prepared to take a hit! But its good for the country...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He's so out of touch with disabilities it's alarming.

      Mental Illness can prevent someone from working, we're not scroungers because we're mentally ill.

      Much like Sue with her Crohn's issues, realistically she shouldn't be forced to work, and should be supported by the state/those specialised in her condition.

      But because the goverment are targetting all disabled people she's being put in a bad situation.

      This Goverment is evil.

      I personally will be appealing everything that goes against me, even if I have to get a solicitor to do it. There are people out there who no doubt will represent the disabled for a small fee in a court of a law.

      Delete
    2. If you cross 1984 with the tv show The Prisoner you end up with the internal make up of David Cameron's mind,Emma Harrison is the equivalent of the big scary bouncy ball.

      Delete
    3. You make a good point i think David Cameron master plan is to keep all of those on sick and disability benefits isolated so they feel like their in some sort of prison. The idea behind this is that it will play on the minds of the younger generation so they will be scared to copy anyone in their family who are on benefits
      David Cameron wonts to rid the country of long term illness and disability and create a world in which everyone is like himself

      A bit scary if you ask me as it's been tried before in other countries and failed all you end up doing is like in India is to create a vast divide where society looks down on the vulnerable and gives them a wide birth so that are afraid to go out

      Delete
  63. The parallels with what is happening now and what happened in the 1930's Germany is frightening.

    ReplyDelete
  64. What's that saying about history repeating itself? And I'll repeat myself too...Societies considered free eventually become restricted. Societies that have been held back eventually gain the fredom they've wished for.

    It really does seem as 1984 is happening only approx 30 years later than was envisioned.

    ReplyDelete
  65. If there is a protest, a rally, a riot, anything...

    And it turns ugly...

    I'll be right there, making it more ugly than you can imagine...

    The disabled and the poor have had absolutely no voice in this. No political representation at all. What has happened to them has been despotic, cruel, totalitarian. We've been ignored, even mocked and vilified, and made to pay for a crisis of capitalism and a failure of politics that was not our making. Now we are to be put to utility, made to support the very structure that failed us or perish. Many of us will perish even if we do accept the slavery and start pushing the wheel.

    This is wrong. The worst humanitarian crisis in Britain for centuries.

    My own disabilities are all inside my head, my body is fit and healthy. That will be put to good use if I get the opportunity, and certain people are going to regret it. That is a promise.

    There is nothing more dangerous than a people with nothing at all left to lose.

    Sue: I am so sorry for you, for all of us. But we can not give up and let the next generation grow up thinking that it's fine to be completely without morals, that life is basically a cost benefit analysis, that profit comes before people. The idea that the value of human life is related to its productivity has to be challenged and ahs to be beaten. As hard as this is, we have to fight on.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Brian McAlorum3 March 2012 at 22:58

    Dear Sue & Friends

    I wish to offer you in part a short story that helps me to keep travelling forward in my most difficult of times – even when moving forward is primarily a metaphor for surviving and living this life in all its truths and sincerity…

    From a Translation of The Odyssey: Poseidon (God of the Sea) says to Odysseus who is trying to return home, but has to cross many oceans and seas to get there – “You will spend an eternity “trying” to get home, but “never” will you return home”.

    Hasten to say Odysseus refuses to lie down to these words and intimidation – and sets off across the many oceans and seas with his small dependable crew.

    On their way they meet many obstacles, trials and tribulations, and the crew dwindle.

    As even Odysseus himself is tempted and temporarily forgets why he set out on the first place on this perilous journey, he returns to the task at hand and remembers: it was to return home.

    As he is beaten back by the mighty sea of Poseidon time and time again, he ages and wearies; his body becomes a bag of bones, his hair long and scraggy, but his heart strengthens like the courageous lion as he remebers why he set out in the first place. He builds a raft and as he is beaten back by the waves, he screams aloud!!

    “I will stay with it, and endure through suffering hardships, and once the heaving sea has shaken my raft to pieces… then I will swim”.

    We must swim friends…

    And by the way - Odysseus did finally return home!

    ReplyDelete
  67. talking of pooh

    the DWP have sent me a bill, no explanation or anything, just a bill for overpayment that I know nothing about. It feels like I am paying off the national debt personnally. tried phoning them but was greeted by some classical music, no people even after 6 attempts - what is going on???

    DWP and HMRC not fit for purpose - they are pooh

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you will need to contact your mp to get it sorted their is no other way to do so as they will stop your money or send the bailiffs round at 6 am in the morning

      I myself have been through this with the DWP for years let me know how you proceed as i have very deep inside phone numbers and addresses i should only if your mp cant help you then i may be able to

      This address is for all those who feel at risk only be it from themselves or from others it is the end of the line address so use it with care if you get turned down here your finished this is where you go when all else has failed ok

      vivien Hopkins OBE
      chief executive
      pension disability and carers service
      PO BOX 50101
      LONDON
      SW1P 2WU

      Delete
    2. On more government links to A4e:

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/further-no-10-link-to-a4e-7534757.html

      Extraordinarily, a spokesman for A4e says:

      "A4e has performed consistently at or above industry average across all major employability programmes.."

      Many people will know that recently A4e documents which show their utter crapness became widely circulated on the net: Only 8% of people gone through their stupid programmes go on to job. Makes one worry what the "industry average" is then!!!

      Delete
  68. Yeah right...what a bloody lying set of....so now we have a4e WHO are under investigation for fraud actually still on contract to the govt to ADVISE no 10 on the next round of privatisations and they are getting paid 250 thou for this advice in a contract agreed last september....PROOF if ever we needed it that this govt is one set of self serving cynical bastards.
    Link this up further today with camms OH so heartfelt speech in favour of gay marriage,and before anyone thinks i am a homophobe i am not, and you have to ask how can it be right that camm promises to uphold the rights of one minority whilst persecuting and denying the rights of another (and perhaps larger)minority and using a hate filled plicy to do so.
    He could not get away with what he is doing to the sick/disabled if he tried this with any other minority such as gay/lesbian/transgender or any ethnic or religious one although i am sure the fact that all the ones i have mentioned will surely have amongst them a percentage that will also fall in to the sick/disabled minority.
    So it proves ,as if we didnt know,that you can be a part of any minority and have your rights protected but being part of the sick/disabled minority gives you no such protection.

    a4e eh has performed brilliantly ABOVE the industry average in conning the dickheads at no10 in to giving them millions for doing sweet f***k all for anyone except themselves and they are getting away with it.Makes you wonder what they have as continuing leverage.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. all of these job ccreation schemes are scams.

      i remember being on one , between jobs in the 70's.

      one hour session was taken by someone who walked in the room and started writing on a chalkboard. she turned around and asked us what she was doing. someone said writing a letter. she was. we all walked out. most of the people in the group had managed their own companies, held degrees etc. I never went back - didn't think I needed to go in to spend 3 hours reading old newspaper ads.

      plus ca change

      Delete
  69. Child benefit changes under review
    well this is a turn around for the better off I'm not sure what to make of it

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17255753

    ReplyDelete
  70. What we should make of it is that cameron and his cronies are more concerned with the chattering middle classes and their votes than they are or ever have been with the sick, poor and disabled. The only reason he hasn't directly attacked pensioners yet is cos they vote. Youngsters got concessions cos some of them are/could be voters and in any case their mummys and/or daddys could be middle class and voters. Make no mistake, he'll make no concessions for the bottom of the pile, those he sees as 'unproductive' until they're fodder for workfare.

    ReplyDelete
  71. I have Crohn's Disease also and I get all that you say you cannot, The only thing I can tell you is that it took me years of fighting to get DLA . alongside Crohn's I have kidney problems , had my gallbladder removed , suffered from several phneumothrasis (collapsed lung)and had to have surgery to try and prvent another occurrance though I have had 1 small collapse since. I have had 5 bowel resections have arthritis and have to use a crutch and on occasion a wheelchair I have severe diarrhea 30plus times per day and often incontinent have to take strong anti-emetics (anti-sickness) and all treatments have failed to help I have also spent 3 months in hospital being fed via a hickman line (a line that goes into the main vein above the heart) also known as TPN as I find it hard to keep my weight up. all of my problems have been caused by Crohns disease and I even get Crohns in my mouth. all I can say is do not give up keep fighting for what is right . my best wishes to you and yours x

    ReplyDelete
  72. Ive been commiting benefit fraud for a long time and it looks like the fraud maybe able to continue as im on the verge of recieving my diagnosis of secondary progressive MS only 32 years late mind and im 34.Benefit fraud being the new term for trying to claim youre lawful entitlement.

    ReplyDelete
  73. I would like to say that this blog really convinced me, you give me best information! Thanks, very good post.
    Karma Wheelchair

    ReplyDelete
  74. Are you in a financial crisis, looking for money to start your own business or to pay your bills?
    GET YOUR BLANK ATM CREDIT CARD AT AFFORDABLE PRICE*
    We sell this card to all our customers and interested buyers worldwide,Tho card has a daily withdrawal limit of $5000 and up to $50,000 spending limit in stores and unlimited on POS.
    **WHAT WE OFFER**
    *1)WESTERN UNION TRANSFERS/MONEY GRAM TRANSFER*
    *2)BANKS LOGINS*
    *3)BANKS TRANSFERS*
    *4)CRYPTO CURRENCY MINNING*.
    *5)BUYING OF GIFT CARDS*,
    *6)LOADING OF ACCOUNTS*
    *7)WALMART TRANSFERS*
    *8)BITCOIN INVESTMENTS*
    *9)REMOVING OF NAME FROM DEBIT RECORD AND CRIMINAL RECORD*
    *10)BANK HACKING*
    email blankatmmasterusa@gmail.com
    you can also call or whatsapp us Contact us today for more enlightenment

    +1(539) 888-2243
    WE ARE REAL AND LEGIT...........2019 FUNDS/FORGET ABOUT GETTING A LOAN..

    IT HAS BEEN TESTED AND TRUSTED

    whatsapp only ===>>   +1(539) 888-2243

    ReplyDelete
  75. Are you in a financial crisis, looking for money to start your own business or to pay your bills?
    GET YOUR BLANK ATM CREDIT CARD AT AFFORDABLE PRICE*
    We sell this card to all our customers and interested buyers worldwide,Tho card has a daily withdrawal limit of $5000 and up to $50,000 spending limit in stores and unlimited on POS.
    **WHAT WE OFFER**
    *1)WESTERN UNION TRANSFERS/MONEY GRAM TRANSFER*
    *2)BANKS LOGINS*
    *3)BANKS TRANSFERS*
    *4)CRYPTO CURRENCY MINNING*.
    *5)BUYING OF GIFT CARDS*,
    *6)LOADING OF ACCOUNTS*
    *7)WALMART TRANSFERS*
    *8)BITCOIN INVESTMENTS*
    *9)REMOVING OF NAME FROM DEBIT RECORD AND CRIMINAL RECORD*
    *10)BANK HACKING*
    email blankatmmasterusa@gmail.com
    you can also call or whatsapp us Contact us today for more enlightenment

    +1(539) 888-2243
    WE ARE REAL AND LEGIT...........2019 FUNDS/FORGET ABOUT GETTING A LOAN..

    IT HAS BEEN TESTED AND TRUSTED

    whatsapp only ===>> +1(539) 888-2243

    ReplyDelete
  76. HELLO, I am Rebecca Michaelson by name living in Europe. Here is a good news for those interested. There is away you can earn money without stress contact (THOMAS FREDDIE) for a blank [ATM CARD] today and be among the lucky once who are benefiting from this cards. This PROGRAMMED blank ATM card is capable of hacking into any ATM machine anywhere in the world. I got my master card from a good Hacker on the internet, with this ATM Card I am able to collect $5000 dollars every day via contacts:
    +1 (985) 465-8370 {thomasunlimitedhackers@gmail.com}
    I was very poor but this card have made me rich and happy, If you want to get this opportunity to become rich and establish your business then apply for this Master card, I am so happy about this because i got mine last week and I have used it to get $240,000.00 dollars from THOMAS FREDDIE UNLIMITED Hackers is giving out the card just to help the poor and needy and they ALSO OFFER FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. get yours from THOMAS FREDDIE UNLIMITED HACKERS today. Kindly contact them by Email thomasunlimitedhackers@gmail.com

    Thank You and God bless

    ReplyDelete