1. Daran Hill gives a touching tribute to Brynle William AM.2. David Owen gives his reason for voting no to AV.
3. Martin Shapland thinks that Ed Miliband is just ridiculous.
4. Harry Phibbs asks if you will be joining him on a rally against debt.
5. Fraser Nelson praises Chris Grayling.
6. No to AV explain what will happen if AV is introduced...
Fraser Nelson is quite ignorant on Incapacity Benefit and disability, and as a result is now using words that contribute to the oppression of disabled people. I cannot provide an exhaustive rebuttal as his mistakes are too many, but he declares:
ReplyDelete“There are, scandalously, 2.6 million on incapacity benefit right now – a category which ensures they don’t count in unemployment figures. Brown didn’t care much, but Grayling is taking this head-on. In tests on 1,700 IB claimants in Burnley and Aberdeen, it was found that 30 percent were fit for work, 40 percent genuinely incapacitated and the rest capable of some work.”
This, amongst others things, is the lazy assumption that these tests are fair, accurate and carried out by impartial people. They are not. They are carried out by a private company. Around 40% of their decisions are being overturned on appeal and meanwhile this is the misery they are causing:
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/press_20100323
See the three examples given at the bottom of that page – do these people sound to you as if they are ‘fit for work’? Now they are changing the tests so that the assessor can use an ‘imaginary wheelchair.’ Do you think I am joking? Google: work capability assessment ‘imaginary wheelchair.’
Seen on Calendar News two evenings ago, a poor chap who has had M.E. since he was 14, skinny as a stick and yet his 'test for work' amounted to being able to put his hands together in front of his face and above his head.
ReplyDeleteVERY fair, one would imagine.