Not blogged for a while but after hearing about the Tory MP Philip Davies blocking the free hospital parking for carers I just had to put finger to keyboard.
Lets start with some history about this nasty little Tory-
He has called for government to scrap the Human Rights Act for foreign nationals and chuck them out of the country. After an act of vandalism initially alleged to have been perpetrated by Muslims, The Sun quoted Davies as saying "if there’s anybody who should f*** off it’s the Muslims who do this sort of thing.
He asked whether it was racist for a policeman to refer to a BMW as "black man's wheels" and whether the Black Police Association breaches discrimination law by restricting its membership to black people.In March 2007 he voted against the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 which proposed to allow the Secretary of State to make regulations defining discrimination and harassment on grounds of sexual orientation.
He has said in Parliament that disabled people are "by definition" less productive and could work for less than the minimum wage. He was criticised by disabled charities for his comments and the Conservative Party quickly distanced themselves from the suggestion. Davies' initial response was that the furore over his comments was "Left-wing hysteria".
He is an organiser for the economically right-wing Taxpayers Alliance, which is merely a branch of the Conservative Party who's actions are questionably corrupt and bordering criminal behaviour.
He has called for the scrapping of the minimum wage in the UK.
Said in the House that the Bill to make rented property fit for human habitation was "a burden to landlords like himself".
In 2012, while a member of the parliamentary select committee looking into gambling law, he failed to register £10,000 in benefits from companies with links to the gambling industry.
In 2012 went to America paid for by the BBC to "research" how they put criminals to death as he supports the death penalty.
So when he claims he blocked the parking in hospitals for carers but was doing so for their own good you know you cannot believe this ethically and morally corrupt little man.
Still what amazes me is that carers are doing nothing to challenge this sort of actions by the government, I cannot believe that they have been so quiet.
Not me, I straight away emailed this repugnant example of a politician to register my disgust over his actions. His response was to blame the fact that 100 other MP's didn't come in to force the vote through, "not my fault guv it was the other fella's" seems to be this arse's attitude.
I also issued him with a challenge to meet me - a carer- in person, I'd even pay my own car parking fee! I'd offer to pay Philip Davies car parking fees but he claims his back on expenses, nice to see such good use of the tax payers money eh Phil? Of course the arrogant excuse for a human being declined, seems he is lacking a backbone.
So Phil, name the time and place mate, I back down from no man, care to take on a carer?
Sunday, 1 November 2015
Friday, 3 July 2015
Disabled People Being Assessed By Ambulance Men And Women???
While we all know that the Conservative Party have abused their position in government to attack disabled people by denying them the same disability benefits that David Cameron claimed for his late son Ivan it beggars belief that the "health care professionals they are using have little knowledge of complex disabilities.
How can you expect a midwife to know about complex disabilities? You can't.
So what about an ambulance man or woman? Yes that's right, the DWP seem to accept that it's fine for someone who drives an ambulance around to carry out medical assessments! So what next? Perhaps a hospital porter?
How about the hospital car park attendant? The guy who fixes the snack machines, he must be able to work for Maximus diagnosing disabilities surely?
The more you look into how the government is fucking over disabled people the worse it gets.
Lets expand this a little and get the guy who does the National Lottery results to look into finances at the Bank of England.
How about the bloke who plays Zak Dingle taking over the National Farmers Union. Some crack sniffling, prostitute user becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer...okay bad example.
Once again we see government corruption and a complete disregard of what matters to disabled people.
Can it get any worse? I'm not going to bet against it.
How can you expect a midwife to know about complex disabilities? You can't.
So what about an ambulance man or woman? Yes that's right, the DWP seem to accept that it's fine for someone who drives an ambulance around to carry out medical assessments! So what next? Perhaps a hospital porter?
How about the hospital car park attendant? The guy who fixes the snack machines, he must be able to work for Maximus diagnosing disabilities surely?
The more you look into how the government is fucking over disabled people the worse it gets.
Lets expand this a little and get the guy who does the National Lottery results to look into finances at the Bank of England.
How about the bloke who plays Zak Dingle taking over the National Farmers Union. Some crack sniffling, prostitute user becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer...okay bad example.
Once again we see government corruption and a complete disregard of what matters to disabled people.
Can it get any worse? I'm not going to bet against it.
Friday, 26 June 2015
Iain Duncan Smith, Doofus?
When you think that Iain Duncan Smith cannot say anything more stupid he stoops to new lows. IDS welcomes food banks it seems, even though his boss David 'we're all in this together...honest' Cameron has said otherwise
of course Cameron was leader of the opposition when he hated hearing that people had to have food parcels. Now he uses those food parcels to subsidise benefits they seem like a jolly good idea!
You have to admit that IDS has form when it comes to making stupid comments, one being
"My Catholic background has certainly affected the way I view life and it has become integral to everything I do. It has given me a belief in things like structure, marriage, family, compassion for the poor, the importance of community",
seems his belief is to destroy all those things and make sure people know they are poor and to put the boot in as often as possible.
Many people think he is stupid, an American version being a 'Doofus' and the description sums up Duncan Smith to a tea
"a clueless person, most always lacking even the most basic social skills. a doofus often thinks they are a bit smarter then everyone else.
A doofus views defeating a 6 year old at a game of tic tac toe as an accomplishment to be bragged about. A doofus does not understand why you are not fairly impressed by this"
though I prefer to think of him as the worst sort of Tory, a vile piece of shit that enjoys the distress he causes to others as can be heard here.
And to think that IDS founded the Centre For Social Justice, I'll tell you what, there ain't no justice if you ain't a millionaire.
of course Cameron was leader of the opposition when he hated hearing that people had to have food parcels. Now he uses those food parcels to subsidise benefits they seem like a jolly good idea!
You have to admit that IDS has form when it comes to making stupid comments, one being
"My Catholic background has certainly affected the way I view life and it has become integral to everything I do. It has given me a belief in things like structure, marriage, family, compassion for the poor, the importance of community",
seems his belief is to destroy all those things and make sure people know they are poor and to put the boot in as often as possible.
Many people think he is stupid, an American version being a 'Doofus' and the description sums up Duncan Smith to a tea
"a clueless person, most always lacking even the most basic social skills. a doofus often thinks they are a bit smarter then everyone else.
A doofus views defeating a 6 year old at a game of tic tac toe as an accomplishment to be bragged about. A doofus does not understand why you are not fairly impressed by this"
though I prefer to think of him as the worst sort of Tory, a vile piece of shit that enjoys the distress he causes to others as can be heard here.
And to think that IDS founded the Centre For Social Justice, I'll tell you what, there ain't no justice if you ain't a millionaire.
Sunday, 14 June 2015
Definition Of A Carer?
So what is a carer? Easy question isn't it? Well not really.
Why ask the question? Well if you go to most carer forums, even the national charity ones you will see that almost every one of those who post on them say that Carers Allowance is too low. I don't think many people would disagree with that, but here's the thing, is there really over 6 million carers in the UK? National charities seem to include people who just support older people in that 6 million but they would not be eligible for Carers Allowance so should they be classed as “a carer”?
I've always said that carers need to have an actual 'definition' of what a carer is, for example: Carer Worker, Foster Carer, Care Support Worker, the list goes on, hell there’s even an Animal Foster Carer (link http://www.woodgreen.org.uk/how_to_help/animal_foster_carer) . The statistics pushed out by Carers UK (link http://www.carersuk.org/) are absurd! 45% of people have given up work to care for someone? Absolute nonsense.
To be eligible for Carers Allowance you need to fulfil a set of rules, the government states-
Carer’s Allowance is £61.35 a week to help you look after someone with substantial caring needs.
You don’t have to be related to, or live with, the person you care for.
You must be 16 or over and spend at least 35 hours a week caring for them.
The person you care for must already get one of these benefits:
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) daily living component
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) - the middle or highest care rate
Attendance Allowance
Constant Attendance Allowance at or above the normal maximum rate with an Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, or basic (full day) rate with a War Disablement Pension
Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP)
Going by that there are about 1.5 million people getting or should be getting Carers Allowance so where does the “6 million carers” come from? I’ve been shouted down about this before but the thing is you cannot get justice for carers if their numbers are falsely inflated, the opposite will apply. Including people who do the odd bit of shopping for a pensioner or does their garden once in a while as being carers is insulting to actual carers anyway but this is what’s happening and it’s stupid, damn stupid.
This is where the idea of an actual definition for those people who get or should get Carers Allowance comes into play. It’s simplistic but it seems you need to start somewhere. Petitions and mass email campaigns to MP’s have done nothing to raise Carers Allowance no one can say it has. So go back to the drawing board, start with those carers that can be defined by the Carers Allowance they receive or should receive (there are people that should be eligible for Carers Allowance but the overlapping benefit rule hits them like people who draw the state pension or they are children who are carrying out a caring role for example).
Okay this is rehashing an idea from when I ran UK Carers (link http://www.ukcarers.net) but it is still valid, and to this day I still cannot work out why national carer charities want to falsely inflate the number of carers.
Stop mixing carers in with every other group or organisation that is connected to “carers”, define us - pay us, simples.
And while we are stop excluding carers. The list of groups that needed reminding that carers actually exist is pretty astounding, the WOW petition group, Labours Disability Poverty Taskforce, the Spartacus group to name just a few. Oh, even the People’s Parliament (link http://thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/) doesn’t seem to have a single mention of carers. Are all carers feeble-minded simpering old biddies? No we are not! I’ve seen groups saying that there should be unity between online disabled groups and still fail to grasp the fact we carers exist.
Being the realist I am though I know that there never will be unity. I know that there are those online like myself that people hate, personally I don’t give two hoots (*though I toned that down) Anyone that is different to the norm, has ideas that others don’t like such as refusing to accept anything that carer charities pump out tend to be taken as weirdos to be avoided. That’s fine, I have no problem with that, safe to say though that in the many years campaigning for carers the one issue that comes up time and time again is the fact that Carers Allowance is too low. So perhaps we ‘weirdos’ aren’t the problem after? I‘ve even been called a “dangerous man“ for challenging one national carer charity to work ‘for’ carers rather than to decide what is ‘best’ for carers.
Define us - pay us, it isn’t rocket science, it’s not that hard to do at all. Carers need to get out of the mind-set that they are a shadow of the disabled person they care for. They aren’t shadows they are an important part of the lives of our carees. But the thing is getting carers to realise they are important because they damn well are.
Why ask the question? Well if you go to most carer forums, even the national charity ones you will see that almost every one of those who post on them say that Carers Allowance is too low. I don't think many people would disagree with that, but here's the thing, is there really over 6 million carers in the UK? National charities seem to include people who just support older people in that 6 million but they would not be eligible for Carers Allowance so should they be classed as “a carer”?
I've always said that carers need to have an actual 'definition' of what a carer is, for example: Carer Worker, Foster Carer, Care Support Worker, the list goes on, hell there’s even an Animal Foster Carer (link http://www.woodgreen.org.uk/how_to_help/animal_foster_carer) . The statistics pushed out by Carers UK (link http://www.carersuk.org/) are absurd! 45% of people have given up work to care for someone? Absolute nonsense.
To be eligible for Carers Allowance you need to fulfil a set of rules, the government states-
Carer’s Allowance is £61.35 a week to help you look after someone with substantial caring needs.
You don’t have to be related to, or live with, the person you care for.
You must be 16 or over and spend at least 35 hours a week caring for them.
The person you care for must already get one of these benefits:
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) daily living component
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) - the middle or highest care rate
Attendance Allowance
Constant Attendance Allowance at or above the normal maximum rate with an Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, or basic (full day) rate with a War Disablement Pension
Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP)
Going by that there are about 1.5 million people getting or should be getting Carers Allowance so where does the “6 million carers” come from? I’ve been shouted down about this before but the thing is you cannot get justice for carers if their numbers are falsely inflated, the opposite will apply. Including people who do the odd bit of shopping for a pensioner or does their garden once in a while as being carers is insulting to actual carers anyway but this is what’s happening and it’s stupid, damn stupid.
This is where the idea of an actual definition for those people who get or should get Carers Allowance comes into play. It’s simplistic but it seems you need to start somewhere. Petitions and mass email campaigns to MP’s have done nothing to raise Carers Allowance no one can say it has. So go back to the drawing board, start with those carers that can be defined by the Carers Allowance they receive or should receive (there are people that should be eligible for Carers Allowance but the overlapping benefit rule hits them like people who draw the state pension or they are children who are carrying out a caring role for example).
Okay this is rehashing an idea from when I ran UK Carers (link http://www.ukcarers.net) but it is still valid, and to this day I still cannot work out why national carer charities want to falsely inflate the number of carers.
Stop mixing carers in with every other group or organisation that is connected to “carers”, define us - pay us, simples.
And while we are stop excluding carers. The list of groups that needed reminding that carers actually exist is pretty astounding, the WOW petition group, Labours Disability Poverty Taskforce, the Spartacus group to name just a few. Oh, even the People’s Parliament (link http://thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/) doesn’t seem to have a single mention of carers. Are all carers feeble-minded simpering old biddies? No we are not! I’ve seen groups saying that there should be unity between online disabled groups and still fail to grasp the fact we carers exist.
Being the realist I am though I know that there never will be unity. I know that there are those online like myself that people hate, personally I don’t give two hoots (*though I toned that down) Anyone that is different to the norm, has ideas that others don’t like such as refusing to accept anything that carer charities pump out tend to be taken as weirdos to be avoided. That’s fine, I have no problem with that, safe to say though that in the many years campaigning for carers the one issue that comes up time and time again is the fact that Carers Allowance is too low. So perhaps we ‘weirdos’ aren’t the problem after? I‘ve even been called a “dangerous man“ for challenging one national carer charity to work ‘for’ carers rather than to decide what is ‘best’ for carers.
Define us - pay us, it isn’t rocket science, it’s not that hard to do at all. Carers need to get out of the mind-set that they are a shadow of the disabled person they care for. They aren’t shadows they are an important part of the lives of our carees. But the thing is getting carers to realise they are important because they damn well are.
Saturday, 30 May 2015
Morning Star Thanks As Usual & Caroline Flint
It seems the only newspaper that is constantly interested in highlighting the plight of disabled people and carers is the Morning Star.
Once again this excellent newspaper allowed me to do a piece about Conservative attacks on disabled people and their unwillingness to meet with carers or disabled people.
The article I mentioned is about Justin Tomlinson and David Cameron voting against giving disabled people an income that didn't mean they had to endure poverty. Being able to heat their homes, eat decent food and not have to have the added worry about getting a referral to a food bank, not worry about bills. This isn't "welfare dependency" this is about lessening the effects of living a life with a disability for Gods sake!
Labour still haven't learnt that an opposition "opposes" attacks on disabled people and the poorer in society not supports cuts to benefits. Another good example would be Caroline Flint who said that Labour should be comfortable giving those it thought were choosing to live on benefits a “kick up the backside”.
This shows that Labour haven't moved from being "Tory-lite" and will be destined to stay in opposition for years.
Also those who haven't chosen to "live on benefits" but have no choice but to exist on benefits for one reason or another will continue to be the targets of millionaire out-of-touch politicians.
Lets add an honorary mention of Iain Duncan Smith's plans to plunge 40,000 children into poverty
Disabled people and those that cannot find work need to fear the Tories, even if those "Tories" are Labour politicians like Ms Flint who seems to have failed to research why Labour came into being. There could always be the alternative of the Lib Dems led by Tim Farron, the politician who opposes the Tories bedroom tax so much that he voted in favour of it almost every single time.
Once again this excellent newspaper allowed me to do a piece about Conservative attacks on disabled people and their unwillingness to meet with carers or disabled people.
The article I mentioned is about Justin Tomlinson and David Cameron voting against giving disabled people an income that didn't mean they had to endure poverty. Being able to heat their homes, eat decent food and not have to have the added worry about getting a referral to a food bank, not worry about bills. This isn't "welfare dependency" this is about lessening the effects of living a life with a disability for Gods sake!
Labour still haven't learnt that an opposition "opposes" attacks on disabled people and the poorer in society not supports cuts to benefits. Another good example would be Caroline Flint who said that Labour should be comfortable giving those it thought were choosing to live on benefits a “kick up the backside”.
This shows that Labour haven't moved from being "Tory-lite" and will be destined to stay in opposition for years.
Also those who haven't chosen to "live on benefits" but have no choice but to exist on benefits for one reason or another will continue to be the targets of millionaire out-of-touch politicians.
Lets add an honorary mention of Iain Duncan Smith's plans to plunge 40,000 children into poverty
Disabled people and those that cannot find work need to fear the Tories, even if those "Tories" are Labour politicians like Ms Flint who seems to have failed to research why Labour came into being. There could always be the alternative of the Lib Dems led by Tim Farron, the politician who opposes the Tories bedroom tax so much that he voted in favour of it almost every single time.
Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Social Media And Anti Disabled People Comments
I've always said that being "reasonable" gets you no where when it comes to dealing with the likes of Daily Mail/Sun/Torygraph readers, the sort of people that say in the comment section of articles that "there's loads of fraud in disability benefits, we all know someone who cheats the system".
As I said many years ago you have to be proactive against these internet idiots, put the facts in front of them, if they get stroppy then get stroppier. Make these people realise that disabled people and carers are ready to fight back. Hell, take on Katie Price if you feel like it. If you can make these people realise that their bullshit will be called out and virtually slapped around till they either accept they are wrong or block you.
After some idiot decided to say there are many who defraud disability benefits by "needlessly" claiming them (*cough-multi millionaire David and Sam Cameron-cough*) for their child that had ADHD was forced to face facts and after exchanging insults, anger and foul language they decided to call me a bully and block me.
That's great, maybe next time @claytonrogers18 on Twitter decides to attack disabled people because of their ignorance or bigotry they will think twice.
There morons have to be faced down, disabled people and carers cannot allow their misinformation to go unchallenged. If anyone is struggling with a tory troll then give me a call @ukcarers
Be as "unreasonable" as you possibly can, being reasonable does nothing
As I said many years ago you have to be proactive against these internet idiots, put the facts in front of them, if they get stroppy then get stroppier. Make these people realise that disabled people and carers are ready to fight back. Hell, take on Katie Price if you feel like it. If you can make these people realise that their bullshit will be called out and virtually slapped around till they either accept they are wrong or block you.
After some idiot decided to say there are many who defraud disability benefits by "needlessly" claiming them (*cough-multi millionaire David and Sam Cameron-cough*) for their child that had ADHD was forced to face facts and after exchanging insults, anger and foul language they decided to call me a bully and block me.
That's great, maybe next time @claytonrogers18 on Twitter decides to attack disabled people because of their ignorance or bigotry they will think twice.
There morons have to be faced down, disabled people and carers cannot allow their misinformation to go unchallenged. If anyone is struggling with a tory troll then give me a call @ukcarers
Be as "unreasonable" as you possibly can, being reasonable does nothing
Friday, 22 May 2015
Justin Tomlinson Minister For Disabled People And Cameron's Puppet
It is with some fear that disabled people will have to have Justin Tomlinson foisted on them as the latest Minister for Disabled People, the latest in a long line of totally inadequate Ministers as I've said before.
Being a carer and a campaigner for carers for almost 20 years now I’ve seen them come and go. I cannot recall one Minister from any party that actually wanted to help make things easier for disabled people let alone carers.
Justin Tomlinson has voted against protecting the benefits of disabled children and those undergoing cancer treatment but why did he vote against this?
Now perhaps when it comes to children David Cameron has a poor memory, but surely he remembers he had a disabled child? And that David Cameron himself was so pleased that Disability Living Allowance was there to help with the extra expenses for Ivan? Things must have been hard for a multi millionaire family that they needed to claim disability benefits, the same benefits that Tomlinson would rather wasn’t ‘protected’. That should have made him think twice about giving Tomlinson his position.
Disabled people were scared when hearing that the Tories had won the General Election, they can now move that up a notch to ‘being petrified‘. He will not only be Cameron’s lapdog but Iain Duncan Smith’s puppet, and we all know that IDS has no sympathy for people who are not millionaires.
Tomlinson will be the worst Minister for Disabled People ever. I’m not saying this because I hate the Conservative Party I am saying this from experience AND because I hate the Tory Party. The man has no morals.
Tomlinson does know about carers as he has taken part in many ‘Carers Week’ events so he must also be aware of their worries like 40 to 50% of carers that will lose their Carers Allowance if the Tories have their way. This is on top of the 25,000 former MP (and it’s so nice to be able to say that about this woman) Esther McVey
.
The blame for Tomlinson’s views about disabled people cannot be completely placed at his door, in fact if you look through the “They Work For You” website you will see many or most Conservative and Lib Dem politicians from the coalition have all voted the same way when it comes to providing vital financial help for disabled people.
So the big question is who instructed these politicians to be so anti disabled people, it has to come from the top, the Prime Minister surely? David Cameron who had a disabled son, a son he loves to use as a tool when it comes to the NHS and benefit system so how did he vote when it came to paying higher benefits for those unable to work because of being disabled?
After checking the way many ConDem MP’s voted I found out that David Cameron voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability! How can he keep using poor Ivan when he has no time for disabled people at all? Or was Ivan the only disabled person David Cameron cared about?
Justin Tomlinson will do whatever the Prime Minister tells him when it comes to disabled people, if David Cameron thinks so little of his late son Ivan then he will have no trouble making the lives of other disabled people hell.
It’s going to be a very long, very miserable 5 years if you are disabled or unemployed or both.
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