Hello Dear Readers!
As you may have gleaned from the title of the post, I’ve
chosen to dedicate this week’s post to a gentleman who will be more than familiar
to those with any kind of disability. Yes folks, I am indeed going to be holding forth regarding the
man, nay the legend, that is Ian Duncan Smith.
My hand has been forced somewhat, of course, By Mr Duncan Smith, (or IDS
as I shall refer to him from now on because I am just a little bit lazy), making a
hugely populist move and resigning from the post of Secretary of State for
Works and Pensions.
Now, I don’t want to put words in the mouth of my disabled brethren
and sistren, but I would be willing to wager a fair amount of my very own hard
earned money on the ‘Right Honourable Gentleman’ not being the most well-loved
public figure when it comes to championing the rights of those with perhaps the
greatest needs in society.
This, to remind you dear readers, is the fine upstanding
gentleman that supported the bedroom tax, the man under who’s stewardship the
Universal Credit was first mooted (although it has been painfully slow to be
implemented), and as part of that suggested that benefits claimants with
part-time incomes below a certain threshold should be required to search for
additional work or risk losing access to their benefits. Perhaps more
infamously this is also the gentleman who planned to have sick and disabled people
have to undergo voluntary work or risk having up to 70% of their benefits cut.
These examples, of course are only the tip of an iceberg of truly
titanic sinking proportions. It could probably take care of the QE2, the
Mauretania and Noah’s ark too. In fact I could have filled the next three weeks
with the stories that have haunted IDS’ reign of terror against sick and
disabled people. I could have copied and pasted reams of such tales from his
Wikipedia page alone. I’m sure you can find these without my help though.
It is perhaps no surprise then that his resignation has not
been met with the gnashing of too many teeth, I’m pretty sure relatively little
clothing has been rent on his behalf, and the wailing has certainly not been
all that audible, in these parts at least. In fact a truer reflection of the impact of the resignation
may be reflected by Adam Hills and his colleagues on channel 4’s The Last Leg.
(Which by the way is brilliant, and should absolutely be compulsory viewing.) The
news actually caused them to pop open a bottle of champagne on live T.V (other fizzy
wine is available.)
Herein lies an issue, however. Whilst the sudden crisis of conscience,
political manoeuvring, or epic hissy fit of IDS has left not a wet eye in the house,
he is only one man. The department he
has left is still, as far as we know, under the same remit. There is still the
money to find, the cuts to be made and it will simply fall to another man to
lead those cuts. The issue here is actually an ideological one and that ideology is one
that is prevalent amongst the governing party.
We desperately need to find a way to change this ideology or, perhaps more realistically,
to change those that have it. The sick and disabled in society deserve better treatment.
I am lucky enough to be able to work full time to support myself and my family.
Not everyone is as lucky however and the fifth largest economy in the world
should be doing its bit to ensure those people don’t suffer in order to balance the
government's books.
It has been said that an enlightened society should be
judged by how it treats its weakest members. Let us not be the ones to allow this society to
fail that judgement.
Until next time…
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