Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, speaking at this year’s annual TUC disabled workers online conference about the government and their appalling record of a complete disregard of disabled people during the current pandemic, told conference:

“There was all that talk about herd immunity, survival of the fittest is what that says to me, and I think again we have to be honest, in this conference of all conferences, that the shadow of eugenics hangs over the whole debate, that some lives are cheaper than others … it is ugly and it is obscene, and I think it needs calling out, because never again should we be in this position where people’s lives are put on the line because of their disability.”

Speaker after speaker at the conference spoke out about how government decisions during the course of the pandemic have exposed entrenched discrimination and blatant abuse of disabled people.

Natasha Hirst, from the National Union of Journalists Disabled Member’s Council (NUJDMC), told conference: “Our exclusion is driven by political and social attitudes. We are not valued. When governments deprioritise us, so do employers and service-providers, and everybody else. We have experienced how easily in a crisis our human rights are discarded … they are not our rights if they are snatched away when we need them most.”

Read the full report of the conference in Disability News Service (DNS).

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A group of disabled people representing various ethnicities and impairments are standing under a large sign that reads TUC disabled worker’s annual conference. They are all wearing face masks. On the wall opposite them are large letters spelling out ‘shadow of eugenics’, The letters are casting a dark shadow across them. On the floor is a piece of paper with ‘government have no care for disabled people’ written upon it.

Guardian journalist John Crace sums up the government’s current attitude towards protest in his usual witty style.

He writes: “The right to protest is a fundamental liberty, Patel insisted. Just so long as it wasn’t done in a way that was noisy or annoying to her. From now on, any protest must be done in a whisper – preferably between 11 and 11.15 in the morning – and only be on government-approved topics …”

Witty indeed, but perhaps bringing to our attention a leaning from government towards restricting even more of our most basic civil rights … like the right to protest.

While we’ve all been distracted by stories from the Windsor dynasty and how much Boris has spent on his new briefing room (how much?!) they’ve been pushing through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which has just had its second reading. Proposals to allow police significant leeway to stop protests on grounds including noise are included in the Bill.

Current Covid restrictions accepted, I wonder what would happen if we were to take to the streets again?

Any DANners out there interested in a chat?!

BTW, you can sign a petition online to protest the changes proposed in the Bill.

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Two disabled protesters are being confronted by a police officer in full riot gear. He has put his finger to his lips and is saying Shhh. One of the protesters, a young Asian woman, carrying a ‘free our people’ placard is saying: “Didn’t he used to work down the local library?!” On the ground at the feet of the policeman is a piece of paper with ‘New Police Crime Bill means no noisy protests’ printed upon it.

Crippen hears how disability studies researcher, Mo Stewart, is continuing her campaign towards bringing the ongoing atrocity of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) out of the dark corner that it’s been assigned to by this current government.

Mo’s focus is getting the disturbing findings of the Preventable Harm Project (the Project), and the question of the DWP having an ‘institutional reluctance’ to support disabled benefits claimants, back onto the political agenda … and, along with this, holding Iain Duncan Smith, the instigator of the brutal changes accountable for his actions.

Mo has now taken her fight for justice to the next level by contacting the influential Centre for Social Justice right-leaning think tank, which was set up by Iain Duncan Smith who Chairs the executive board. In an email to the Director for Work and Welfare, Mo advised:

“There seems to be an identified ideological confusion linked to ‘economic dependency and worklessness’, which is one of the five pathways to poverty identified by the Centre. The assumption and presumption that any disabled person who is not in paid employment has no contribution to offer society remains offensive in the extreme …

“Memorable political attacks against the disabled community by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for the Coalition government from 2010-2016 caused preventable harm, witnessed an increase of 213 per cent in prosecuted disability hate crimes, with no-one held to account for claims of ‘scroungers’ and ‘skivers,’; which was an abuse of authority and a despicable act when there was no evidence offered for this ideologically motivate claim.

“This is sinister, and is not helped by a think-tank claiming to be a Centre for Social Justice, whose extremes of reality has helped to guide the adoption of social policies which were guaranteed to cause death, despair and preventable harm to those in greatest need with, for example, the constant claims of success by the Chair regarding Universal Credit (UC), whilst disregarding all evidence of the preventable harm the enforced transformation to UC has created.”

Mo has agreed to keep us in the loop, so watch this space folks.

By the way, you can get a PDF copy of Mo’s article ‘What price preventable harm’ from the Centre for Welfare Reform, and you can order a copy of her book ‘Cash Not Care’ online.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Iain Duncan Smith is whimpering and hiding behind a large stuffed chair in the Conservative Party Headquarters building. On the floor At his feet is a copy of Mo Stewart’s book ‘Cash not Care’. Two colleagues are standing in front of the chair looking perplexed. One of them is saying: “It’s no good hiding every time you come across a copy of Mo Stewart’s book Iain!”

A disabled benefits claimant has successfully sued Atos for negligence and failure of duty of care and then sent in the bailiffs when they failed to pay up, the Disability News Service (DNS) has revealed.

The claimant, known as Rebecca, went to the County Court to ask for compensation because of the two year fight she had to get her PIP reinstated, after it was wrongly stopped following a PIP assessment in 2018.

Fortunately, she had recorded her assessment which was listened to by an appeal panel, who then compared it to the assessor’s account of what had been said. The panel then found in Rebecca’s favour, restoring her entitlement to the enhanced rate of the PIP daily living component until 2023.

Rebecca was so angry at the treatment she had received from Atos that she sued them through the County Court for ‘mental distress, anxiety and hardship’. Atos made no attempt to defend the claim.

The County Court found in Rebecca’s favour and awarded her compensation of eight per cent of the arears and a further £1,000 in damages. The final total was £2,500.

When Atos failed to pay up, Rebecca arranged for enforcement officers to visit their offices in London, resulting in an extra £2,000 in costs to the company, which finally had to pay up.

Result!

You can read the full story on the DNS website

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A white male in a grey suit and orange tie is being propelled into the air by a large mechanical boot kicking him up the back-side. He is wearing an ID tag which has ATOS printed upon it. At his feet are numerous failed PIP applications. He is also losing hold of a large sheet of paper which reads ‘County Court Order’. The extended arm of the mechanical boot comes from a large crowd of disabled people who appear to be controlling it. They are saying: “About time that these parasites got a kick up the back-side!”

Been getting some interesting responses from my latest DAO Blog posting about the question asked in the National Disability Survey about being happy about having a physical relationship with a disabled person.

One response has acquainted it to asking a white person if they would be happy having a physical relationship with a black person; something that would have sent so many discrimination alarm bells ringing within the mainstream press. But of course, as we all know, disabled people don’t really have any real rights, do we?!

Comments about Adam’s reference to “low level eugenics thinking” also hit the spot with quite a few of us Crips. I suppose the question is encouraging people to say they wouldn’t have a child with a disabled person for fear the child would be disabled – and that could be interpreted as ‘eugenics thinking’?

A comment by our feisty mate and fellow activist Nabs Sil in Facebook adds another twist:

“I certainly won’t be doing this neo-fascist survey. Obviously, if the State has an agenda for culling “Useless Eaters”, as people like me were described in Hitler’s Third Reich, it needs to know what targets it should be aiming for.”

Unfortunately, the petition set up by The National Federation of the Blind of the UK (I included a link in the Blog posting) seems to present a few access difficulties, so some folks have been unable to use this to express their own feelings about this debacle.

Here’s a solution. Why not use the comment section on this Blog and I’ll gather your responses together and create an overall look at how we all feel about this … over to you guys.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

It is the office of the Crips Own Disability Survey team. A young Asian man is at a desk covered in returned survey forms. He is holding up a couple in his hands and is saying to a white female wheelchair user with spiky pink hair who is sitting alongside of him: “And they all agree that they wouldn’t have a physical relationship with a member of this government!” The woman is replying: “Enough said”

Not content with launching a national disability survey that has only had at best, a tokenistic involvement with disabled people, the government’s Disability Unit has revealed a side of itself that has overtones of “low level eugenic thinking” according to disabled journalist Adam Pearson.

The survey was launched on 15 January and the responses received up until the end of last week are supposed to be influencing the government’s national disability strategy, which is expected to be published this spring.

They claim that more than 14,500 people have so far completed the survey, which has already led to a series of letters to ministers from disabled people’s organisations, criticising it for being rushed, inaccessible, over-long and poorly-planned.

But those aren’t the only complaints. Apparently if you don’t click the box indicating that you are a disabled person, the on-line survey assumes that you’re non-disabled and starts asking you, what some have described as “degrading” and “insulting” types of questions.

For example, if you are a non-disabled person the disability unit want to know: “would you be happy to have a physical relationship with a disabled person?”

With his tongue obviously very firmly in his cheek, Adam told ministers he was “assuming this is an error that ‘slipped though the cracks’ and you don’t intend to use this low level eugenic thinking to inform your disability strategy”.

However, in an article in Disability News Service (DNS) a government spokesperson when asked if the question on relationships had now been removed, said: “The question on relationships has NOT been removed and as with all questions within the survey, was developed to ensure that we gather as wide a range of direct insight and lived experience from disabled people, carers and the general public as possible.”

Ah, so there’s your answer Adam. It wasn’t a mistake!

Note: The National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK) are inviting you to sign their petition, challenging the government to come clean about this farcical  survey.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

It is the office of the Disability Unit’s National Disability Survey team. A young white man is at a desk covered in returned survey forms. He is holding up a couple in his hands and is saying to an Asian woman who is standing alongside of him: “It’s another one saying that they’d want a physical relationship ONLY with a disabled person!” The Asian woman is replying: “Perverts!”

It seems that the problems with regard to so called special educational needs (SEN) are not just confined to the UK mainland. Our disabled brothers and sisters and their families over in Northern Ireland are getting the short end of the stick too.

A recent report by a cross-party committee claims that “there are elements of dysfunctionality within the Northern Ireland Education Authority (EA) and that they are failing children with special educational needs (SEN) and their families.

The Stormont Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recommended that the Department of Education (DE) hold an independent review of the EA to assess its effectiveness. The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) further questioned if the Education Authority’s procedures for pupils with SEN were “fit for purpose”. This followed an apology by the EA in February last year,  after a damning internal report found a number of failings in its SEN services.

The NI Audit Office also found that the 26-week statutory limit for assessment and statementing of children was breached in the vast majority of cases. Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) on the committee also found “systemic problems” with provision for children with SEN.

More than 67,000 school children have a reported SEN, while 19,200 with the most serious needs have a statement of SEN outlining the support they are to receive in school. The EA had spent £1.3bn on SEN in the past five years, with costs rising every year.

The PAC said that while the educational achievements of those children had risen, there were many failings in the way they were supported by the department and the authority.

“PAC remains concerned at the number of children that have been failed and how long these failings have been allowed to continue for,” their report said.

The committee chair, DUP MLA William Humphrey, said that there was a culture within the EA “that has allowed it to continually deliver a sub-standard service for far too long”.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

The scene is an office at the Northern Ireland Education Authority. An Asian woman is indicating a young woman who is standing at the entrance with her son who has Down’s Syndrome. A white male in a suit and tie is sat at a desk and is saying: “We’ve told her that he’s special – what more does she want?!”

You’ll recall I blogged last October about how Department of Works and Pensions (DWP) boss Theresa Coffey insisted that they had no legal duty of care to disabled benefit claimants? Well, she’s at it again, even though one of the DWPs own secret reports states clearly that it does.

Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey has repeatedly told MPs that her department does not have a legal duty to “safeguard” its claimants, and that such tasks are instead the responsibility of local agencies such as social services and doctors’ surgeries.

Her repeated denials have come following a decade of distressing cases which have linked DWP’s policies and practices to the deaths of disabled people, particularly those being assessed for employment and support allowance (ESA) and personal independence payment.

Now Disability News Service (DNS) has discovered that a secret report, probably completed in 2014, has shown a DWP civil servant discussing the department’s “ongoing Duty of Care” to claimants of incapacity benefit who were being reassessed for ESA.

It recommends a review of DWP’s “ongoing Duty of Care in relation to the identification and support of claimants required to participate in the Incapacity Benefit reassessment (IBR) process, who as a result of a [redacted] may be vulnerable and have different or additional support needs.”

It continues: “When defined, the Duty of Care should be brought to the attention of all colleagues including those (others) … who are involved in the IBR Process …”

The redacted report was one of 49 released to Disability News Service (DNS) by DWP following a protracted freedom of information battle that ended in 2016 with DNS winning an appeal to the information rights tribunal. Despite the existence of the report, Coffey and her department continue to insist that there is no such legal duty of care.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey is standing in the house of commons facing her peers. She is saying: “We have never had a legal duty of care to benefits claimants!”. A colleague is standing behind her and is tapping on her shoulder. He’s holding a document that says ‘DWP duty of care’. He’s saying to her: “Excuse me boss – we need you to sign this ongoing duty of care!”.

Sorry, but I couldn’t resist it. Sending Crips into space … it’s just got to be another way they’ve come up with to get rid of us (or a great idea for a cartoon anyway!).

European space chiefs have launched their first recruitment drive for new astronauts in 11 years, with particular emphasis on encouraging women and disabled people to join missions to the Moon and, eventually, Mars.

And why not? Just think about it. Who else will have developed the problem solving skills that we have, as a result of negotiating our way through the machinations of a disabling society?!

But, apart from that, think about the benefits of experiencing weightlessness for those of us with physical impairments as we drift through space. No need for our clunky wheelchairs or walking aids; no more hoists or sliding boards. We just float everywhere.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

A large rocket is filled with disabled people who are peering out of a large round porthole. Wheelchairs and crutches are scattered on the ground before it. On the rocket is printed ESA (for European space agency), a large wheelchair symbol and the words ‘Mars Mission’. A piece of paper lies on the floor with ‘news – disabled into space’ printed upon it and up in the sky is a large red planet. Boris Johnson is about to press a plunger to send them into space. Alongside of him is Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) who is wearing a name badge and who is saying: “But if you send them all away who’ll be left to blame and persecute?!”

You just couldn’t make it up! Not content with misleading other MPs about the so called “success” of the nine regional stakeholder networks across England, the Disability Unit have sent out desperate emails to the Chairs of its regional disability networks, begging for positive accounts of how its policies have improved disabled people’s lives.

The government’s email asks the network chairs: “We are looking for disabled people who would be willing to write up to 100 words about how they have achieved their aspirations, and if there has been a government policy that has supported them to do so.”

Disability News Service reports that it was sent out as the 13th February deadline approached for disabled people around the country to respond to the government’s national disability survey.

Professor Peter Beresford, co-chair of the disabled people’s and service-user network Shaping Our Lives, said the note sent to the network chairs was “a shameful manipulation of reality”.

He said: “Only this government could choose a time when disproportionate numbers of disabled people are dying as a result of its disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to ask disabled people to send in accounts of their successes to bolster its own appalling record on disability issues.

“If this government wants the truth then let it commission disabled people to carry out independent research on trends in our life chances.”

Mark Harrison, from the Reclaiming Our Futures Alliance (ROFA), said the Disability Unit’s note “smacks of desperation”.

He said: “The fact that they are writing to the chairs of the networks asking for good news stories suggests to me that the feedback coming from surveys that are being filled out is not what the government wants to hear.

“They are putting a PR gloss on 10 years of grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights and retrogression against most of the articles of the UN convention [on the rights of disabled people].”

Read the full story in Disability News Service.

 Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Several civil servants are in the office of the Disability Unit. A large sign on the wall says, ‘Disability Unit – National Disability Survey team’. They are knee deep in returned survey forms all baring an unhappy-smiley face symbol. One of the men is holding up a single piece of paper with a happy-smiley face upon it. He is saying: “It’s OK guys we’ve got one positive response we can use – just ignore the rest!”