Desperate plight of those lives destroyed by Tory cuts are laid bare in new film

Last Updated: April 14, 2016By
Mark Wood: He died of starvation several months after his ESA was stopped without warning by the DWP.

Mark Wood: He died of starvation several months after his ESA was stopped without warning by the DWP.

“Right from the time he was tiny, Mark was always a very vulnerable person, a very gentle person,” Cathie Wood says.

She is speaking about the death of her brother, Mark, a constituent of David Cameron who starved to death in August 2013, only months after the Department for Work and Pensions said he was fit for work.

At the time of his death, he was a desperate and skeletal figure, who weighed only 5st 8lb.

“Over the summer he gradually just starved to death,” Cathie says.

“He was five stone, he had nothing in his stomach. He was ridiculously ill.

“We had tried to help him by this stage, but he was in such a state of advanced paranoia and phobia that it was too late for him, he was too ill.”

Cathie is speaking not to a news documentary team, but as part of what is essentially a band doc about the Sleaford Mods.

It may seem a curious fit until you watch Invisible Britain.

The film follows the mod duo on the kind of tour previous Modfathers used to make – to working men’s clubs and small venues in disaffected towns like Colchester, Wakefield and Scunthorpe.

Visiting some of the most “neglected, broken down and boarded up parts of the country that many would prefer to ignore” in the run up to last spring’s general election, Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn find a disengaged and forgotten audience reflecting their rage right back at them.

Among the interviewees is Cathie, the articulate sister of Mark.

As Iain Duncan Smith’s tears dry over the plight of a young single mother, her quiet dignity is a reminder of all the previous opportunities Duncan Smith had to resign.

For more information, visit www.invisiblebritain.com .

Source: Desperate plight of those lives destroyed by Tory cuts are laid bare in new film – Mirror Online

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(
but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

5 Comments

  1. Brian April 14, 2016 at 7:25 pm - Reply

    The DWP is continuing to stop benefits without warning. They also purposely mess claimants appointments up to justify stoppages. It would not surprise anyone if this included falsifying claimant records to ‘show’ they have been late or missed appointments.

  2. David April 15, 2016 at 8:09 am - Reply

    What a tragic story. It’s difficult to imagine Cameron starving to death. Must be nice, wolfing a country supper whilst a constituent staves to death. What century are we in?

  3. Sue Blake Bulman April 16, 2016 at 2:33 pm - Reply

    When will this be on Television?

  4. mili68 April 17, 2016 at 12:19 pm - Reply

    Tweeted @melissacade68

  5. mrmarcpc April 18, 2016 at 1:51 pm - Reply

    This sadly won’t see the light of day on the telly because none of them will have the heart and the spine to do so, especially Auntie B who is absolutely gutless now!

Leave A Comment

you might also like