It appears Neil Crowther didn't like the fact that I called him a "patronising dickhead". lets try to explain things to him as Twitter is a useless medium for holding a conversation or debate.
The background is that the Labour Party Disability Task Force Report that was released and the fact that it effectively was 78 pages of garbled bullshit. Oh, and as usual it failed to include anything about carers. Carers are an integral party of things that relate to disability benefits. Not that you would notice as almost everyone from Labour to the WOW Petition Group to the Spartacus Group failed to mention carers till they were reminded.
The 'task force' was set up by Anne McGuire - hated by most disabled people and carers when she was Minister for Disabled People, and Liam Byrne - equally hated when Minister for Care Services when Labour were in power. Both Blairites who totally ignored everything disabled people and carers wanted.
So why "patronising"? Apparently according to Neil Carers UK 'have done many things to better the lives of carers'. Strange that because a look at that charity's forum shows the same things being asked for now as was being asked for as long as their forum has been running.
Has Carers Allowance improved significantly? No.
Are respite breaks easily accessed? No
Are carers the main priority of this vile charity? No
As a carer for about 20 years now I can tell Neil nothing has changed for the better. Hell even the present governments 'extra room for a stay over carer scheme' isn't being properly implemented by councils.
Lets move on to the fact that an employee of this charity can make false reports to police forces, have a restraining order against them for harassing a woman and to have taken part in an internet stalking campaign and STILL be working for Carers UK and perhaps Neil can get a little bit of an idea of why many carers do not trust Carers UK. Then we have the case of Lesley Gross Someone that actually stood up for carers but was chased out of the charity by lies and smears. And Neil wonders why I hate this self-interested money grubbing charity.
And thanks Neil, thanks for thinking carers are such simpering idiots that they are charity cases that need a charity to speak for them. We don't, got that clear?
Why "dick head"? Where do I start? A report he helped formulate comes out, written by a bunch of people who have no mandate to speak for disabled people. Ignores the fact that carers are part of what is going on in the lives of disabled people. When asked about it says "what would you like put into the report"? It's already out there, would it be changed if people wanted to add to it? "No" So what is the bloody point of asking the question!
On being told that the only disability spokesperson who replied to disabled people was UKIP's Star Etheridge, Neil replied- sucking up disillusionment from all quarters. Lots of positive policies for carers & disabled people alike http://www.ukip.org/issues
Which totally ignored what I had said. Disabled people and carers should be the only people who make up these 'task forces' as we know full well the results of past, present and- no doubt, future governments impacts on OUR lives.
The Standing Commission on Carers is an excellent example. There has never been a single carer involved in that "Commission". Loads of charity workers or titled nonentities, but one actual 24/7 carer? Nope.
He obviously thinks anyone who doesn't bow down to these "disability experts" are simpletons who have no right to an opinion on what is blighting their lives. Well Mr Crowther, until you have lived the life of a disabled person or carer through the shit-storm that Labour started and the ConDems have taken on then you don't have a right to speak for us. You know nothing of our lives and neither do 90% of the task force. "NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US" Well this report was done "without us".
The report was 78 dull, boring ramblings of a task force with no mandate, just a few people threw together by two politicians who totally ignored disabled people and carers.
The report should have said "DLA worked mostly. It had little fraud (approximately 0.3%) so if Labour get elected the PIP descriptors should be scrapped and replace with the old DLA ones. It wasn't an "out of date benefit" and that message should be made clear to the public.
But that's too easy, people like Neil, Massie, Byrne, McGuire (thanks for starting the Remploy closures Anne), Liz Sayce (who betrayed those who worked at Remploy) to ignore what we grunts want and decide on our behalf, THAT is why I called Neil Crowther a dickhead and did so openly. You have contradicted yourself by saying "nothing about us without us" because you had no input from anyone but the task force.
As for Kaliya Franklin being part of it? Pfft, she has little to no support at all from disabled people. Another person who thinks she knows what is best, and she doesn't.
