Here They Come To Save The Day! AKA Andy Burnham’s Speech
Never having been a fan of Andy Burnham’s I am even less of a fan after reading his speech at Labour’s conference.
Lets go through a few points of his.
AB- “I know there will be families and carers out there watching us today wondering whether anyone really understands what their life is like”
Me- When it comes to carers they don’t just wonder if anyone really understands what our life is like, they know full well that politicians haven’t a clue what our lives are like!
AB- “Soldiering on from one day to the next, feeling invisible and taken for granted, ringing the surgery early in the morning but unable to get through, telling the same story to everyone who comes through the door”
Me- Yup, that is right, and it was the same under the Labour government Andy Burnham was in last time.
AB- “You feel no one listens”
Me- Well Labour certainly doesn’t! If you ask any Labour politician on Twitter to say ‘sorry’ for being the first party to set Atos on the people we care for, to apologies for setting Lord Freud on them, for starting the closure of Remploy factories or for introducing the very first type of bedroom tax, or why haven’t they stood up to the Tory attacks on disabled people and they block you. No one listens? Well you certainly don’t Andy as you haven’t replied to my email asking you the exact same questions.
AB- “I want to speak directly to you”
Me- Okay, my email address is ‘clivegsd@gmail.com’ and I’m ‘clivegsd’ on Skype. Now speak directly to me. What, you won’t? Well there’s a surprise
AB- “My message is simple: Labour is with you; your worries are ours”
Me- If that was true then why the hell did Labour sit on it’s hands and do NOTHING while IDS and the Tory propaganda machine lied and vilified the people we care for? What the hell have Labour done about the fact 25,000 carers will be losing their Carers Allowance when PIP is fully rolled out? Labour certainly are not “speaking to me” when I emailed to ask them about those 25,000 carers. Worried? You could not give a *toss (*edited for family viewing)
AB- “No longer ringing the council for this, the NHS for that. But one service, one team, one person to call”
Me- What, you mean like a ‘Universal Credit’ sort of one stop shop? Well that’s great news because UC is doing really well isn’t it?
AB- “How much longer will society send out the message to young people looking after someone else’s mum, dad, brother or sister that it is the lowest form of work, lower than the minimum wage because it doesn’t pay the travel time between the 15 minute visits?”
Me- (*takes a deep breath, counts to 10 to avoid the temptation to swear) Okay Burnham you are really taking the **** now! Your speech has failed to mention the large number of carers who look after their spouse/siblings/parents/friends, you have concentrated on young carers. Do we rank and file grunt carers not exist in your happy little bubble? You think it’s unfair on child carers but us adult carers are coping? Thriving? Having a bloody good chuckle at what we do?
I was one of the leading voices when Labour were in power asking, pleading, demanding that Carers Allowance was set at a decent level that reflected the importance of the role we play. You, Anne McGuire, Ivan (let me text you) Lewis, Maria Eagle, in fact every Minister for Care and Disabled people ignored us. From the day Labour took power they continued the exploitation of us carers, in opposition Labour have done nothing to protect us from the Tories. If they get into power we are supposed to expect Labour to do a complete u0turn and “care”? It wont’ work Andy mate, we carers aren’t stupid, we know what you are lining up to do.
AB- “So today we announce new support for carers: protected funding for carer’s breaks; the right to ask for an annual health check; help with hospital car parking for carers; and we will go further. We will give all families the right to care in their home, if they want it.”
Me- Heard it all before, the breaks won’t happen, the right to ask for an annual health check won’t address the needs of a carer, help with hospital parking doesn’t say “no hospital parking fees” which would be a great help, the right to care in their home. We already bloody well do this you fool! And notice any mention of raising Carers Allowance? No I didn’t either. The single most important thing that any government could do would be to raise Carers Allowance and stop classing it as an ‘overlapping benefit’. The latter would mean that people who claim the State Pension would not get ripped off by having their Carers Allowance removed when they draw the state pension. It’s outrageous that you can be a pensioner-carer and then have that allowance stolen.
AB- “A national health and care service”
And here it is, ladies and gentlemen (*fanfare please*) Andy Burnham’s vanity project the Nation Care Service (*fanfares going off, confetti blows into the air, disabled people and carers fainting due to the excitement, those that didn‘t faint will genuflect tugging their forelocks as they do so*) Great idea Andy, and how will it be funded, lets think now, will he resurrect his idea of stopping DLA for over 65’s? You can bet your bottom dollar (or few pence in the case of those disabled people and carers that have been legally mugged by the ConDems) he will.
Labour seem to think disabled people and carers are so simple, so broken down by the ConDem government that we won’t forget what Labour were truly like when in power. Andy mate, we are not so feeble, our minds are sharp and to quote Christopher Walken from the film Click “something stinks like stale French fries”, that ‘stink’ is Labour.
And I’ll close this entry with one more quote, a lyric from the Who, “won’t get fooled again”
