Reblogged from Diary of a Benefit Scrounger:
I've just seen Kate Green's first speech as Labour shadow minister for disabled
people.
It rocks, and is so different to what we were hearing just two
years ago, it's hard to put the two together.
Just one thing. But to me
it's a big thing.
When Alf Morris, also Labour and the first minister for
disabled people passed his ground breaking legislation, he called it the
"chronically sick and disabled people's act."
I've campaigned
primarily by trying to re-introduce that original intent back into the
narrative. I always, always say "sick and disabled" and it's gives me great
pleasure that it has become so universal that even DWP documents and statements
now use the phrase. Language matters and if we don't want politicians - and the
public - to get away with two dimensional attitudes to disability, we can't use
two dimensional definitions.
Otherwise, as I said, it rocks
:
"It’s a great pleasure to join Unison here this morning. Earlier this
year, I was fortunate to be invited to your equalities conference, and I think I
recognise some of the same faces! But I have to tell you this is my very first
speech in my new role as shadow minister for disabled people – so I hope you’ll
be a little kinder to me – you know so much more than I do, and you will have
much more to tell me than I can tell you.
Writing this speech has however
been made much easier for me by a very helpful article which was published last
week by my predecessor Anne McGuire.
I know Anne is well known to you,
and I can imagine there was real dismay when she announced she was stepping down
from the frontbench.
She’s been an expert, passionate and committed
advocate for the rights of disabled people for many years, she was a highly
effective minister when we were in gvt, and I know she’s a very hard act to
follow.
I’m very glad to say that she’s also my good friend.
Anne
in her article last week wrote that the last three years have been the most
threatening for disabled people and their families, and I could not agree
more.
After years of progress – under both Tory and Labour governments –
the DDA, Making Rights A Reality for Disabled People, the signing of the UN
Convention – under the Tory-led coalition it feels we have gone back to the dark
ages.
Disabled people have been – I think it’s not an exaggeration to say
this – they’ve been vilified, while the support that they rely on has been
slashed, without a care for the long term or the human
consequences.
According to campaigners, disabled people have been hit 9x
as hard as non disabled people by austerity cuts.
And such support as has
remained in place is increasingly being confined to the most severely disabled
.
Yet such an approach is simply counterproductive.
It will lead
to greater isolation, reduced social participation, worse health outcomes, less
chance that disabled people will be able to participate economically.
It
will pile up costs and anguish for disabled people, their families, communities,
and ultimately the public purse.
Yet even as disabled people are taking
the hit, every day it seems there’s a drip drip of stories in the media that
repeatedly portray them as scroungers, skivers, or frauds.
So I want to
say very clearly – what’s being said, insinuated and implied, is wrong, it’s
cruel and it’s shameful.
It creates division, and it feeds into quite
despicable levels of abuse and violence.
It underlies unacceptable levels
of hate crime against disabled people, and we need to call time on it
now.
Labour will continue to stand against this, and condemn misleading
and inflammatory portrayals of disabled people – and I want to lay down the
challenge to government ministers: you should be doing so too.
But while
there’s so much for us to be angry about under the present gvt, today I want to
think ahead about how Labour would approach disabled people’s rights.
I
hope some of you will have contributed to the work that Anne and Liam Byrne set
in train to consult widely on what a Labour government could do to make disabled
people’s rights a reality.
We’ve asked Sir Bert Massie to chair a
taskforce advising us on how we should take our thinking forward in the light of
what we’ve been told, and I’m very much looking forward to discussing ideas with
Bert and his team.
But, you know, I’m already clear about the guiding
principles that we as a Labour government will follow.
Ed Miliband has
talked powerfully of how we are a One Nation party.
That means a vision
of a better Britain, in which everyone has a stake, everybody plays a part,
prosperity’s fairly shared.
And nowhere could our notion of being One Nation
be more tested than in the way in which we include disabled people and stand up
for their rights.
So every policy Labour develops will be about
including, not isolating disabled people.
It will be about respecting
them, celebrating the contribution they make, not demeaning and insulting
them.
And disabled people themselves will be co-producers in
decision-making about them and their lives.
Of course, every individual
will face different circumstances, no two disabled people have the same lives or
needs.
But we should not be satisfied until every disabled person can
achieve their full potential.
Now, we’ve said we will be tough on
benefits spending. That doesn’t mean blaming or demonising people, but it does
mean being tough on what it is that prevents every disabled person is from
participating as they could.
For many, that includes being in
work.
And I think we have much more to do to address the disadvantage
that disabled people face in the labour market.
Why are disabled people
less likely to be in work, to earn less if they are in work, or to progress less
than non-disabled people?
What barriers are in their way? And more
important, what do we do about it?
I truly believe the gvt has missed a
huge trick in its annual reviews of the WCA. It could have taken the opportunity
to think big.
But nowhere have ministers asked – what would need to
change to enable more disabled people to work and to thrive at
work?
Instead they’ve concentrated – crudely – on sorting people into
those who can work and those who can’t, and putting more pressure on individuals
they think could work.
I simply don’t buy that binary approach. People’s
lives are more complicated. Conditions are more nuanced. Work – and contribution
– comes in many forms.
So I want to look very hard at all aspects of
disabled people’s employment chances, not just go round beating up on Atos
(though they deserve some of that), not just a bit of tinkering with the
WCA.
I want to see our labour market strategy linked much more closely to
our industrial strategy.
And I want us to learn from what were able to
try in govt – whether that’s Work Choice, A2W, P2W, NDDP – and take a hard look
at what worked and what did not.
On social care, my colleague Liz Kendall
and I want a sustainable model that ensures we don’t get into a situation where
disabled people end up becoming increasingly dependent for want of often quite
small amounts of care.
The government clearly thinks responsibly for
caring can be thrown more and more on families.
But that’s not always
feasible, it’s not fair, it’s not economically effective, and it’s not what many
disabled people want.
We need a system that preserves people’s
independence, that is a springboard to their wider participation in society, not
a means of putting them out of sight and out of mind.
And on financial
support for disabled people, well look, I’ve always known that a secure and
decent income is a prerequisite for full social engagement – whether that’s
about participating in education, employment, being able to volunteer or
participate in community activity, care for your kids, enjoy and live your
life.
You know we won’t be able to reverse every benefit cut when we come
into government, though we’ve already said we’ll abolish the hated bedroom tax –
and 2/3 of those affected by it are disabled people.
But I’ll tell you
this: I am all too aware that the cost of living crisis is felt acutely by
disabled people, as the extra costs associated with disability pile
up.
So it will be my priority to make sure that every measure we announce
to address the cost of living crisis that families face under this out of touch,
arrogant, millionaires’ gvt – that every one of our policies goes the extra mile
to work for disabled people, their families and carers too.
I’m conscious
of how much of your time I’m taking. It’s because there is so much I want to
say.
So let’s treat this as the start of a conversation, not the end of a
speech.
When I heard Anne was standing down, I too was dismayed – but I
have to tell you my very next thought was that I passionately wanted her
job.
I know how bad things have become in just three short years, but I
know we can do so much better for disabled people. I know it can be better than
this.
With your support, I very much look forward to getting to grips
with the challenge. Please let’s stay in touch.
