OH Insist: Atos bullies demand dismantling of critical Facebook sites
Disability campaign groups have started receiving threatening messages from OH Assist, the new face of Atos Healthcare.
The messages have been posted to Facebook pages belonging to the Welfare News Service, Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disability Rights, The People Vs Government, DWP and Atos and Atos Miracles (so far).
They state: “We ask kindly that you remove this page as it incites hatred towards our staff and members. Thank you.”
The wording carries an implicit threat of litigation, as an administrator on Atos Miracles explained: “They are threatening to take legal action on those allegedly defaming them, as it incites hatred towards their staff. So can we take legal action for how they’ve treated the sick/disabled and vulnerable?
“As someone said, you take one of us on, you take all of us on.”
The post continued: “We have a right to our opinions, just as they think they have a right to (in conjunction with the cowards at the DWP) bully, disrespect and shamefully and callously treat the genuinely sick/disabled!
“People have died at the above’s hands. That is the reality.
“So, OH Assist, Atos, or whatever name you will now practice under…
“See you in court.”
Vox Political has not received any messages from OH Assist or Atos – which is curious as the DWP, at least, reckons this blog is about a “‘cover-up’ of the number of Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance claimants who have died” following Atos assessment.
Perhaps this is tacit admission of the validity of the articles on this site – who knows?
If that is true, it seems strange that they do not appear to have considered another fairly obvious conclusion – we all talk to each other.
Vox Political considers that any attack on sites that criticise Atos – under any of its many names – for the horrific results of its work capability assessment ‘medical’ tests is an attack on us all, and stands ready to assist any colleagues who come under such fire.
To OH Assist, we say: “What’s the matter, fellows? Aren’t you aware that UK law allows anyone to provide their opinion, or fair comment, on any subject, person or company, providing it is supported by factual evidence?
“If you were able to provide information that the number of deaths following Atos assessments dropped after November 2011 (the last month for which figures have been provided) you might have a leg to stand on. These figures would have to be verified by an independent source like, perhaps, the UK Statistics Authority in order to give them meaning.
“Why don’t you just come up with some evidence to show that you haven’t done what everybody believes?”
In other words:
Put up or shut up.
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OH Assist it sounds now like we have a company that’s going to assist us in dying all over again
This action by Atos/OHassist appears to be a belated attempt to justify their statement that they were pulling out of their contract with the DWP for assessments because their staff were being threatened. It might carry more weight if they’d actually done any of this before making that statement instead of afterwards. I wouldn’t want to be a PR for Atos these days.
Very well said. They cannot stand the truth they best make it illegal which is what they are trying to do. It’s absurd. Kill millions, because, let us be real, the UK government since time immortal has killed over 100 MIllion of my people alone. Then add to the deaths there and everywhere they try to enforce their putrid patriarchal poison on the masses via lies and you have a death toll that probably will never be fully counted. IT has to stop.. SHame..
Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog and commented:
In their demands for sites critical of them to remove the material Atos considers to incite hatred towards its staff and members, Atos are following an increasing trend of bullying ministers, companies and even local councils fiercely intolerant of any criticism. You can read about similar cases in Private Eye, particularly in the Rotten Boroughs column, where local councils and some of the extremely dodgy companies with whom they have dealings have tried to shut down criticism from local residents. In the case of Atos, if there is hatred towards its staff and members, then it is warranted. The organisation has repeatedly lied and its administration of the assessments reduced the sick and disabled to grinding poverty and, in all too many cases, death. If you want to see three of the people, who’ve been killed by Atos and the DWP through the Work Capability Assessment, go over to Another Angry Voice’s site and check out his latest post attacking Peter Oborne’s puff piece on Ian Duncan Smith describing him as on a ‘moral mission’. And for at least 45 more, you can go over to Stilloaks blog.
Now let’s subject Atos’ concern for their staff’s safety to some criticism. I don’t believe for a single minute that they have any interest in the wellbeing of their personnel. I’ve reblogged on here ta piece from Youtube, where a former nurse with Atos describes her experiences working with the company. She describes the immense workload they were placed under, and which they had to complete, even if it was in their own time. She also describes the way they were expected to alter the results of the assessments in order to fulfil the quotas for the numbers removed from benefits – or otherwise – set by the company. She stated very clearly that Atos were one of the worst companies she had ever worked for.
This just about tells you all you need to know about the company. It’s just more bullying and hypocrisy, only this time directed at those that dare to criticise it, rather than the poor victims, whose lives are mangled and destroyed by the WCA. Mike has said to Atos: put up or shut up. Well, I say, in the words of Private Eye ‘Arkell vs Pressdram’.
OH = “Oh, Hell”
Mmm and of course withdrawing from the contract has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they are taking on huge contracts for managing NHS records and Occupational health services would it? (Hence OHAssist) Nor would it have anything to do with the DWP suspending repeat assessments because they are in such a shambles. Also Atos said nothing about these death threats a month ago when they were up before some parliamentary committee or other (sorry, can’t remember exactly what it was). Should people think that Atos are merely following their paymasters by blaming the sick and disabled for anything and everything, well, I couldn’t possibly comment!
My answer would be you stop treating the disabled as cattle and killing people off and then we will treat you respect
Paul Sheppard on Facebook hit the nail on the head, I think, when he wrote: “Organising Hatred Assist is, like the government that pays them, blaming the victim. If people are angry at them, it is because they have been treated badly and see the consequences of the company’s policies.”
Yes, another name for the tactic is “gaslighting” Mike
I can see what you mean; I’m used to the term being used in its simplest iteration, such as when someone asserts strongly that something happened when you know it didn’t (or vice versa). I had forgotten that it can have more complicated meanings, such as the staging of events in order to disorient and confuse.
Gas-lighting on a political level is a manipulative strategy used to prevent us forming a secure picture of reality. In its most basic form, gaslighting involves modifying evidence and falsifying information for the purpose of making the intended victim question his or her recollection, memory, analysis, and perception of events or behaviours. Gaslighting is commonly used by the military and other high-level organizations for socio-political operations. It is sometimes used by the mental health profession as a concept to describe a particular form of psychological manipulation in inter-personal relationships. A common form of gaslighting is victim-blame , where the perpetrator attempts to convince others that the targeted victim is the aggressor,and the perpetrator is the victim. These tactics are commonly used by psychopaths to control and manipulate others
The language manipulations and redefinitions of this govt are attempts to distort and control your view of reality. As are the denials of the terrible impact of their policies
Sometimes, gaslighting can be as simple as knowingly denying something took place. This is a common behaviour exhibited by perpetrators of child abuse, who will sometimes deny completely that abuse happened, intending to make the victim doubt his or her own recollection.
Other times, gaslighting can involve the creation of elaborate schemes, experiences, and situations that cause a person to question their own judgment and recollection. There are a good number of con games based upon the concept of gaslighting, almost all of which are designed to steal money from the victim.
A brilliant example of gaslighting is the Michael Douglas movie The Game. It is one great series of gaslighting from beginning to end
so have a name change and new letter headed paper will make all what they have done to people will it, they think if we change our name we get a second bite of the pie. do we people look green, we know what OH assist /Atos is all about, Atos by any other name is still Atos.
Interestingly, it seems OH Assist are is doing more harm to itself than anyone else could. The company’s Facebook site went down yesterday but mysteriously reappeared today. Is it an official company site? Judge for yourself, based on replies it has provided to comments on the page.
Irene Turner, quoting this article’s remarks about fair comment, added, “It is not your staff that we detest, it is you, the company!”
The response: “They’re all filthy scroungers anyway, and the feeling isn’t mutual, our highly professional staff think all our ‘customers’ are c***s and imbeciles and should go and die in a corner quietly (sic), and you can quote us on that.”
To Polly Self, who said: “I do not hate your staff… I HATE YOUR COMPANY”, the reply was: “We hate you too Polly, now get back to your window licking.”
It seems highly unlikely (to me) that an Atos/OH Assist representative would say these things.
However, the company clearly seems to have opened the way for an impersonator to get in an bring the company into disrepute, by the removal of its official page. What a mistake to make!
And how many more mistakes can this firm make? It is an embarrassment, not only to itself but to the UK government.
Just be careful here everyone, the current OH Assist Facebook page seems to be a spoof – the original page was called OH Assist Official. As such, this may be some one thinking they are helping “our” cause be making OH Assist look bad – in fact they only make us look bad for resorting to such tactics!
Yes – I’ve already spotted that. My comment was that OH Assist appear to have done themselves more harm than good by opening up that opportunity.
They dont like the truth or want anyone to know they’re killing people. ATOS can try and take pages down but for every one that gets taken down 10 will pop up
when this country finally blows its top and we take this to the streets and England burns yet again as it always happens when the nasty party is in people will be shocked but not me i see riots coming from one end of the uk to the other only this time we should take it to the places where the rich live and not trash our own home towns up, drag the torys out into the street and hang them all one by one side by side lining the streets to the H ,O, P
If So As Shi* (anagram of OH Assist) think that I am going to stop highlighting their gross incompetence, they are tripping (as my 19 year old son would say)
Maybe they should get themselves familiar with Article 10 of the Human Rights Act
Article 10: Right to freedom of expression
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by a public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent states from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema.
2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for the maintaining of the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.
Article 10 protects your right to freedom of expression. This includes the right to hold and express opinions yourself as well as to receive and impart information and ideas to others.
Before the Human Rights Act came into force, the right to freedom of expression was a negative one: you were free to express yourself, unless the law otherwise prevented you from doing so. With the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into English and Welsh domestic law, the right to freedom of expression is now expressly guaranteed.
In Handyside v UK (1976) the ECHR stated that freedom of expression constituted one of the essential foundations of a democratic society and one of the basic conditions for its progress and development of every person. It also made clear that Article 10 applied not only to information or ideas that are favourable and inoffensive but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or a sector of the population.
Reblogged this on glynismillward189.
This is totally outrageous and I hope they are ill advised enough to take it to court???facts are facts and the information you supply show how bad this company and the DWP are on the handling the welfare system.
[…] OH Insist: Atos bullies demand dismantling of critical Facebook sites […]
Trying to get something popular taken down online can easily be like scratching fungus between the toes-it then spreads and pops up in embarrassing places. As for Atos, they’ve been responsible for enslaving or killing large numbers of disabled people, people who had no grudge against them until this happened.
[…] http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2014/03/03/oh-insist-atos-bullies-demand-dismantling-of-critical-fac… […]
Atos have nobody but themselves to blame – they are hated, by the people who suffered under them, by the families of those who were sent to their death due to Atos decisions, by the staff of Atos and by the people of the country who began to see that the disabled and long term sick were being harassed by them.
I blame Atos, I blame the DWP and I blame that vindictive son of a bitch, IDS!
As for the staff at Atos, they deserve the hatred against them as they took the jobs knowing full well that they were sending people into poverty, into an early death and yet they cared not a jot!
The company themselves are already hated in many parts of the world and are also banned from certain countries – we should have done the same and thrown them out but instead this damned government threw you yet more contracts!
I will not be told to take down my pages, if I am then more will open, more than you can imagine!
We disabled and long term sick may be a small number compared to your company, but together we are strong, and we will bring you down, on that you can count!
Reblogged this on Jay's Journal.
Reblogged this on Social Action.
Tally Ho!!!!!! Mike we are all in this together,
Please don’t confuse this with the condems slogan
What, “Tally Ho!!!”? ;-)
we are all in this together Lol!!
Mike I don’t understand much, but with Atos changing their name, does this mean they can avoid any prosecution? Won’t they say that because they are not called Atos, that what happened before isn’t their responsibility? Could you please let me know?
I don’t think so.
The brand name has changed but the company behind it remains the same. That’s why the copyright notice on the OH Assist website has the name ‘Atos’ on it.
“WE’re all in his together” came from Terry Guiliam’s black, dystopic film “Brazil”.
This is a company which has been repeatedly attacked (verbally, in writing and with examples), including in Parliament itself. Even if it’s true that death threats were made, most critics didn’t make them. The evidence of one bad decision after another has been stacking up over some years now. Can they deny, for example, that known degenerative illnesses have been regarded as suitable for investigation for improvement at a later time? I think we may take this as fact: the person or group most disinclined to accept criticism is one that knows there is truth in it. You can’t silence criticism by telling it to go away. Reply to it.
Reblogged this on Fruit & Anger Management and commented:
“First, do no harm”, springs to mind!!
I’m not sure that nurses have to take the Hippocratic oath? But every doctor who has worked in anyway for Atos should be struck off the medical register and banned for life from practicing medicine any where in the UK
You’re right we don’t, but it’s morally observed if not officially sworn by most frontline healthcare professionals I know. I genuinely fear ATOS is one of many modern innovations to lynch the most economically fragile groups, pushing people in deeper and darker troubles and thus justifying locking people up for poverty related crime and or ailment! It sounds wacky, but the evidence is piling up. The Cash for Kids scandal makes another stark example!
Thanks Mike, great article!!!
jo
By the way, Mike I have been trying to buy your ebook, but the website I go to is insisting that I register, I don’t want to register I just want to buy your book! Is there any way to get past that barrier please?
jo
I honestly don’t know. I suppose, as the only way to get it is via a web-based transaction, that this is a necessary trade-off because of the way they do things.
If you want to get it through me, then send me a message and we’ll sort out a way for you to pay me direct, and I’ll order it and have it sent to you.
Thanks Mike!! Ive managed to sort the problem. You are the reason that I have got back a little of my former passion for reading, after my mind shattered, I still lack concentration, but at least I have enough that I can pick up where I left off, so thank you so much!
Gosh! That’s extremely flattering. You’re entirely welcome!
[…] Disability campaign groups have started receiving threatening messages from OH Assist, the new face of Atos Healthcare. […]
our group hasnt had a single threat yet and we have gone at them something chronic but the 1st time they do post a single thing thats threatening, i will be taking legal proceedings which i will take to court myself.
I have started a campaign though to get everyone to post their questions on the oh assist site on FB and copy and save their post every time they delete it repost it till they have answered it properly.
Now going to put a post on there and link them to the group see if i we get anything then. I hate ATOS with a passion they discriminate at many centers because of there being no disabled access, they discriminate directly they lie, falsify reports and claim from taxpayers for training courses and appointments that never existed its time they gave us answers
Be warned: The current OH Assist site on Facebook is a spoof, run by a troll. OH Assist Official was taken down on Sunday.
Point out that there’s no *need* to incite hatred- everyone except the cabinet and the Daily Mail hate them already.
Yes, they have done more, themselves, to incite hatred towards them and their staff than any number of internet pages ever could. If they had been doing fair and balanced assessments of people then there might have been some who were still dissatisfied but not the mass outrage we see today.
If you really want to see a change in the way everything is done in the UK then support this campaign at http://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/bill-of-rights and ‘like’ the Facebook page attached to it too.
[…] I reblogged one of Mike Sivier’s articles from Vox Political, reporting that Atos/ OH Assist was trying to bully blogs criticising […]
OHAssistwatos !!!
[…] Disability campaign groups have started receiving threatening messages from OH Assist, the new face of Atos Healthcare. The messages have been posted to Facebook pages belonging to the Welfare News Service, Black … […]