Dear Claire,
Well this evening, I must admit I really didn’t know where to start.
At first I wanted to talk further about the devastating effects of the DWP ‘reforms’. I wanted to talk about the mountain of hard evidence that exists, to prove how these obscene inhumane changes have brought so much misery to so many of our poorest and most vulnerable.
As I was looking through my notes, and the links to the many excellent blogs which do so much to highlight these horrible policies, I came back to an earlier article about the number of times the Conservatives have been rebuked by numerous bodies, including the Office for National Statistics, The head of the civil service, The Information commissioner, a judge ruling on an illegal deportation actioned by Theresa May, The UK Statistics Authority, The office for Budget Responsibility, the list goes on.
From here, I picked up on the Tory’s plans to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights and to repeal the UK’s Human Rights Act. From here, it was but a small step to go on to the Tory’s plans to ban anyone working for a government organisation from talking to the media without ministerial permission.
This also brought me on to UN inspector, Raquel Rolnik, saying that the Bedroom Tax would hit the most vulnerable, the most fragile and the people on the fringes of coping with everyday life. This last point brought howls of protest from the reptilian Grant Shapps, and ol’ slap-head himself, IBS, saying they would lodge a formal complaint with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon.
What a thoroughly depressing state of affairs we find ourselves in as a result of Coalition policies. Does any of this go through your mind, as you’re doing the photo opportunity grip ‘n’ grins on your electioneering rounds? Do you have any perception of the extended and heightened misery another Conservative term of government would inflict on millions of people?
I am hoping as hard as I can, that you have even an ounce of compassion more than your cabinet colleagues. That your thirst for high office within the Tory Party might just be tempered, for a moment, by understanding the scale of the human tragedy that is unfolding before us all.
Admittedly, it’s much less apparent in a rural constituency such as Devizes, but then I read that even in Marlborough, the very heartland of Tory central within this constituency, there are people objecting to shops being let for charities to set up. In Devizes, it’s taken root already, and people are up in arms about the reputation they feel that lots of charity shops brings to the town. Just wait till the first Poundland opens up in Marlborough!
Tomorrow, I’m going to go further into the issues that are raised by the Tory’s plan to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights and repeal the UK’s Human Rights Act.
For now, I’d just like to end with two questions, each of which I will answer with what I think is behind the Tory plan to implement each point:
1. Why do the Tories want to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights and repeal the UK’s Human Rights Act?
I reckon the answer to this is because the Tory’s welfare reforms breach these Human Rights, so they’d like to get us out of them, before either the UN or some UK-based body successfully brings a case against the Tories for this breach.
2. Why do the Tories want to make it illegal for anyone working within a national service (NHS, DWP, Police etc.) to speak to the media without ministerial approval?
The answer to this one is devastatingly simple. People within the NHS and DWP have blown the failure of Tory reforms wide open to the media and the public. Tories don’t like being caught out. They are convinced of their own infallibility, and the inherent ‘rightness’ of their policies.
Claire, I implore you: please WAKE UP and smell the coffee. LOOK what your party is doing to this country!
I can’t remember ever feeling quite so dispirited in advance of a general election at any other point in my 52 years. The prospect of 5 more years of Tory government is just too awful to contemplate.
Please, think about what I’ve written. Don’t dismiss it as leftist ramblings, think of it as someone trying to sound a warning about the catastrophe that will engulf us, if Cameron ends up back in no. 10.
Kind regards, though feeling thoroughly miserable,
Polly
P.S. The lady in the photo accompanying this article is Julia Kelly. Julia founded a charity to help people suffering with chronic pain. She committed suicide (aged 39) after a battle to claim disability benefits ended with the DWP demanding that she repay £4000 in backdated payments.
According to a statement made by her father at the inquest, Julia had attended three tribunals in her attempts to gain disability benefits. Mr Kelly said he “firmly believed” correspondence from the DWP triggered her death, stating “Not to be believed by the DWP that she was suffering chronic back pain and also to be accused of wrongdoing and be told her payments might be stopped, as well as DWP demanding £4,000 from her; All this pushed her over the brink to a point where she took her own life.”
Just to add the cherry to the very top of this tragic story, news of the inquest into her death came on the same day that Iain Duncan Smith said that stopping people’s benefit is ‘compassionate’.
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