Right now I am so angry about welfare reforms and reforms to the NHS here in the UK, in all my life I have never felt so much insecurity. It is depressing to live in a society that treats people in such an inhumane way. A society so easily led by the callous behaviour of the over privileged who have never had to rely on benefits, though they have readily taken them when it suits them, or the NHS. I can well imagine that Cameron takes his child benefits for all four of his children. Moreover anyone else having so many children would soon be vilified. Why is it okay for the rich to reproduce as often as they wish?
I think it shocking when single mothers get accused of having children in order to avoid working. Really is this idea anything remotely realistic, think about it, for a lousy meagre amount of benefit money a woman would have a child. Again it comes down to the misconception of how much money people receive on benefits, which incidentally is a lot less than they do in other countries.
It is so sad about Cameron’s son that one hesitates to mention how he, David Cameron, applied for DLA on his son’s behalf despite the fact he is obviously financially able to have provided care for his own son. I believe he even took free nappies provided by the NHS.
The worst part however is how he used his situation concerning the disability of his son to make people believe that he cared about people with disabilities.
I thought it might be interesting to go over a few misleading Cameron quotes and compare them to the reality of his perverted policies:
“There are undoubtedly going to be some very difficult decisions. But in making these decisions I will want to, if I am elected, take the whole country with me. I don’t want to leave anyone behind. The test of a good society is you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society.”
“And that test is even more important in difficult times, when difficult decisions have to be taken, than it is in better times.”
First speech as Prime Minister (2010)
“I want to make sure that my Government always looks after the elderly, the frail, the poorest in our country.”
“A modern compassionate Conservatism is right for our times, right for our party — and right for our country.
“There are many in our country who can’t work, who are incapacitated and as a compassionate country we should help them. “
This poster says it all
Access a larger size
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43207463@N06/6659559943/in/photostream
Also see the following video and read about welfare reforms:
http://www.poverty.ac.uk/living-poverty/personal-experiences/fiona-and-david-disabled-couple
Disabled households are especially vulnerable to poverty, and are being significantly affected by the complete restructuring of disability benefits.
“I’m going to be as radical a social reformer as Mrs Thatcher was an economic reformer, and radical social reform is what this country needs right now.”
More like Hitler’s perverted ideology of social reform:
http://mindinflux.wordpress.com/2010/10/26/disability-and-propaganda/
The government with the help of certain sections of the media have done their utmost to influence people to regard the sick and the disabled as adding to the burden of the financial crisis which has effected most people except the very rich. Consequently there is little support against the drastic and vicious welfare reforms.
The failing pre-war German economy was not only blamed on the Jews but less widely known perhaps is that in pre-war Germany people were swayed by propaganda to believe that the disabled were costing the government money that could better be used elsewhere?
Sound familiar?
Doesn’t today’s present situation have echoes of the hideous and evil insanity that was perpetrated not so long ago in our history that we cannot immediately see the similarities?
Referring to the positive effect he hoped the Paralympcs would have concerning the way disabilities are viewed Cameron said:
‘I am so grateful for what all those Paralympians did.’
‘When I used to push my son Ivan around in his wheelchair, I always thought that some people saw the wheelchair, not the boy.’
‘I think today more people would see the boy and not the wheelchair – and that’s because of what happened here this summer.’
While compassionate people sympathise with him over the tragedy of his son, isn’t it just shocking how Cameron continues to invoke the memory of his son to gain sympathy and to promote the misconception that the government care about sick and disabled people.
Just when you thought that he could not stoop any lower he continues to exploit his son’s disability and the achievements of the Paralympians.
No Cameron people no longer see the wheel chair; after the conservatives launched their vicious attacks on sick and disabled people labelling them as scroungers now instead of a wheel chair people see a scrounger.
The following are quotes that Cameron said before the election, which in light of recent events seem now so utterly shocking in their insincerity and dishonesty. Such blatant hypocrisy.
Referring to his disabled son he said:
“I help care for a severely disabled child – my son. It’s what I do at the start of each day. It’s sharpened my focus on the world of care assessments, eligibility criteria, disability living allowance, respite breaks,”
Later, in another interview, yet again he explains how his own personal experiences had shaped his views:
“The very painful thing about disability – whether your own or your loved one’s – is the feeling that the situation is out of your control. When the system that surrounds you is very top-down, bureaucratic, inhuman, that can only increase your feelings of helplessness … but I do believe there are moments of despair, helplessness and frustration that could be directly alleviated by the work of government.”
You have to ask yourself if what you are reading are the words once uttered by this man who, along with Duncan Smith, Greyling, Osborne and Freud, has mercilessly run roughshod through the entire welfare system. Their vicious Welfare reform bill has reduced the income of every single disabled person including children and leaving young people who are born disabled dependent on a parent or partner. All in addition to implementing a flawed assessment that declares disabled and sick people as fit to work when they are not able to do so, with the result of many people committing suicide.
“I think in any organisation it’s right to set out what you stand for, what you’re fighting for and bring that together in one document so that people can see that the modern compassionate Conservative Party is in it for everybody – not just the rich.”
” Conservative methods are not just good for the strong and the successful but the best way to help the poor and the weak and the vulnerable.”
You could have fooled me. Cameron has done nothing since his election except make the poor suffer, the poorest in society which will not only be the disabled and sick but also the unemployed and people on low wages who have to survive on the pittance of benefits that Cameron is hell-bent on drastically reforming so that the poor in every sense of the term will get poorer.
This blog entry from The Diary of a Benefit Scrounger lists the devastating welfare reforms implemented by the “Compassionate Conservatives”
http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/compassionate-fascist-conservatism.html
“I believe that poverty is an economic waste, a moral disgrace”.
“In the past we used to think of poverty in absolute terms – meaning straightforward material deprivation… We need to think of poverty in relative terms – the fact that some people lack those things which others in society take for granted. “
“So I want this message to go out loud and clear – the Conservative Party recognises, will measure and will act on relative poverty.”
Concerning many in our society lacking “those things which others in society take for granted”
Cameron you are a moral disgrace for you have increased poverty by your welfare reforms and other detrimental policies of austerity that have resulted in suffering and misery for millions. Poor people do not have “those things which others in society take for granted”
Some cannot afford to eat or heat their homes. Shocking fact some children here in the UK do not have a bed!
“Right now, in this country, children are going to school hungry because they don’t get a proper breakfast. They go through winter without a warm coat or a decent pair of shoes. Some even have to sleep on a damp mattress on the floor because they don’t have their own bed”.
Read More:
Save the Children
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/uk-child-poverty?sourcecode=A12073117
See Also
Personal experiences
“Over the next year we will be following the experiences of five families to find out what it really means to miss out on what others take for granted and the deep impact this has on lives and opportunities. The families live in London, north-east England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Between them, they represent each of the following key groups vulnerable to poverty”
Read More:
http://www.poverty.ac.uk/living-poverty/personal-experiences
So many elderly, unemployed and disabled have enormous difficulty just paying their heating bills, many live in cold damp homes, myself included. This winter has been particularly severe with snow and frost right into April, most days I am never warm, I dare not turn the heat on sufficiently to warm my home. I imagine that all of these over privileged MPs who are destroying the lives of those far less fortunate take it for granted every morning when they wake to a central heated home, among all the other privileges that most of them probably did not earn in any real sense of the word. Cameron and his millionaire buddies, are out of touch with reality about just how deprived and poor many people are. Furthermore they don’t care.
Here are some facts:
Save the Children urges action for the poorest UK children
The charity Save the Children, best known for helping some of the world’s poorest families, has launched an appeal to help UK children.
The charity says the UK’s poorest children are bearing the brunt of the recession, with some missing out on regular hot meals or new shoes
Read More
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19478083
From Save the Children
… according to our new report – It Shouldn’t Happen Here – the recession is making things so much worse.”
Read More:
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/child_poverty_2012.pdf
From Oxfam
“The UK is the world’s six largest economy, yet 1 in 5 of the UK population live below our official poverty line, meaning that they experience life as a daily struggle.
Oxfam has a vision of everyone in the UK having enough to live on, and of all men, women and children being treated with respect and dignity no matter how much money they have. We believe it is unacceptable that over 13 million people in the UK do not have enough to live on, and most do not have the power to speak out about what this feels like and why it is wrong. We work with others to achieve a fairer and more equal country, in which everyone in the UK can live lives free from poverty and shame.”
Read More:
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/our-work/poverty-in-the-uk
It is a sad reflection on the state of our country when charities which normally focus on “developing countries” now have to turn their attention to poverty here in the UK.
Other information on UK poverty
Rantings From a Virtual Soapbox 