Hello! Tumble here! Wanna see the spiel I sent to my MP on May 10 this year? I had to, babies!

Tumble

Here we go. I know it's a lot, but I hope it sums it up. Can't tell the difference between this new lot and the old bunch. Hold tight! Feel free to circulate!

(Sent to "dear MP" type person and yeah, I do not expect an answer but you never know):

I write the following, with no malice and certainly no intent to cause offence or insult and with the greatest respect to you, though perhaps not to your government, further to my having recently signed the uk.gov petition (I expect you will know which one I have in mind).

As a disabled person myself, I feel that I must add this communication to your no-doubt massively-overloaded inbox in order to make abundantly clear my objections to your government's proposed, appalling, treatment of people with disabilities. 

I expect that you will probably understand this strength of feeling. The proposed changes are already doing great harm to those of us who have great vulnerabilities.

It is astonishing (though hardly surprising) that there has recently been a statement (by you-know-who) that the announced cuts will be carried out in a “compassionate” way, compounded by a surely-not-sneering statement by another you-know-who, equating cuts in the already-inadequate support for disabled people to the withholding of “pocket money” to children. I do appreciate that an apology had been uttered later, however I doubt this was either sincere or genuine, just as I doubt that your government is sincere or genuine, shown in part by their seemingly-ridiculous, fig-leaf “consultation” on the subject of the changes, with many of these apparently not even being open for “consultation” in the first place. 

This behaviour I expected would have been perpetrated by the usual culprits – the egregious tories - however NOT from your party, which I had – once upon a time – expected and hoped would never stoop to such lows. I fear that your government is obsessed with plumbing well past these depths and continuing on its merry course to damage society's most vulnerable. 

I am quite sure that your chancellor will gleefully seek to be “compassionate” in this ham-fisted pounding of little children who find ourselves as nothing more than nice, big, juicy, slow-moving and oh-so-vulnerable targets. On you go!

Ready! Fire! Aim! 

And – once the consequences of your lot's zealotry become obvious – I fear we will see increasing numbers of media reports of innocent individuals dying or – heaven forbid - worse (which seems to have happened during the egregious tories' benefits “reforms” (c.f. [Among others] https://citizen-network.org/news/government-disability-policy-increases-suicide-rate and https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/more-than-69-claimant-suicides-in-six-years-says-nao-after-dwp-decided-600-was-too-much-to-spend-on-counting-the-dead ), which will naturally be “learned from” and then, as usual and as so often before, swept under the rug – in a “compassionate” way, no doubt.

Bravo. Well done. After all, the general attitude in government and in areas of “society”, since time immemorial, is that disabled people are nothing more than an unwelcome burden, just lumpen, work-shy ingrates who run up the oft-quoted “benefits bill”, now mere children whose pocket money should be cut. I cannot help but recall the advice on your web page re “threatening or offensive” commentary. Given the “pocket money” insult, I feel that your lot are now absolutely on record for the “offensive” part at the very least; should they not self-report to the police about this? Why have they not done so already? Or must we wait for the “threatening” part to catch up? It will do so very soon, no doubt – unless of course it has already.

Why not simply do away with us all so that there is no-one left to insult and belittle, sneerily, from on high? No burden: no bill. End-Of. And then your lot can all dance on our graves and make merry. I advise that they be careful not to fall and damage a limb while doing so – or worse; after that, one or two might become disabled, yes? If so, what then? Would they then see some “compassionate” treatment, with patronising belittlement uttered with the usual, out-of-touch, condescending “pocket money”-style disdain from our “betters”? And why is this utterer of the aforementioned, offensive statement still “in post”, come to think of it? Has this “tactless” comment inadvertently exposed the real government attitude and intent in all of this? 

Intriguingly, it is reported that The Times and here in The National (https://www.thenational.scot/news/25047979.keir-starmer-urged-address-dwp-benefits-pocket-money-comment/) has your Esteemed Leader as the original source of this little hilarity. Is it true, may I ask? Will he answer to this? If so, presumably he will find his shoes (surely not paid for by someone else, as per spectacles, jacket etc?) very interesting. Still, there is at least the apology for the “tactless” pocket money insult. That's all right, then, isn't it? 

Yes: IT ISN'T.

I expect that your government will increasingly wheel out the usual, tired, threadbare phrases of how “committed” (government-speke of course to mean the reverse) this government is to being “compassionate” as it cuts mere “pocket money” from children and that those affected human beings can simply land jobs that do not and will not exist because employers in general are downsizing, with the resultant lessening in available openings – in large part due to your esteemed chancellor, who seems to have so skilfully choked off all the nascent, post-election growth potential by lumping employers with more massive costs.

Bravo again. 

I trust that we can look forward to more “compassionate” treatment being meted out to us by your lot at some point in the future, when their imagined, cloud-cuckoo land savings from pocket money-cutting may not quite hit targets? Give it time; after all, we must wait until autumn for the OBR “impact assessment” regarding all this (hence the seeming rush to “get in there” before the results of the assessment become known). In any case, it seems that the apparently-minimal research already done into the number of disabled people projected to be “helped” into the workforce shows that relatively few will be successful. Your lot, after all, seem to be far more sure of and obsessed with the savings to be made by trashing disabled people and (naturally) massively less interested in those of us who might be “helped” into employment – and remain there. They know all about the savings, yes, though what about those who are affected and who will have huge cuts to the already-inadequate incomes, with nothing to make up for it? Do your lot CARE? Seems not. The savings seem of course to be the whole point of this. Therefore: Cut The Lie, please. I advise that your lot ditch the non-existent “compassionate” smokescreen and focus solely on the cuts; the “compassionate” bit seems to be nothing more than an insult to our intelligence. Cuts, Cuts, Cuts: that's why this is all happening, yes?

No matter, I have seen it said: there are still many opportunities for disabled people; one thousand more “work coaches” will (if one believes the rhetoric) miraculously secure employment for every single one of those affected, assisted by one billion Pounds retained from the Cuts, Cuts, Cuts for “helping” disabled people into work for employers, many of whom (if they exist by then) will be too stressed and rushed to appoint, accommodate and support us vulnerable people struggling with the “ups and downs of life that is (he can't even get that right – he means “are”, of course) the part of the human condition”, an April 29 2024 utterance on Radio 4's Today Programme, I believe, from that egregious you-know-who, the tory millionaire, apparently graduate of economics among other, non-relevant subjects, who had miraculously and overnight become a professorial expert in all matters disability and mental health while heading up the DWP in that egregious tory government before the arrival of your new slew of seemingly, equally-egregious tories.
 

“Tough Choices” indeed. Those who make them rarely (if ever) have to endure the consequences, do they? 

Perhaps, however, with reports of hostility to all this in the ranks of your MPs who actually seem to have honour and integrity, not to mention a conscience, your lot may see well-deserved erosion, if not collapse, in their support, unless the egregious tories prop them up during the votes to come; of course, that would then seal the fate of your lot and lay bare the stark reality that they are indeed nothing more than the continuation of the egregious tories (in a slight and totally unconvincing change of guise) that I increasingly see them as being. 

I do believe that it's actually people – not spreadsheet cells in your chancellor's compassionate cutting-frenzy – who live in these great countries that make up the UK. 

And hark! By The By! As your lot will have very recently seen: people with disabilities also happen to be – voters! And our friends and families are also – voters! Your lot seem to forget this, do they not? Come the next general election (you will already have seen the results of certain, recent elections in parts of England), this may well be made abundantly clear by those of us still here. P45s all round, then! By then, I hope that the local Job Centres and Work Coach Teams are sufficiently enhanced to cater for your lot and their needs. I have a feeling that they'll need them.

Before closing, I would take the opportunity respectfully to request that you, as my honoured and respected M.P., vote against all of this viciousness when it comes to a Parliamentary vote or votes. I very much hope that you will - and I will accept and respect your decision when I learn of it. The outcome of all this will, of course, inform my own future voting intentions.

I now end this with absolute respect to you – however and with regret, somewhat rather less respect for your seemingly tory-in-all-but-name government, which seems in turn to have far less of it for the vulnerable people whom it is so successfully terrifying and threatening ("compassionately" of course) with great gusto,

Yours sincerely,

Holly_Scope

Hi @Tumble and welcome to the community. Thank you so much for sharing this letter you've sent. If you've not already seen, you might be interested in our Green Paper Discussion where members are coming together to share and discuss the ongoing situation.

Best wishes,