Perverse: People are blaming Labour for TORY attacks on the vulnerable
Debbie Abrahams speaking to the Labour conference. She has pledged to end the hated Work Capability Assessments of sick and disabled people [Image: David Gadd/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar].
On the Vox Political Facebook page, in response to the post about Labour’s recent victories in the City of London elections, one person – who shall remain nameless here but can be identified fairly easily in the obvious way – posted: “Major electoral win would be to stick up for all disabled people and put an end to the farcical PIP process !!!!”
The first part of that suggestion is based on a lie that Labour isn’t “sticking up” for all disabled people. The party refused to do so before the 2015 general election, and This Writer would like to think that the public dumped Labour on its collective ass at least partly in response to that – let’s face it – despicable attitude.
Labour has since modified it policy position and now opposes the current assessment system for sickness and disability benefits. The whole system will be reappraised when a Labour government is returned to power and you can be sure that an “end” will certainly be “put” to the “process”.
This brings me to the second part of the suggestion – the lie that Labour could possibly end the Tory persecution of the sick and disabled now.
This is impossible under the UK’s current political system.
Like it or not, folks, the Conservative Party has a majority in the House of Commons, meaning it is free to force through any policy it wishes – no matter how deranged, deluded or ideologically-slanted.
One such policy is the persecution of the sick and disabled. Theresa May, Damian Green and the other 300-plus Tory MPs will not accept any attempt to modify their system for denying the existence of long-term illnesses or disabilities because they want benefit claimants to die.
So any attempt by Opposition MPs – of any party – to modify government legislation, or introduce Bills of their own for that purpose, are voted down by the governing party – the Tories, who hold the majority of seats in the House of Commons.
That is how your democracy works.
No argument, no matter how well-reasoned, will make a scrap of difference. And without a rebellion among Tory ranks (impossible in this instance – they all want the sick and disabled to die), change simply cannot be asserted by force of numbers.
I feel sure I have mentioned these facts on This Site before.
The facts did not stop another commenter from responding to the first: “That would require labour to be an opposition, which they are not! Letting disabled people rot!”
As you can see from my explanation above, this is complete nonsense.
Yet people are still saying it.
I can’t fight this kind of stupidity alone.
It doesn’t just occur on the Vox Political Facebook page – it’s all over the social media, and in pubs and households across the UK. Vox Political is a small social media site and simply doesn’t have the circulation to straighten out the misconceptions of so many people.
But you can.
Please, don’t let the idiots get away with it. If you ever hear this kind of rot about the Labour Party, challenge it – because the people spouting it are letting the Tories off the hook.
To explain, here’s my response, as posted on Facebook:
Labour must be IN OFFICE to stop the persecution of people with long-term sicknesses and disabilities. It’s impossible while in Opposition because a majority Tory government will ALWAYS overrule any attempts to change the situation. Reasoned argument will NEVER work because your Tory government has an ideological commitment to the persecution of the vulnerable – to death, if possible.
Vox Political has proved this, in the results of its own battles with the Tories and also in reports of others, over the last five years or so.
Please stop typing nonsense about the Labour Party. All you are doing is absolving the Tories of their responsibility.
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People are just parroting what they read in the papers. They don’t realise that we can no longer trust what’s in the MSM. They need to wake up!!
[Note from Samuel]: On August 7 2106, I wrote Jeremy Corbyn and other high ranking Labour MPs a detailed letter, which asked this question: Will you campaign to rescind the ESA (WRAG) cuts, or take legal action to possibly stop them?
The Labour Party has a considerable war chest swollen by new members and could afford to take the government to court over these pernicious cuts. Below are just a couple of compelling reasons why legal action should be taken against the DWP and HM Treasury:
1) “Now, it transpires, many Conservative MPs simply had no idea what they were voting for.” (Excerpted from: Stephen Crabb got his facts wrong on disability aid cuts – time to make amends | Jonathan Portes | Opinion | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/21/stephen-crabb-facts-disability-aid-cuts-benefit).
2) What guarantees or assurances can the DWP provide to UK’s sick and disabled that the WRAG cuts aren’t life-threatening? None whatsoever, because the DWP refused to conduct a proper impact assessment demanded by both the House of Lords and the Equality and Human Rights Commission; see http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-block-plan-to-look-at-the-impact-of-their-disability-benefit-cuts-a6909036.html and http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/01/equalities-watchdog-criticises-planned-cuts-to-work-support-allowance.
We’ve seen just recently how the gov’t reacts to court verdicts not in its favour: they change circumstances so the judgment is irrelevant without actually improving things.
While the Blairites still control the Labour Party behind the scenes nothing will happen in the courts. This years conference will be a spicy affair. Please see earlier articles on this site for details re Rachel Reeves and Momentum influence.
There is however a problem, after 6 years of the constant drone from camoron of being there “for hardworking people” and nonsense such as benefits street the public at large thinks anyone who is not working for any reason whatsoever is a scrounger living in luxury on the backs of the hard working people, whatever the definition of a hard working person is. Until this perception is reversed, which will take longer than it took to create this anti disabled stance, there are no votes in the situation so the parliamentary parties won’t be interested.
Labour is interested because Labour does not support this perception.
As I’ve said before, perception is the name of the game. We all know that the Tories have a majority and can do what they like but if Labour keep on abstaining (for whatever possibly strategic reason), they are perceived by the general public as supporting the Tories’ policies.
“If Labour keep on abstaining” on what, exactly?
Last time Labour abstained on this subject was under the leadership of the right-winger Harriet Harman, of all people.
Labour doesn’t do that now.
People are far too keen to blame the current leadership for the sins of the past. Please, stop blurring those lines because it will only help the Conservatives.
i agree that with the current bunch of if you could call it government that this policy will never change,however more people need to challenge decisions,need to challenge the assessors at complaints level, as well as the decision makers, and any time they even do something stupid as threaten a sanction challenge them, looking at the last few months of of tribunals at NMC and HSCP, what a surprise, not even one wca assessor,lots involving staff in trusts/nhs, so why that, could be something to do with trust reporting whereby if someone does something serious it is mandatory that it is reported or that the PALS liason service is involved which takes the sting out of making the complaint, has anyone complained to these companies, i have twice, normally detailed complaints that takes weeks to put together, to get a 3 page letter if your luck saying there a naughty boy, there line manager will talk to them and they won’t do it again,what rubbish, not even a apology, there needs to be a independant complaints section that has no loyalty to any of them,with service user involvement as well and that will soon bring this misaligned lot that think they can write any old drivel,if they know that they are going to be held accountable for what they write. That also should apply to ministers past and present from any party, so that it does not seem one sided and there should also be changes to law at there level for accountability and responsibility as well as having qualifications and experience in the role and if they don’t have the experience,that’s easy, summer recess, get them working at the ground level in the enviroment they create
Have a look at the Scottish snp MP trying to stop the Torres in House of Parliament being evil to the disabled! Their was no labour even in the Houses of Parliament.. so it is half labours fault for not trying to help the disabled the cockwombles ffs
To what are you actually referring here? I take it your comment is intentionally vague.
If you mean a certain private members’ bill that was never going to get past the Tories, Labour were there, Labour spoke passionately on the subject, and Labour voted on it – but in the knowledge that it was purely about getting the words out there; the Tories were never going to allow anything to change.
This is precisely the sort of behaviour to which I was referring in the article. The Tories will never allow real change while they have a majority.
So your invitation/reference is pointless and it is not Labour’s fault at all for deploying its personnel in a responsible way.