On the topic of social security for disabled people my starting point is that I’m jolly grateful I was born and have remained relatively normal in both body and mind. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t have liked a better body (better hand, foot and eye co-ordination to make a better fist of cricket and football) and a better mind (I’ve never been very good at spelling, and acknowledge that I’m probably better at explaining other people’s ideas than having original ones myself) but I’ve managed to qualify for and hold down a job which I thoroughly enjoyed and always managed to pay my way.
That is true of the overwhelming majority of people in the UK .
So why on earth is a Labour Government – A LABOUR GOVERNMENT – seeking to balance its books by cutting the help for disabled people rather than raising the taxes of we comfortable so that those less fortunate can be enabled to live as decent a life as their disabilities allow?
Surely, after eighteen hundred years of Judaeo-Christian teaching, topped up in recent years by Hindus (“dana “ and “seva”) Sikhism (Vnda Chhakna) and Islam (alms giving) that should be a no-brainer.
To argue that we abled bodied and minded in our society can’t afford it is nonsense. The latest figure I can find, (for 2002) states that our national income per head is £37 371. If that were shared out equally every family of four would be receiving just coppers short of £160 000 a year.
Of course it isn’t shared out equally, and I’m not suggesting it should be: I’m simply using the figure to demonstrate that we are a very rich society indeed and can well afford to look after those members of our society who, for one reason or another, can’t live comfortably without help from the rest of us.
Labour should show some courage, grasp the nettle and do what it was elected to do (along with restoring the overseas aid budget, removing the two child limit, and sticking to net-zero and its green agenda).
Instead they seem to be as desperate as the Tories to make sure that no-one at the bottom of the pile cheats the system and gets something for nothing. I believe this fear to be without foundation.
Years ago I heard a Humanist on the radio argue that everyone of us has three “wants.” These are
· ""to know that at least someone cares what happens to us (usually a spouse, a parent or child, or maybe just a friend);
· to be able to feel that someone else has benefitted from our having lived;
· and to pay our way."
No one actually wants to be a scrounger.
OK maybe the odd one slips through (and we all have our pride, so maybe some people boast of living off the system as that seems be the only way to survive, so they pretend it’s a choice, but they would much prefer the alternative.)
Labour has argued, with every justification, that the country cannot be turned round in just one parliament. This will be even more likely if they waste this first term. The should stop looking back over their shoulders, implement the policies for which they were elected and sow the seeds for an even more progressive second term.
