The Death Of Decency #wrb
It's been a long, hard eighteen months. Harder and tougher than I could ever communicate to you. I could try and tell you of the times Sue and I spent hours fevered, medicated and desperately unwell just trying to string together a few coherent sentences. The times we tried frantically to finish articles for newspapers interrupted by journalists, politicians or charities wanting us to help with research about issues they didn't really understand, or the times we took turns to cry with despair about what was happening to our country which no-one but a handful of seriously ill people seemed to care about.
I could tell you of how receiving messages from people so terrorised they wanted to tell us their lives were no longer worth living became routine. Of sleepless nights fearing that the person had gone ahead with their plans, or even of the devastating night when despite the online community rapidly rallying help we heard that the prompt police response was too late and another person was found dead.
I could tell you that we always knew this to be an unwinnable battle. That very early on we decided that whatever dirty tricks politicians pulled we would not sink to that level. That we would always act with honesty, ensuring our facts were double and triple checked, that we would counter lies with integrity and truth. That the more justice appeared to be absenting herself from this process, the more we were determined to ensure her voice remained.
I could tell you all those things and more, but never would you be able to truly understand how much this battle has cost those who had least to give. We have lobbied, debated and pleaded, often ignoring issues which would affect us personally as we decided on principle that we would act for the the best interests of all our community, even if that was to the detriment of our own personal lives, financial situations and our long term health.
I could, but that's not the most important thing to say.
The most important issue of all is the message sent by a British government to the British people. That disabled children who aren't the most disabled of all will have their support cut to 'justify' increasing the support to the most severely disabled children by less than £2 a week. That newly disabled or seriously ill adults living alone will lose the money previously deemed vital to pay someone to provide care. That children with serious illnesses and disabilities will have their entitlement to National Insurance contributions removed. An entitlement previously supported by politicians of all parties as sending a crucial message of the inherent value of life. That people with serious illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis, early onset Alzheimers or cancer will, after 12 months, no longer be entitled to the financial support they spent their working lives paying National Insurance for if their partner earns more than £7500 per year.
I could tell you of how this was sold to the British public. A people with 'it's just not cricket' hardwired into our DNA. Of how carefully, deliberately, knowingly successive governments moved from all agreeing that it was inhuman to demonise the sick or disabled to carefully, deliberately, knowingly, drip feeding a complicit media into a propoganda exercise stunning in its success, to label these very same people as unworthy of empathy, compassion or support. Of how calculated this rebranding exercise was to ensure the public believed the empty promises of 'always supporting the most vulnerable' because, after all, these people are mostly faking fraudsters anyway. Doesn't it say so in the papers, on the news, even on the BBC?
I could try and explain to you that this isn't about eliminating fraud, that this will affect you or your family when inevitably accident, sickness or ageing moves you from being 'not yet disabled' to 'one of us'. I could try, but that's the nightmare of 4am no-one wants to remember when they awake. I could tell you that understanding, that empathy, that sense of life altering devastation is an insight that will only come to you when it's too late.
I can, with pride, tell you of a demonised community who have found strength in each other. I can tell you of how inspiring it is to feel the love and support of these people, and the awesome sense of privilege in witnessing the broken come together. I can tell you of the values we all grew up with, principles our ancestors fought for, our playground guilt as we were chastisted for hitting the bespectacled child.
I could tell you of how bewildered we have been to witness a British government act in a manner more befitting China. I could tell you how each deliberate lie, each serpent tongued statement and guarantee of consultation rankled and oozed. I could tell you that something fundamental in us was mortally wounded when finally we produced cold, hard evidence to prove the government were saying one thing and doing quite the other, to then witness the government's nose grow proportionately only to it's falsehoods.
I could tell you that actually, this is not about the money. That the financial cuts will be detrimental to lives, but that the message the government have sent to the British people, that the weakest, the frailest, the most vulnerable are no longer worthy of collective support will be rejected once that same public understand that message.
I could tell you all of that, but over the next few years you will discover this for yourselves. So all I will tell you is this;
Something fundamentally British died yesterday. If you thought it was already dead, think again.
50 comments:
Beautifully written.
Wonderfully written. Very moving and incredibly said. I will pass this link on now and keep it to direct people to in future.
Oh Kaliya, you've summed it up perfectly. I refuse to believe this is the end of it though. There's still time.
Sadly, your post is a stark reality.
I witnessed more than the death of democracy yesterday. I watched the beginning of a an extremely volatile time bomb. This government believes it is untouchable, and that is a very dangerous thing.
That fact they believe they are untouchable is not scary, it is the fact that they are. (for now)
Poignant. You write so beautifully and so truthfully. I am sharing this as wide as I can.
Your words express so deeply all of the hurt and disbelief we all feel. I am still numb from the callousness of yesterday's events and the blatant disregard of the plight of the most vulnerable by this abhorant government and their puppet media. They should all hang their heads in shame. I used to be proud to be British , no more .You and all Spartacus should be proud , you have stood tall and fought for us all despite the personal cost. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
What a load of unmitigated self-pitying shite. Yours is typical of the insular sense of entitlement that the current broken benefit system fosters, the notion that it is your unalienable right to sit back and have free money shovelled at you without any other form of scrutiny.
Newsflash: the gravy train has departed. Some will lose out, others the most in need will benefit. That's how changes in benefit rules generally work.
I remember when changes were enacted to the system back in the 1980s. Howls of protest resulted from those being disenfranchised. Meanwhile my widowed grandmother who brought up five children single handedly with minimal state help in the 1950s and 60s and who had little or no pension provision from the series of menial night jobs she took to support her family was finally lifted out of poverty by a new system designed to be sympathetic to the plight of people like her. Try telling that to those who tried to stand in the way of reform, using much of the same emotive language that you do here.
Suck it up. Deal with the changes and do what the rest of us are doing as the values of our income decline - adjust household budgets accordingly.
I personally dont have a "insular sense of entitlement", I actually have a contractual entitlement. I entered into an agreement that in return for paying insurance premiums, I would be insured.
This insurance would pay out if I became unable to work.
Sadly the insurance company have reneged on their agreement, and are refusing to pay out.
Just so that you dont make the same mistake, please dont enter into a contract with either Unum Insurance, or the current Government, who are controlled by Unum insurance.
The Government insurance policy is called "National Insurance", however they are thinking of pulling out of this market and leaving the big insurers to deal with it.
Those who paid into NI should now chalk this up to experience and recognise that all their policy payments are worthless.
Hope this helps.
No. Something fundamentally Brit didn't die. The changes simply went under British radar, for all the effort.
A 'what has it to do with me' attitude perhaps? You make a very valid point that there's a perception that "it" can't happen to them. I didn't think it could happen to me either. But it did.
Disability takes no prisoners. It's random, can hit anyone, at any time in their life, despite a modern perception that if you do this, that or the other, you belong to a super-club of immunes, untouchables, free of disadvantage, It just isn't true.
Quite right it's not about the money. I'm privileged to have wonderful, supportive neighbours a partner and mates who are free, who enable me.
But here's the worry. Have I just walked into the hands of ATOS by saying that? How many others are now afraid, thinking - "If I just keep my head down, do as I'm told, and carry on, THEY will leave me alone?"
No. They aren't. That's got to come across.
To anonymous
The gravy train is still here in this country but it is now an Oriental Express. Meaning rich people can get on it but doesn't stop for the poor. I pity you for believing the government/media hype.
Good article by the way.
This moved me to tears. I can't (or won't) understand the world we are sleep walking in to. It just makes me feel terribly sad. I am so sorry.
Anonymous - Congratulations, you have just demonstrated what a wonderful job the government have done with their propaganda.
You've swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
To anonymous, I notice you don't have the balls to say that so callously not only the author of this blog, but the hundreds of other disabled people who read it, and identify yourself.
we can't reply to you personally and tell you how wrong you are, and you'll probably never come back to read this. But you are wrong, you've fallen for the propaganda like millions of others, and I pity you.
Fantastic writing as ever bendy girl, you are an inspiration to us all, I will also share this as widely as I can. You inspire me to do more to help our movement, my disability is a mental illness and not a physical one. So I now vow to take part in more protests on behalf of those so mentally ill or disabled by pain and illness they can't go. Even though I can barely afford to live let alone travel to London, I will endeavor to at all costs next time there is a protest. They have not won, they will never silence us.
Thank you so much for expressing so concisely the real issues here.
A child who needs constant supervision for every waking moment, a child who has on several occasions put his life in danger due to his disabilities is not considered 'severely disabled. Why? Because he sleeps.
Because he sleeps we are going to lose £100 a month, and what remains of the money we need to live on will be begrudged by those who have listened to the anti disability propoganda.
We are utterly miserable.
It's a sad fact that what you have written is, simply, fact... When did we all forget to treat each other as human beings who deserve respect and dignity?
Well, yeh. Nony-Mouse.
Pleased to hear Nan benefited from being lifted from a time of limited contraception, poor, if any health care, ill paid work, and limited opportunity for personal advancement.
I'm sorry that you feel that we should regress, and take it as it comes. I suppose it's easier just to give in.
Not.
Anonymous said: "Suck it up. Deal with the changes and do what the rest of us are doing as the values of our income decline - adjust household budgets accordingly."
My annual household income is about to decline to precisely zero, what budget measures would you suggest?
As for a sense of entitlement, isn't that precisely what we're supposed to have in return for all our years of National Insurance payments? The right loves to talk about our covenant with the armed forces, but doesn't the same covenant also exist between the State and the people who actually pay their taxes? Having paid a significant proportion of my income in NI payments for 23 years, is it really unreasonable to expect to be supported for longer than 12 months when disability makes me unable to work, or to expect that support for other disabled people, whatever their individual circumstances? Ensuring that everyone is provided for is, after all, the point of labeling ourselves civilised.
A wonderfully written and emotive article. Thank you to yourself and Sue for all your hard work and maintaining integrity throughout. I am proud that those who have most need can behave with dignity when there is the threat of all that being ripped from us.
We have entered a new age today. Where those caught up in the polite realpolitik of Westminster suddenly realise, that no number of emails to right wing Tories will ever soften their hearts; no amount of sloganeering, nor 100 strong demonstrations of disabled people will get them the traction they strive for.
The Government, Opposition and Media have set a firestorm and the crips and the sick and the unemployed are being knocked down like skittles in the hurricane force inrush of supporters.
The truth is, nothing short of Direct Action can have any chance of impacting on this debate.
Re: anonymous
Please do not feed the troll. Let him (and it probably is a him) stay in his reverie where the cripples all just shut up and knew their place, or people worked themselves into an early grave because the richest thought that by ignoring them they'd just disappear. Heaven forbid that they'd do inconvenient things like asking to be treated like human beings.
After all, why let these people have free money when we could be doing something useful, like shovelling not the bottomless furnace that is the financial services sector?
Remember, no one is really poor these days. Well, no one IMPORTANT, anyway.
Well. As comments seem to have no feedback whatsoever - it seems hardly worthwhile writing these words.
I actually think that the comments people write are an important gauge to what is happening in peoples' lives. sigh.
However well intentioned Sue and Kaliyah are; it's not working. They are also not the only protestors in town.
I started way back when the first sniffs of this neo fascist agenda arose in "NEW LABOUR". I contacted individuals in the house of Lord and yes, did receive replies.
I set up petitions and brought the subject to the attention of disability and sickness forums here in the UK.
I started using the term "arbeit mecht frei"; about 7 years ago. I recognized the similarities of "work brings freedom"; to the obvious lies of "welfare reform".
So; I've done my bit and much more but it isn't working.
Not until there is that "big event" will public opinion begin to swing in our favour.
The "big event" is coming. Probably mass suicide or that event which happened in the suffragete movement. Emily Pankhurst knew she could only move people by that "big event" of giving her life. Something I don't recommend.
I'm very close to the edge. I have mental illness and take anti-psychotic medication. It doesn't take much to push me into a reaction. How many more are like me?
We don't want to be "assessed"; we're sick of it. We just want to be left in peace. Is that too much to ask? We're not criminals just the scrap and leftovers of a system that is full of its own greed and economic obsessions.
Now it wants us? What a f*****g cheek. Go f****k yourselves westminster. And perhaps it will take someone as insane and damaged as I am to blow you into acting like human beings instead of heartless hypocrites.
Dr.Gabor Mate is most definitely right. You f*****s should be forced to read his work or watch his lectures on youtube.
You haven't got a f*****g clue.
robert
The handicapped should remember that we are all in this together and that their sacrifice will be used to give the rich a cut in income tax in line with the trickledown theory that got us and many other countries into the mess we are in now. 40 years ago Maggie Thatcher decided that the rich should get richer and that their benevolence would ensure that the rest of us would be fine. It simply does not work.
This is beautifully written. We are all so grateful to Kaliya, Sue and everyone else, and they have achieved huge things.
However, I don't believe that the fundamental British sense of decency that we all talk about exists right across our country. It exists among some of us and not among others, and this has been the way for a very long time. It is a fight between them and us, and they are winning overall at the moment. But we will keep fighting and we will win again.
Unfortunately, things will have to get a lot worse before others will be moved out of denial to join us. Remember, this is a country that in recent times had a great big homeless city at the heart of London; and this was accepted for years. This is not as nice a country as many of us would like to think.
What real got me was Mps voting to take £27 off a week off "less" disabled kids, ie kids with complex needs that might actually sleep for 6h a night so dont get the high care rate.
Beliving in all seriousness that the UK cannot afford to pay that, when it makes all the difference to families lifes, while at the same time its probable the cost of their subsided food at the house of commons for the day, drinks, lunch, dinner and alcohol. Really they cant pay market rates on their wages? If they cant afford the going rate for a cooked meal then how can those at the bottom of the scale? Hope they choke on their subsided meals.
Excellent post. Shame about the comment by Anonymous, but no surprise they do remain anonymous.
None of these attacks on the most vulnerable members of society would be possible if it weren't for a complicit media. The tories will always attack the poor and the weak while defending the rich and powerful, but shame on the media for siding with them.
I'm sorry, but I think that this is about money. Not a billion or so saved in benefits, but much, much more than that.
It's about creating and reinforcing a large pool of ever more desperate people who'll take any job they can get at any wage with any conditions and of people in debt so that they are willing to pay extortionate interest rates for many years. It's about persuading many people to pay large premiums for sickness and unemployment insurance and private services ranging from essential equipment to nursing factories, I mean private residential care and hospital facilities.
What they save in a bit of benefits is peanuts. It's what money they can make out of collective national desperation and fear.
It's the money that politicians can make when they retire from appointments with companies that are making these profits both directly through government contracts and indirectly through benefitting from cheap labour and desperate customers.
@ds I'm well aware 'he' and you're prob right it is a he, is a troll.
A confused one at that. But one that is struggling to express themselves. Like many of us.
Behind it all is someone asking a question, stuck in difficult circumstances that they can't seem to find their way out of.
No indication yet their just having a go. Unless their willing to say they are. The mark of a troll is constant hassle.
It's a lot to get your head round sometimes.
It's a moderated blog after all :)
A note on moderation: All comments are read and opinions taken on board. I don't often reply because I don't have the time or energy, it's not a lack of interest.
Also my moderation policy is to publish pretty much everything apart from spam. I do not moderate critical or negative comments, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and to express it. However, anything that might get me sued (such as claiming certain companies are directly responsible for deaths) does not get published (unless I was so heavily medicated when I published the comment that I didn't understand it) The only other criteria for comments not being published is if they've become personally threatening to mine or anyone else's safety. So, if you really feel the need to tell me I'm a twat for not doing x, y or z that's up to you, I'll publish it. But if you tell me I'm a twat and you believe I should be killed for being such a twat....well, then funnily enough that won't get published!
Oh but do please pick names to use Anonymouses. It's awfully confusing and dull with all these Anon's floating around...and if you really want to have a go at sick and disabled people for having the temerity to suggest we might have some rights...then have enough respect to make yourself up a nice little name before you verbally kick us in the head there's a dear.
Thank you, BendyGirl
I believe the last post by Anonymous about having a pool of people that can make money off re insurance rings true. The disabled are just being used to strike fear into the rest of the population telling them if they don't get insurance look what will happen to you. Some MP's have no doubt bought the Governments propaganda, but I am sure there were a number who were aware all along about what the end game is.
Yes many people in Britain do have a sense of fair play which no doubt will be reinstated when they eventually see through the Governments propaganda. However, I fear it will take too long and be too late for many.
The only way forward it would appear is to ask for them to review everything again. If everyone where to get behind Pat's Petition by the time it comes up for debate in November 2012, there just might be a sea change in opinion when enough people realise that nearly every family is effected and we are indeed all in this together.
(Not related to either of the Anonymice above - typed before seeing BendyGirl's comment, but delayed by fighting with the %@$ing CAPTCHA thing. I'll get myself a name next time, promise!)
I'm not sure what relevance - or credibility - DavidG's claim of income of "zero" has, massive exaggeration?
Despite the name, "National Insurance" is no insurance premium - it's a tax like any other, ending up in the same pot that funds the multi-million pound food and drink subsidies for our MPs, the billion pounds we give to India to help them afford the hundred new French fighter jets - insurance, it isn't. Of course many of us are being ripped off, but not by some "insurance policy" you think our taxes go to.
I was surprised by the article saying "children with serious illnesses and disabilities will have their entitlement to National Insurance contributions removed" - of course, it's *carers* who get the NI credit - and remember NI pension calculations were recently made much more generous anyway. Will anyone caring for a disabled child be forced to give it up and get a job instead just for the sake of NI credits towards a state pension?
The idea it's all a conspiracy to make money out of increased insurance policy sales seems a bit far-fetched, though, Rose!
There ARE a few who play the system and who DO manage to get away with it. But comparatively very few in reality.
However the media picked up on some of them. And showcased them in headlines. And showed us that these few were often living in 5 bedroom houses. In Mayfair. With an income from benefits of £25000+ a year, 5 kids, a flatscreen 56inch TV, games consoles like you would not believe and WERE NOT EVEN OF ENGLISH DESCENT, (just to get the point across properly).
The government, looking for an excuse to shift the publics eye away from their own scandals, (expenses anyone?), saw this. And made it bigger. And figured that at LAST here was something. So they moved quickly and drip fed the media various horror stories. Which got published. Which got seen. WHICH GOT BELIEVED.
And now we are left with this. A ticking time bomb as someone above said. The elite few in power dominating the poor, the vulnerable, the genuinely needy.
The elite fat cat bankers got away with their scandals. Now the politicians want to get away with theirs.
And by doing this they pretty much have.
Anonymous 5.44
You say "I was surprised by the article saying "children with serious illnesses and disabilities will have their entitlement to National Insurance contributions removed" - of course, it's *carers* who get the NI credit "
I think you're missing something. There are some people that are disabled as children and who, when they grow up, are credited with NI contributions because otherwise they would never be able to get any.
These are the children whose NI contributions are being taken away and who will face adulthood dependent on others.
You have a great blog & Im glad its here, the people who disagree with the changes will probably be the ones who become ill at some point & turn up at the local welfare rights/citizens advice office & explode when they are told - sorry that all the government says you need to live off of. Like the man who shouted at me cos I wouldn't complete his son's DLA form until the 3 months qualifying period had passed - I know his leg isn't going to grow back but he won't qualify until the 3 months has passed so take it up with parliament - Oh sorry they have just proved how useless thay are as well. As a advisor Im meant to be sympathetic to new claimaints but its going to be really difficult to not say Did you support the welfare reform bill - this is what you get - enjoy
Once again Thank you for all you and Sue have done
Hi guys, just thought I would leave my mark with yourselves. What you have written is quite right and well said. Even today we have seen the other side of the coin with the head of a company associated with the government being allowed to pay himself £183,000 through a private service company. Yet when it comes to benefits, people are being penalised, especially the disabled and vulnerable. I do think it is time for this government to grow a sense of decency; the question is when?
The best thing to do with anonomass is to ignore it, it's no different than reading the 8 billion comments posted in the Daily Mail every week. It wrote it for a reaction, and got it's reaction, opinion or not, its a dickhead.
It is unbelievable how draconian our lives will come from decisions made by just a few rich people who are suppose to be representing our views !!
Today I found out how these changes will affect me. I have a heart condition, neurology problems, mobility problems, daily blackouts and a sleep disorder whereby I can fall asleep stood up or talking to people.
I have battled the ESA system and finally won my appeal. Two weeks later I was sent the letter I am being reassed again. What a waste of money.
I have been trying to move out of my three bedroom home to a ground floor home as I cannot manage my stairs. I have waited 3 years so far and the housing people just laugh when I ask if any properties are available. From the changes I will have to move as my bedrooms are unoccupied other than when my carer stays when I am really bad. So I will be financially penalised for this. I am willing to move NOW but there is nowhere to move to. Why should I be punished and penalised for the lack of housing?
My friend will be homeless in June. His crime is not anti social behaviour but being 32 yrs old. He has severe mental health issues and spends a lot of his time in and out of hospital. He asked what will happen to him in June. The housing officer says he needs to sofa surf until hes 35, (3yrs) and then may be able to apply for housing !! His mental health has deterioted to the state that he believes suicide will be the better option than sleeping on the streets. He has no family and most his freinds are in the same boat. He knows 7 people who will be losing their flats. I am not talking about large properties. He lives in a tiny one bedroomed flat where the living room and bedroom are in one area. He has a tiny bathroom and even smaller kitchen large enough for a mini cooker, 2 cupboards and a fridge. Hardly excessive living. He does have the option to top up his rent out of his benefits. He added it up and after his income of JSA of £65 wk he would be minus £30. No money for food or bills.
How can millionaire politicians treat their citizens like this? So thats 9 people homeless now that had perfectly good homes that were not living in excessive mansions but were happy living a basic life.
Surely creating homelessness all around the country is going to cost far more money when it is spent on bed and breakfast dumps than spending it on housing benefit.
We have no life now! Maybe when we are homeless we will get one of these lovely jobs Cameron says we should get. I do have to say to Cameron who keeps spouting that works make you free is I was free until you destroyed me with your dictator policies.
Lib Dems should hold their heads in shame for ever supporting these policies and the underhand way they are being implicated. I think my freind may be right and suicide may start to look the better offer.
Well said Kaliya, my only concern now is are we going down the same path as 1939/45.
we know how that went and it started with propaganda.
Anonymous who cant do captcha... keep up! One of the benefits being cut is contributary ESA, paid only to those who have paid National Insurance - it is exactly what it says on the tin, a compulsory insurance payment in return for the assurance of payment if a claim arises.
The fact it is not invested properly but used as another tax is irrelevant. Its function is as it is named. You dont know what you car insurance premiums are used on, and its irrelevant - all you need to know is that the insurance company will pay out.
The Government are breaking the covenant of "something for something" that they are so keen to keep mentioning...
The phrase "something for nothing" does not apply .
Anonymous 5.44
"The idea it's all a conspiracy to make money out of increased insurance policy sales seems a bit far-fetched, though, Rose!"
I don't think it's /all/ about insurance policy sales, but if you look at Unum's role in the welfare reforms beginning under Labour, their input in the original consultations and their accompanying rallying of the health and unemployment market, followed by a marketing campaign that's running right now, you can see that the big insurance companies are circling like vultures around a market that they have been at the heart of creating.
A lot of it went on behind the scenes, but you can see from this link what Unum said publicly the private sector had to gain from welfare reforms. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmworpen/401/3021203.htm
My gorgeous gorgeous girl, I am so proud of you. Just rest for a minute honey and breathe. I dont have any other words for you except to tell you how proud I am of you. and to send you my love. Again. xx
That was a beautiful article. Your goodness and humanity shine through every word. What a contrast to the nasty rancid trolls. Now the tone of the propaganda has subtly shifted. We're being told essentially not to be ungrateful because 'look how bad things are in India, Indonesis ' or any other new economy. We went through all that I. The 19th Century. It was awful, we went through wars and poverty and then founded the Welfare State. To go backwards would cause the same problems again. The only answer isbto keep on fighting and making ourselves heard. This will be difficult but we must.
'Anonymous' is a brainwashed coward. Clearly. Don't even have the bottle to be identified. Typical. This is a beautiful and touching piece. Fight the power SPARTACUS. It's not over. The Anonymous' of this world have so much bad karma coming their way I pity them. Still, the study showed this morning that right wingers are clearly less intelligent than left leaning. And here we have it.
Questioner said:
Hello, May I ask a "what if" question. What if the population increases to the point where there is not enough of everything for everyone. Not enough food production capacity, or house heating capacity, etc for proper survival.
The options then do not include everyone haveing enough to live on. Some will have to have less of food, shelter, heating, etc, than they need for basic survival.
So the only options include:
(1) everyone has a bit less than they need to survive (such that everyone gets ill and non-working within a year or so).
(2) some people are allowed to have enough but some do not.
(2a) disabled people are allowed to have enough but some working people or important people are not.
(2b) all non-disabled working people are allowed to have survivable income but some of the disabled are not.
Questioner: Of course you can...thanks for keeping it clean, respectful and intelligible!
We could have a really long debate about all this, consider whether actually we're already as a world heading merrily down path 2, but as individual countries are in different stages on different paths.
But, it all boils down to one, simple, fiendishly difficult ethical question. Do we decide that all human life is innately of value and act accordingly with the distribution of resources based upon need....or do we head straight down the line to the other decision which ends in labelling people as financially unsustainable, useless eaters and going with the consequences of that?
Actually we've all seen where that second line ends up already - genoicide, not just the Nazi's but every other genoicide currently being carried out because one group of people have decided another group of people are less worthy of existence than themselves.
If for the sake of argument as the human race we decide to go with the latter, where does it start and end? Are we going to see Logan's Run? How and who will make these decisions, will they be able to exempt themselves or their loved ones? What protections will we have for those not making the decisions, a right of appeal? How honest will that discussion be?
That discussion won't just be about illness or disability. It's not that simple. It'll encompass whether one religion thinks followers of another religion are worthy of support as after all they believe them damned to hell anyway. Where will skin colour, sexual orientation, gender etc fit? Could we end up with a situation where women decide we no longer have any need for men because we can harvest enough sperm to guarantee the continuation of species and decide men are no longer sustainable? The permutations are endless.
But, whichever and whatever way this debate will eventually have to happen because of simple demographics. For me, the only morally acceptable answer is that all human life is of innate worth and unless we can work out a more just global redistribution system we're all doomed. Doomed I say, doomed ;)
Support your poor tenant farmers, thats what I say!
Buy their organic, hand reared, cuddled and cossetted pork and chicken, even if it is a bit more pricey!
Its a fair trade to know that the food on your plate will have had a great life!
Pork for sale from April, Chicken and eggs available from March ;)
{sniggers and scurries off shmelessly}
(rebranded Anonymous here, not the original one though)
That can backfire, though, hossylass ... I had a free-range duck a few weeks ago, and read the packaging. By the time I'd heard about how the poor duck had been happy paddling in his little pond and free to play with the other ducks until some heartless murderer chopped his head off, I didn't want to eat the poor critter any more!
Talking of reading things and regretting it, after reading up on the welfare system, with DLA, ELA, ESA, PIP, JSA, LHA and probably OMGWTFBBQ as well, it's a scary scary tangle.
The most recent Anonymous has a point about overpopulation - I'd rather hope we could take action long before reaching that stage though, like China is already because the problem's much worse there. I keep seeing scare-stories about low birth-rates, yet our population keeps going up not down...
Agree with everything. One thing is especially true; so much love and support in this community. The one thing they can't take away from us.
Thank you for voicing what all of us are thinking and feeling right now. Please remember to rest, though, or you'll have all of us panicking about you :)
All the love, pride and support possible to you x x
The real benefit scrounging scum: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-16740214
This is for the Anonymous who posed the several questions. Can I recommend he or she read my blog where I've summarised some of them main points from The Spirit Level - how greater equality benefits ALL in society?
http://moggymilitant.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/notes-on-spirit-level.html
This made me weep. Not just for those you write about but for those who have no idea the future that waits them. And I also weep from frustration that despite all that I am others say in HOC it falls on deaf ears. I am so sorry.
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