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Friday 9 January 2015

Sue Marsh - Suey2y Screws Over Disabled People

As the header says, WOW campaigner Sue Marsh/Suey2y has accepted a job offer by disability deniers Maximus.


I distinctly remember Marsh and her online buddies savaging Simon Stevens for admitting he worked for Atos, but now she excuses herself for accepting £60,000 a year bride by Maximus by saying "I hope I can make a difference, and I'm confident that if I can't, then no-one could have", which is similar to the excuse Simon Stevens used. It's bullshit basically.




Marsh has always been money orientated, she just got brought and owned by Maximus, but here's the kicker for her faithful (stupidly naïve) followers and defenders, the laptop they donated money for has been used to get her nose in the trough. Remember she applied for the job they didn't give it to her, and that application will have been done on the laptop she conned her followers into paying for! Stunning way to rub peoples noses in the sh*t.


No self respecting disability/carer campaigner would work for Maximus (Atos by another name), but Sue decided she would, why? 60,000 reasons why and they all carry a pound sign on them. She sold out, she is brought and owned by Maximus and the government now.


But still her gullible naïve sheep think she is fighting for them, dear God may these fools see the error of their ways, and when you read some of the comments on her blog such as -


"A staggering about face. I see you're already using their language about there being 'too many in the Support Group' who would 'like to work'"


"Can't imagine what the salary will be for joining the enemy."


"I am not comfortable with your view that there are many people in the Support Group who "want to work". I really doubt that, frankly"


"I think that you are being naive in the extreme if you think that this job will benefit any of your new "customers"


Volte-face.... sad :(


perhaps Sue may even join the tories policy unit with White Dee


and the last one says it all

"You've joined the enemy, now. Enjoy your retirement from activism. You sold your soul and good name for a pot of gold. What were you thinking? God only knows."




I've always said that you don't work with your enemies and Sue Marsh/Suey2y has proved me right in a way I could not have predicted.

Shame on you Marsh, you are disgusting, but enjoy the money because your reputation has just gone down the crapper






Tuesday 6 January 2015

Can We Talk?

Hello dear readers. Lets start the latest piece by saying I am not allowed to say anything. That’s right, nothing. So I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed not writing it, see you next time……….
I suppose I’d better explain a little, I’ve been trying to formulate a complaint about a certain bald-headed politician who had an inability to tell the truth. Having found a possible breech of Parliament’s own Code of Standards (link = http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmcode/1885/188502.htm#a4) which states


Openness


Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.

Honesty


Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.
Accountability

Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.

The bald headed one has deliberately failed to adhere to the rules. Openness? Nope, he fails to answer questions and points people to mindless surveys to prove his point.

Honesty? A huge great big NOPE! A complete failure to understand the concept of the word “honesty”.

Accountability? As of yet the bald headed one has yet to make himself available to “the public” because he would not have the guts to face to people who’s lives he has blighted.

Who upholds the Code of Standards? Why it’s the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that’s who. When I complained about ‘Mr I Daren’t Say’ a member of that organisation (who’s name I cannot reveal) said it was not in their remit to deal with complaints about ‘Mr I Daren’t Say’s’ flouting of their Code of Standards. It doesn’t matter that a politician can openly break their own rules and laws, the fact is that the body that enforces their code cannot act and I cannot say why or prove what they said because I cannot reproduce any of the email exchanges because they have refused me the right to do so.

I don’t know if I am allowed to tell you that today is Tuesday, the sky is blue or that birds fly, I’ll have to leave you to find out for yourselves.

What it all means is that politicians are allowed to lie through their teeth without fear of being brought to book for doing so.

Suicides Due To DWP Cuts




 

 

From the gentleman who tied himself to railings outside a jobcentre and set fire to himself (link = http://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/10360733.Benefits_withdrawal_led_to_man___s_suicide/) , to the farmer who shot himself (link = https://welfaretales.wordpress.com/category/death-after-fit-to-work-decision/) to a partially sighted & suffered from mental health problems there is a record of people who are committing suicide because of cuts and sanctions to benefits.



Many (*1) bloggers, websites, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds are people keeping track of those people who are in such dire circumstances that they are taking their own lives because of cuts and sanctions to benefits.





Just a few of the hundreds of sites, pages and media mentions to highlight the effects of the direct cuts to disability benefits (they are not reforms they are cuts)



It is obvious how bad things are when (*2) Job Centre managers warn staff of suicide risks among those that are/will be affected by these cuts.





It doesn’t matter what the likes of Iain Duncan Smith, Esther McVey, David Cameron, George Osborne or Mike Penning say, the truth is that the cruel cuts and sanction regime that the Conservative AND Lib Dems have brought in people are taking their own lives. And not just one or two people but many.



The GMC seem more concerned about the (*3) suicides of doctors rather than the suicides of disabled people and I can not understand why disabled people are seen as lesser people.



There were warnings to the GMC about the assessments which Atos carried out, they came from individuals, bloggers, campaign groups etc yet still- despite what the GMC have stated (*4) The first duty of all doctors is ‘to make the care of your patient your first concern’. But that is not the only duty doctors must observe. Being open and honest and acting with integrity is also an essential part of medical professionalism" their members did as Atos and the DWP told them regarding the flawed assessments and helped remove benefits and allowances from disabled people who then went on to commit suicide or died shortly after being passed as ‘fit for work’.





This isn’t acting with integrity and honesty, it was purely mercenary because Atos paid them well for the damage they did to disabled and sick people.

It has been shown that (*5) suicides increase under a Conservative government, this latest one seems intent on driving the more vulnerable off the planet via suicide or removing them from the benefit system by sanctions and making them homeless (bedroom tax)



The GMC knew that suicides were occurring because of benefit cuts and sanctions. It has been (and probably still is being) contacted regarding this matter yet it fails to acknowledge or take responsibility for being complicit in these suicides.

 

When people are saying:

Totally humiliated today after running out of food and money. I have had to go and phone my Uncle to get me a weeks worth of food just about manage with the Electricity now . Hate this situation”
“I’m feel so drained and tired, and last weekend I attempted suicide. I have lost everything, including my dignity as a human being. Next month I will probably be living on the streets”
“I also recorded the 'medical' and told the 'doctor' after it that I had done so. They are also threatening me about that. I only done it as I want to send the recording to a newspaper if I decide to commit suicide over being bullied off 'the sick' by these Nazis. I can't fucking take it any more”
“I was worried I would do something silly to be sectioned and put in hospital. I was almost suicidal"
"i am beginning [sic] to think that my wife and kids would be better without me"
“David Cameron has betrayed disabled people and carers and spat on the memory of his late son Ivan”“
 
 



then the GMC should realise something is very, very wrong with the system and come out fighting for the most vulnerable people in society. Instead carers- like myself, are left to try to protect or pick up the pieces of the person we ‘care for’, as if we don’t have enough on our plates anyway!

 

The GMC needs to focus on the damage that has and is being done to the lives of disabled people, when they get to such a dark low place that they think the only relief from the constant attacks and lies of the coalition government is to:

Stab themselves through the heart
Hang themselves
Drown themselves
Take an overdose of medication
Shoot themselves



something has to be done to save any future deaths, and they are deaths of people who are teenagers to pensioners. Those that have died needlessly should be the catalyst to ensure there are no more deaths or suicides.



Mr Iain Duncan Smith has proved that he doesn’t care less how many disabled people die as long as his reforms (cuts in reality) go through. Some people are saying between 32 and 73 people a week are dying after being classed as “fit for work”. He has constantly ignored deaths and suicides of disabled people as if they don’t exist, well they do but he hides the figures and then insists his “beliefs” are more accurate than accurate statistics.



A good example would be a reply I received from Iain Duncan Smith where he says

"An over reliance on self assessment is resulting in inconsistent awards; more than half of all decisions require no additional medical evidence".








Now this is quite an obscene manipulation of the facts. If someone fills in a form which obviously shows someone is disabled then the fact that the decision maker didn’t need to ask for any additional medical evidence does not mean that the award is made to someone defrauding or attempting to defraud disability benefits. One good example would be those that are terminally ill, why would any further medical evidence need to be provided above the evidence sent in with the application form?



IDS whole attitude seems driven by hatred towards people who have disabilities or are frail or poor, which is odd coming from the founder of the Centre for Social Justice- or as it is known by many, the Centre for Social Injustice.


In fact Mr Iain Duncan Smith has been shown to be wrong/lying at every swingeing cut to disability benefit and allowance cut he has maniacally made. Consultations have shown huge opposition from almost every organisation or individual campaigner to these ill thought through plans to claw back money from the poor and vulnerable. The Conservatives and Iain Duncan Smith decided to ignore the opposition. In fact on one episode of the BBC’s Question Time Mr Iain Duncan Smith almost said that the deaths were justified as long as the reforms went through!



David Cameron should have some form of empathy for disabled people. He had a disabled son (RIP Ivan, may you forgive your father for how he has treated disabled people) and father, yet since he became Prime Minister he seems to have had an ‘empathy bypass’ operation. Any suggested help for disabled people when he was leading the opposition has vanished like a Liberal Democrat promise. His emphasis has been to cut and cut again at disability benefits and allowances.



It is plain that the actions of this coalition- because disabled people and carers hold the Liberal Democrats equally responsible here, have led to suicides of vulnerable people, suicide notes verify this statement.





The GMC should recognise and confirm the fact that deaths have happened because of government policy. Should the number of deaths and suicides have happened in a hospital there would be charges of negligence due to lack of care. If any other company or organisation had presided over these many deaths of vulnerable people there would have been uproar. Because a government has caused these deaths in the name of ‘austerity’ and the disgraceful manipulation of the media it is allowed.



Any medical person that worked for ATOS that can be connected to a suicide should be investigated and appropriate action taken.



Disabled people and we carers have no one to stand up for us, we have been abandoned, it seems even the GMC is content to leave us to the wolves.

Norman Lamb stated during last years Carers Week (link = http://normanlamb.org.uk/wp/2013/national-carers-week-2013/) "We owe our carers an immense debt of gratitude. In this week’s National Carers Week" yet he is part of a government that has made carers lives worse.



The people we care for are being hit thanks to measures he has voted for:

Voted strongly for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax")

Voted very strongly against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices

Voted very strongly against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability

Voted strongly for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits

Voted strongly for increasing the rate of VAT

Voted strongly against a banker’s bonus tax

Voted moderately against an annual tax on the value of expensive homes (popularly known as a mansion tax)




 



These are things that affect the people carers look after. If the people we care for feel distress at being hit by constant sanctions or new taxes then we carers have to try to reassure them that everything will be alright, when we know it won’t be. We are made to lie to the people we care for. How does the establishment think that makes us feel?



There has been at least one suicide due to the bedroom tax

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bedroom-tax-blamed-for-suspected-suicide-of-grandmother-8612647.html

Stephanie Bottrill said she could "simply could not afford to live any more". So Mr Lamb defends millionaires from the Mansion Tax but fails to defend the poor and vulnerable by voting for the bedroom tax? The Minister for Care Services has failed in his duty by simply not caring, except for caring to maintain a well paid position of power.





Mr Norman Lamb is excited by the Liberal Democrats idea of a carer bonus of £250.00 each year which will probably not cover all the extra expenditure we carers have to find to replace all the taxes Mr Lamb has helped hit us with. After many emails to Mr Lamb I have come to the conclusion that he is part of the problem, like every other organisation he/they/you fails to listen to us even while proclaiming that we are an important part of the health service and that we should be listened to because of our experience. No one listens, be it the Conservative party, the Labour party, the Liberal Democrat party and even the GMC.

 

It’s well documented that suicides have happened because of negligence on behave of the government, but what has been the results of these suicides on the families of these poor people? Have they been followed up and had counselling offered? Have the families been spoken too at all?



Has there been any investigation into failed suicides and if there is any correlation between them and the constant financial increases? Had the previous winter been as extreme as recent ones would we have seen thousands dead through hyperthermia because they could not afford to heat their homes?



Are there suicide attempts which failed but have worsened existing disabilities? What about suicide attempts that have caused disabilities?



The suicide rates in the UK are at an all time high, there has to be a relation to the cuts to benefits, this can only be laid at the door of the people who voted in the cuts to benefits and allowances.



All this will inevitably push up spending on the NHS, Social Services and the many other supporting agencies so the cuts will likely cause extra spending on other organisations so are counter-productive.



For the GMC failing to speak out is in my eyes a failure to follow correct procedure, it has failed to provide a duty of care

 

 

 

Take prompt action if you think that patient safety, dignity or comfort is being

compromised.

Protect and promote the health of patients and the public.

Listen to, and respond to, their concerns and preferences.

Support patients in caring for themselves to improve and maintain their health.

Work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients’ interests.

Never abuse your patients’ trust in you or the public’s trust in the profession.








 

The GMC should be helping carers to help the people we care for. At present the GMC is failing carers and those that have made the ultimate sacrifice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://margaretmccartney.com/2011/03/07/the-gmcs-response-to-that-atos-article/ “The first duty of all doctors is ‘to make the care of your patient your first concern’. But that is not the only duty doctors must observe. Being open and honest and acting with integrity is also an essential part of medical professionalism.”





Why should we trust you, why should we believe you?

 

 

 

*1 http://www.ukcarers.net/ukcarersdotnet_004.htm

https://www.facebook.com/ATOSM/posts/623940184301787

http://www.mssociety.org.uk/forum/everyday-living/1666-welfare-reform-deaths-calums-list

http://dwpexamination.org/forum/general-discussion/calums-list-death-toll/

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/benefit-cuts-blind-man-committed-2965375

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dad-two-killed-himself-because-1844633




 

 


*2 http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/jun/20/jobcentre-supervisors-suicide-risk-benefit-claimants




 


*3 http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/regulation/gmc-launches-internal-review-of-suicides-among-doctors-facing-fitness-to-practise-investigations/1/20004473.article?&pageno=1&sortorder=dateadded&pagesize=50#.U7_zKzhOWUk




 


*4 http://margaretmccartney.com/2011/03/07/the-gmcs-response-to-that-atos-article/




 


*5 ) http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/corporate-right-wing-agenda-driving-thousands-americans-attempt-suicide?paging=off

Carers UK, Helpful or Hateful?






People who know me will tell you I have a huge issue with the national charity Carers UK, in my opinion they are corrupt to the bone. They make a living out of helping the government of the day keep carers in poverty and misery.

The statistics they pump out to the media cannot be proven as they ‘direct’ whoever carries out their surveys so their figures are slanted or biased to come out at the highest number possible, in other words they are wrong/incorrect or just a plain and simple lie.



For the past 5 or 6 years I have been highlighting how they let carers down, not just by being inept but by being devious and aggressive in the defence of their generous salaries. Compare the fact that one of the charity employees receives between £70,000 to £80,000 a year while a carer gets Carers Allowance of £61.35 though many carer receive nothing because of the overlapping benefit rule.



When I attempted to set up a charity to oppose them and have the aim of being run BY carers 4 carers they complained long and loud, as did my stalkers. They defend what they perceive as ‘their realm’ of speaking for carers with savage conviction even though their main staff are not carers. The attempt to set up a charity was something that I hated though as I don’t consider carers as charity cases, they/we are hard workers who deserve more respect than they get.



Most carers struggle to get respite or even a single day off from their caring role, Carers UK’s employees get paid holiday leave. One of Carers UK’s members Ms Madeline Starr even gets free holidays to Australia, Canada and Helsinki- all expenses and travel paid for, well they aren’t classed as holidays they are to “discuss and compare carers’ rights and support for carers in different parts of the world”.
 

These visits will be entirely useless for carers in the UK, nothing will come of it for carers here. Will other countries get the benefit of Carers UK’s wisdom and expertise? God I hope not! Promoting incompetence to other countries carer support networks would be awful.



When things are getting desperate for carers and the disabled people we carers look after, when the bedroom tax, disability allowance cuts and other benefits and allowances are being cut and are driving people to commit suicide Carers UK decide it’s best to send someone all over the globe to “discuss and compare carers rights”!
I can sum up our “rights” in a five words ‘we don’t have any rights’.

Carers UK fail to tell carers just how much money some of their staff are raking in. Take Imelda Redmond their former CEO, she didn’t mention anywhere that she held a position of non-executive director of Homerton University Hospital NHS Trust which added around £10,000 to £15,000 pounds a year to her salary of over £70,000 a year as CEO of Carers UK. A woman who lives in an area of London where flats are selling for over £1,000,000 must be holding down other salaried work yet had the nerve to refuse to fight for a decent level of Carers Allowance for people who work a damn site harder than she did.



I have had countless run ins with this charity, stand up to them and you get subjected to attacks most carers would not be able to counter or stand up to. One particular incident stands out as a shining example of why Carers UK should not ever be trusted.



After a former employee/trustee/director of theirs started an online stalking campaign against my wife and I- which included making a false allegation of benefit fraud and countless false complaints to my local police force, I had Carers UK’s Gavin MacGregor phone social services and my local police force to check on my wife’s safety as they thought she might be in danger from me!
It isn’t the first time Gavin MacGregor has behaved in a way that would have had him removed from his job in any other walk of life, he was the person who helped get a strong campaigner for carers removed from her post (link = http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Carers-champ-ejected/story-11434416-detail/story.html) He is also the holder of a restraining order after his behaviour towards a friend of Ms Gross’s. I am not the only person who has been attacked in this way, Ms Wendy Maxwell who runs Chill4Us (link = http://chill4uscarers.co.uk/) or a good friend of mine and fellow campaigner for carers and those who claimed DLA Mr Ian Sandeman.




Naturally I complained to the charity and the Charity Commission after Mr MacGregor’s actions as did Ms Gross, but it seems if you work for a charity you can do what you want with impunity as I found out after I complained to another charity about the behaviour of a Mr Charles Huddleston who found it great sport to make fun of my wife’s cancer scare. He wasn’t sacked or sanctioned either, in fact he is now manager of CLASP The Carers Centre, or so I hear.



It has been said by Carers UK that if you don’t agree with the way it is run then you should join them and try to change things from ‘the inside’. After seeing this I stated I wanted to join them as I didn’t agree with their emphasis on staff salaries over helping carers themselves. I was refused membership because… ta-dah I “didn’t agree with their aims”. You can’t make this stuff up can you? 
 

How about their head of technology sending out a complete list of email addresses of members and organisations they work with. Yup they did that as well, and the really pathetic thing about it is there was under 200 email addresses. For a charity that claims (falsely) that there are 6 million carers! And it was my fault they sent them out apparently.



I have always advised carers to steer clear of Carers UK because they cannot be trusted, put peoples good names at stake and- as I said, if you challenge them they then become very unprofessional and try to intimidate you. Apart from that I find it incredibly insulting for carers to be seen as charity cases, we are not, we are hard-working people providing a service to the country and saving the NHS and Social Services a fortune. But if you try to get a self-proclaimed “voice of carers” to fight for “carers” you will be branded a “dangerous person”, well that‘s what they have emailed other carers, organisations and media outlets. A national charity scared of little old me and the truth?

Hopefully they will keep in mind that until carers get a standard of living that befit’s the work and sacrifice they have to do, and until carers are allowed to speak for themselves (because Carers UK hand pick the carers they feel should be spoken too by the media, the sort of carer that does as the charity tells them), then I will continue to be “dangerous” and expose their parasitic feeding off of our lives and work, their abuse of trust and their insidious little ways to as many people as I can.

Carers deserve better