What if Donald Trump had retweeted messages targeting people with disabilities instead of Muslims?
Theresa May's official spokesman said: "Britain First seeks to divide communities using hateful narratives which peddles lies and stokes tensions. The British people overwhelmingly reject the hate group."
Replace "Britain First" with "The Tories" and it works just as well.
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) November 29, 2017
It does.
One of the most hateful lies used by the Tories to divide communities was the narrative they peddled that people with disabilities were “scroungers” and “skivers”, and that they were “sponging” off the state when they should be at work.
The effect of that lie has been appalling, with recorded hate crime against disabled people increasing hugely over the last few years.
And the number of sick and disabled benefit claimants who have died while the Department for Work and Pensions played silly games with their applications and found flimsy excuses to deny them the support they were owed is mostly unrecorded –Β because the government never bothers to check what happens to people it cuts off.
Even people whose disabilities are acknowledged by the Tories are more than Β£2,000 worse off than they were before the Tories took office in 2010 – due to punitive cuts in the amount of benefit they receive.
I mention this because Labour’s Debbie Abrahams has called for the Tories to reconsider their determination to continue applying an austerity to the disabled that they seem to forget when considering support for people like – say – bankers.
She said:Β βThe Toriesβ cuts to social security support are pushing more and more disabled people into poverty. Last weekβs Budget failed to do anything for disabled people even though the recent Equality and Human Rights Commission report showed a disabled adult is over Β£2,000 a year worse off since 2010. Even the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities condemned this Government for causing a βhuman catastropheβ in their failure to uphold the rights of disabled people.
βThis βplanβ from the Government looks like nothing more than a guise for more cuts. The Tories have already hit disabled people who are not fit for work but who may be in the future in the Work Related Activity Group. I hope they are not going to now target the most disabled people in the support group, as their Green Paper hinted at.
βAt the 2015 General Election, the Tories promised to halve the disability employment gap. Since then they have dropped this commitment.
βIf this Government really cared about disabled people they would end austerity now which is disproportionately impacting upon disabled people and reform and extend Access to Work for those disabled people who are able to work.β
The statement will gain no support at all from the Tories.
But what if Ms Abrahams – or the appropriate shadow minister, who would be Dawn Butler – had been calling for an easing of policies that unfairly target Muslims?
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Shared on 61chrissterry
” … π΄ππ π‘βπ ππ’ππππ ππ π πππ πππ πππ πππππ πππππππ‘ ππππππππ‘π π€βπ βππ£π ππππ π€βπππ π‘βπ π·πππππ‘ππππ‘ πππ ππππ πππ ππππ ππππ ππππ¦ππ π ππππ¦ πππππ π€ππ‘β π‘βπππ ππππππππ‘ππππ πππ πππ’ππ πππππ π¦ ππ₯ππ’π ππ π‘π ππππ¦ π‘βππ π‘βπ π π’πππππ‘ π‘βππ¦ π€πππ ππ€ππ ππ πππππππ ππππππππ ππ … ” – Ah, but never forgotten, eh Mike?
There is a data trail, although the government is currently trying to cover it up. We’ll find out once we’ve got a Labour government (if we make sure an investigation happens).