Dear Harriet,
You haven't come back to my last email and I understand you haven't come back to any within this series of 'one voice', in excess of 40 emails now over as many days.
Is the number too high for you? Would it make any difference to know that the number of emails I'm getting from Labour runs to about three a day at the moment, often more? Never mind that I'm not replying to these, I know that is not the point of them, but we are looking for a reply. This isn't just promotional spam but rather a plea from and on behalf of people whose lives are being ripped apart by Tory policy, that your party is doing nothing to attempt to block.
How are we to trust that you are on the side of the electorate when you won't even respond to the very direct, specific complaints of your own party members? Who exactly are you in opposition for? Who are you representing?
These emails are not designed to slam Labour – it's a genuine request of the party to act on its supposed principles and fight against a pro-wealth, anti-poverty, unjust Tory rule. You are in the best position to do this and what most supporters feel you morally should be doing; I don't believe that Labour voters have swung that much to the right that our views are the minority.
When these emails are ignored it all feels rather hopeless, really.
I do hope that one day you will listen and respond.
Monday, 20 July 2015
Thursday, 16 July 2015
Email #43 (Guest Email #2)
Dear Harriet,
For once I am grateful for my perennial disorganisation, as I meant to cancel my Labour party membership ages ago. I even thought I had done so. But the emails (ever-growing at the moment) that arrive in my inbox tell me otherwise. I'm pleased to have retained my membership this summer for one simple reason – voting on its leadership candidacy.
For a party that has turned its back on its left-wing roots for some time now it's refreshing to see a genuinely left-wing proposition with policies that traditional Labour supporters can get behind. As it stands I will still cancel my membership after the leadership has been decided but I would consider a return if Jeremy Corbyn wins and (crucially) is able to put his ideology in to action.
I didn't vote for Labour in the general election because you are not a left-wing party. You weren't even a consideration, really. It was a toss up between the Greens and the SNP – though I am Scottish by family I'm English through birth and have only moved to Scotland recently. They were my options because they were the only parties available to me whose politics I agree with.
It seems to me that Labour are leaning on the 80s and early 90s as guidance following the election defeat, much supported by a predominantly right-wing press - that more central and right-wing policies are needed to have any chance of getting in to power the next time round. It's a shame really, isn't it, that power supercedes what a party purports to stand for (in this instance, supposedly equality and a fair society over supporting greed and wealth)? But such is the thinking of the modern day career politician, I suppose.
The landscape though, Harriet, I feel is different now. Because there are alternatives to Labour for the left-leaning of us, aren't there? Bowing down to the nasty party is just not going to work this time. It's going to alienate your supporters even more so and send them elsewhere. I don't believe there are enough swaying voters for that to be your route in to power – there are more (I could say better, reluctantly, but they will be better for those whose ideology matches) right-wing parties to choose from now, too. Those who don't know too much about the differences and will pick based on the leader, Rupert Murdoch's opinion, what name they prefer on the day...? I'm not sure they'll be enough for you, either. Your strategy seems to ignore the welcome shift from binary politics, and it will be to your detriment.
Because you are alienating a massive portion of left-wing supporters who are horrified by the deepening chasm between rich and poor, who will not stand by and watch while families are pushed further in to poverty while the wealthy and corporations get tax breaks, and who will not watch the welfare state getting destroyed in favour of money and greed. The left does have a voice, and it's getting louder, and it's getting angrier.
I voted for the Green Party in the general election in the end. I really like the SNPs, in their conviction and their strong, authentic leadership and, of course, their progressive and fair policies. However I felt the Green vote was a louder left vote. It made my vote only about that; about being a voice against the disgusting policies that hold forte in Westminster currently.
My one Green vote didn't change the make up of Westminster, but numbers do matter alongside results – growth starts somewhere, and to this end my number matters. Meanwhile the SNP result was another gain; while they aren't a possibility for UK voters outside Scotland they at least demonstrate that a left-wing party can gain popularity and political clout.
So consider all of this, Harriet, while you forget that an opposition party is there to oppose. Where the meagre UKIP support in the election had you running to the treacherous, spiky right hills. Where this and exploitative, trashy television programmes have you believing the majority of the populace really want a society that punishes foreigners and the vulnerable. Consider it, if you must, in numbers - in voters who are walking away from you all the time. In the people that make up the rallies, in the people emailing you and other Labour MPs, imploring you to act morally.
Consider what that means for Labour power, if morality and integrity have already left you.
I don't believe the Tories won the election because society wants what they are draconially and with ever-greater expedience forcing upon us. I believe Labour lost it because you didn't stand up to anything and you didn't stand for anything.
Consider that, please.
For once I am grateful for my perennial disorganisation, as I meant to cancel my Labour party membership ages ago. I even thought I had done so. But the emails (ever-growing at the moment) that arrive in my inbox tell me otherwise. I'm pleased to have retained my membership this summer for one simple reason – voting on its leadership candidacy.
For a party that has turned its back on its left-wing roots for some time now it's refreshing to see a genuinely left-wing proposition with policies that traditional Labour supporters can get behind. As it stands I will still cancel my membership after the leadership has been decided but I would consider a return if Jeremy Corbyn wins and (crucially) is able to put his ideology in to action.
I didn't vote for Labour in the general election because you are not a left-wing party. You weren't even a consideration, really. It was a toss up between the Greens and the SNP – though I am Scottish by family I'm English through birth and have only moved to Scotland recently. They were my options because they were the only parties available to me whose politics I agree with.
It seems to me that Labour are leaning on the 80s and early 90s as guidance following the election defeat, much supported by a predominantly right-wing press - that more central and right-wing policies are needed to have any chance of getting in to power the next time round. It's a shame really, isn't it, that power supercedes what a party purports to stand for (in this instance, supposedly equality and a fair society over supporting greed and wealth)? But such is the thinking of the modern day career politician, I suppose.
The landscape though, Harriet, I feel is different now. Because there are alternatives to Labour for the left-leaning of us, aren't there? Bowing down to the nasty party is just not going to work this time. It's going to alienate your supporters even more so and send them elsewhere. I don't believe there are enough swaying voters for that to be your route in to power – there are more (I could say better, reluctantly, but they will be better for those whose ideology matches) right-wing parties to choose from now, too. Those who don't know too much about the differences and will pick based on the leader, Rupert Murdoch's opinion, what name they prefer on the day...? I'm not sure they'll be enough for you, either. Your strategy seems to ignore the welcome shift from binary politics, and it will be to your detriment.
Because you are alienating a massive portion of left-wing supporters who are horrified by the deepening chasm between rich and poor, who will not stand by and watch while families are pushed further in to poverty while the wealthy and corporations get tax breaks, and who will not watch the welfare state getting destroyed in favour of money and greed. The left does have a voice, and it's getting louder, and it's getting angrier.
I voted for the Green Party in the general election in the end. I really like the SNPs, in their conviction and their strong, authentic leadership and, of course, their progressive and fair policies. However I felt the Green vote was a louder left vote. It made my vote only about that; about being a voice against the disgusting policies that hold forte in Westminster currently.
My one Green vote didn't change the make up of Westminster, but numbers do matter alongside results – growth starts somewhere, and to this end my number matters. Meanwhile the SNP result was another gain; while they aren't a possibility for UK voters outside Scotland they at least demonstrate that a left-wing party can gain popularity and political clout.
So consider all of this, Harriet, while you forget that an opposition party is there to oppose. Where the meagre UKIP support in the election had you running to the treacherous, spiky right hills. Where this and exploitative, trashy television programmes have you believing the majority of the populace really want a society that punishes foreigners and the vulnerable. Consider it, if you must, in numbers - in voters who are walking away from you all the time. In the people that make up the rallies, in the people emailing you and other Labour MPs, imploring you to act morally.
Consider what that means for Labour power, if morality and integrity have already left you.
I don't believe the Tories won the election because society wants what they are draconially and with ever-greater expedience forcing upon us. I believe Labour lost it because you didn't stand up to anything and you didn't stand for anything.
Consider that, please.
Wednesday, 15 July 2015
Email #42
Dear Harriet
Today was a very trying day. I knew it was doomed from the start. Which is about the time I finally made it to bed last night when I finished work (because sometimes my 16 hours are not regular people hours and because Im working flat out in those 16 hours to drive my business to be as successful as it can be, because I am ambitious and driven not just because the threat of the HMRC looms over me) only to be awoken about 2 hours later by "he who never sleeps" AKA my teenage son with aspergers.
No one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to care for a sleep deprived teenage boy with aspergers when they themselves are an adult with aspergers and bipolar disorder and just as sleep deprived, unless they are actually in that situation themselves. It is exhausting. And when I say exhausting I literally mean in every way possible for every fibre of the human body and psyche.
I then spent the next two hours awake despite the mirtazapine. And unless you have experienced it no one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to function like a normal human being when you have had a medication and the sleep pattern it induces interrupted like that.
I therefore spent the whole of today feeling a way that can only be described as like being really dizzy while also very intoxicated and on a cross channel ferry, intersperced with moments of feeling like being on a lift that is plummeting to the ground. And thats how I had to work today, and with clients not just in my own office.
And that was just the physical affect.
It also affected my mood, resulting in an argument with my sister at the train station this morning, during which she threw the documents my son had dumped, in his own sleep-deprived temper on the back seat, at me: I informed her she could get a taxi to the school if she wasnt going to behave like a grown up.
You see when you are dealing with adverse side effects of medication its all to easy to allow yourself to succumb to the pressure and stress you feel of every day living. And effectively that is exactly what my sister and I are both doing.
A person can only remain strong for so long under so much pressure, and we each feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Its hardly surprising though is it? Following the budget, the one you are so eager to stand by rather than oppose, we are on tenter hooks, neither of us knowing entirely where the metaphorical axe will fall.
It is not an easy way to live by any stretch of the imagination.
I am a strong person. I have had to be, no matter what I've faced. And although I have shared a lot of my experiences during this campaign I have not shared even a 10th of what I have had to shoulder. But a person can only remain strong for so long. That is why I am reliant on anti depressants for sleep, that is why I am so reliant on my job to keep me sane.
Yet if the incumbent government gets its way, which it seems it is to do because you are so "laissez faire" in your approach to "opposition" that borders on treachery to your own party, I may be forced to give up my job. You have no idea how catastrophic that would be for me. We are not just talking about my livelihood, we are talking about my mental health. I already suffered one breakdown after changing careers and giving up my teaching dream, I honestly do not think I could come out the other side of another breakdown.
Football is everything to me, beyond what joy motherhood provides me. And no matter whether it makes me huge profits I am good at what I do, and that is just as important as whether or not I am profitable. I know I am good at what I do because I am constantly sought by other clubs and every bit of work I have has been through word of mouth; I have a good and strong reputation. I didnt actually know until last night how strong that reputation is, when a players sibling told me how highly my club value me. You have no idea what that means. It goes far beyond validation or simple job statisfaction. To take that away from me isnt just about making a financial cut, its taking away a piece of me, because I have put my heart and soul into everything I do. I do not want to give up.
And yet a man in a suit with a calculator may just force me to do that. So yes, these are testing times.
And ultimately that is why I have opened up this campaign. This is no longer ONE voice, this is many voices, because as I told you right from the start, this isnt just me and how the policies of the incumbent government affect me and my family, this is about how policies are affecting EVERY family in this nation.
How can you say you are for a fairer society for all, and yet condemn by capitulation an entire nation to the suffering that will be the result of these cuts? How can you betray the legacy of Labour so openly?
The gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening and your failure to oppose will widen it further.
For the sake of my family and every family you need to start listening to our voices and those of the MPs who fill the benches around you in the commons.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend, betrayed party member
Today was a very trying day. I knew it was doomed from the start. Which is about the time I finally made it to bed last night when I finished work (because sometimes my 16 hours are not regular people hours and because Im working flat out in those 16 hours to drive my business to be as successful as it can be, because I am ambitious and driven not just because the threat of the HMRC looms over me) only to be awoken about 2 hours later by "he who never sleeps" AKA my teenage son with aspergers.
No one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to care for a sleep deprived teenage boy with aspergers when they themselves are an adult with aspergers and bipolar disorder and just as sleep deprived, unless they are actually in that situation themselves. It is exhausting. And when I say exhausting I literally mean in every way possible for every fibre of the human body and psyche.
I then spent the next two hours awake despite the mirtazapine. And unless you have experienced it no one can fully appreciate what it is like trying to function like a normal human being when you have had a medication and the sleep pattern it induces interrupted like that.
I therefore spent the whole of today feeling a way that can only be described as like being really dizzy while also very intoxicated and on a cross channel ferry, intersperced with moments of feeling like being on a lift that is plummeting to the ground. And thats how I had to work today, and with clients not just in my own office.
And that was just the physical affect.
It also affected my mood, resulting in an argument with my sister at the train station this morning, during which she threw the documents my son had dumped, in his own sleep-deprived temper on the back seat, at me: I informed her she could get a taxi to the school if she wasnt going to behave like a grown up.
You see when you are dealing with adverse side effects of medication its all to easy to allow yourself to succumb to the pressure and stress you feel of every day living. And effectively that is exactly what my sister and I are both doing.
A person can only remain strong for so long under so much pressure, and we each feel the weight of the world on our shoulders. Its hardly surprising though is it? Following the budget, the one you are so eager to stand by rather than oppose, we are on tenter hooks, neither of us knowing entirely where the metaphorical axe will fall.
It is not an easy way to live by any stretch of the imagination.
I am a strong person. I have had to be, no matter what I've faced. And although I have shared a lot of my experiences during this campaign I have not shared even a 10th of what I have had to shoulder. But a person can only remain strong for so long. That is why I am reliant on anti depressants for sleep, that is why I am so reliant on my job to keep me sane.
Yet if the incumbent government gets its way, which it seems it is to do because you are so "laissez faire" in your approach to "opposition" that borders on treachery to your own party, I may be forced to give up my job. You have no idea how catastrophic that would be for me. We are not just talking about my livelihood, we are talking about my mental health. I already suffered one breakdown after changing careers and giving up my teaching dream, I honestly do not think I could come out the other side of another breakdown.
Football is everything to me, beyond what joy motherhood provides me. And no matter whether it makes me huge profits I am good at what I do, and that is just as important as whether or not I am profitable. I know I am good at what I do because I am constantly sought by other clubs and every bit of work I have has been through word of mouth; I have a good and strong reputation. I didnt actually know until last night how strong that reputation is, when a players sibling told me how highly my club value me. You have no idea what that means. It goes far beyond validation or simple job statisfaction. To take that away from me isnt just about making a financial cut, its taking away a piece of me, because I have put my heart and soul into everything I do. I do not want to give up.
And yet a man in a suit with a calculator may just force me to do that. So yes, these are testing times.
And ultimately that is why I have opened up this campaign. This is no longer ONE voice, this is many voices, because as I told you right from the start, this isnt just me and how the policies of the incumbent government affect me and my family, this is about how policies are affecting EVERY family in this nation.
How can you say you are for a fairer society for all, and yet condemn by capitulation an entire nation to the suffering that will be the result of these cuts? How can you betray the legacy of Labour so openly?
The gap between the rich and the poor is ever widening and your failure to oppose will widen it further.
For the sake of my family and every family you need to start listening to our voices and those of the MPs who fill the benches around you in the commons.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend, betrayed party member
Tuesday, 14 July 2015
Email #41 (Guest Collaborator)
Dear Ms Harman,
Thank you for taking the trouble to represent us an MP.
Although I am not the actual socialist mum, I am writing this in her support as both being a mother and a socialist are full time jobs, and don’t always leave time for correspondence. However I am a mother, and my political leanings are far to the left, so I am acting in solidarity with one of my many sisters and writing to you about your political leanings.
You have been a politician for some time now, and have seen your party move ever further to the right, until now they are just behind the Tories. This is an interesting strategy and leaves me wondering whose votes you are aiming to get.
It is your economic strategy that worries me most though. Economics is a relatively new science, and as such goes through rapid and frequent changes. Perhaps this why Labour’s strategy is a little behind. You do not have to be a progressive economist to believe that austerity is not good for large economies. In both the short and long term it stifles growth, leaving business and the public disillusioned and poorer in varying degrees. Why do you not oppose this structure? I am left with the conclusion that you do not care or you do not understand.
Then it comes to health. It is well known that large events and health are connected. There is always a surge in heart attacks after earthquakes and economic crashes. But health and the economy are connected in more subtle and insidious ways. Poverty leads to poor nutrition and obesity, it is associated with higher incidences of smoking, drug use and child abuse. Our NHS is working very hard to deal with natural effects of the entire population simply being alive all at once. It isn’t prepared to deal with the physical and emotional effects of austerity.
I would ask Ms Harman, re-read the figures. Ask real economists. Look at what has happen to countries practising even the mild form of austerity considered here. Make policy based on as much fact as you can find.
Make policy based not your political leanings, but what is actually best for the country.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Safdar
Thank you for taking the trouble to represent us an MP.
Although I am not the actual socialist mum, I am writing this in her support as both being a mother and a socialist are full time jobs, and don’t always leave time for correspondence. However I am a mother, and my political leanings are far to the left, so I am acting in solidarity with one of my many sisters and writing to you about your political leanings.
You have been a politician for some time now, and have seen your party move ever further to the right, until now they are just behind the Tories. This is an interesting strategy and leaves me wondering whose votes you are aiming to get.
It is your economic strategy that worries me most though. Economics is a relatively new science, and as such goes through rapid and frequent changes. Perhaps this why Labour’s strategy is a little behind. You do not have to be a progressive economist to believe that austerity is not good for large economies. In both the short and long term it stifles growth, leaving business and the public disillusioned and poorer in varying degrees. Why do you not oppose this structure? I am left with the conclusion that you do not care or you do not understand.
Then it comes to health. It is well known that large events and health are connected. There is always a surge in heart attacks after earthquakes and economic crashes. But health and the economy are connected in more subtle and insidious ways. Poverty leads to poor nutrition and obesity, it is associated with higher incidences of smoking, drug use and child abuse. Our NHS is working very hard to deal with natural effects of the entire population simply being alive all at once. It isn’t prepared to deal with the physical and emotional effects of austerity.
I would ask Ms Harman, re-read the figures. Ask real economists. Look at what has happen to countries practising even the mild form of austerity considered here. Make policy based on as much fact as you can find.
Make policy based not your political leanings, but what is actually best for the country.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Safdar
One voice collaboration
Writing these emails is harder than you might think so I have enlisted help. From today this is opened up to other to add their voices to mine. If you would like to become involved in the Email A Day Campaign please email me at socialistmum@gmail.com
Solidarity comrades x
Solidarity comrades x
Monday, 13 July 2015
Email #40
Dear Harriet
Missing Sundays is becoming a habit for me. You will forgive me though as I was hit by a wave of depression and grief yesterday that hit me like a ten ton truck. Saturday night someone from my social circle who I had lost touch with when I moved took his own life.
Depression is now the number 1 killer of men under the age of 50 with 90% of suicides linked to depression. Its alarming that this is the case. Well it is to me anyway.
Im finding it hard to write to you in the way I had begun, with hope that I could make a change as one voice because you had promised to listen. Im not sure who you are listening to right now but its not me, its not 3 of our leadership candidates and its certainly not the Labour party members, the students, the disabled or the mentally ill, or anyone with more than 2 children.
You have turned your back on us all, and at the time that we need you most. I wanted to hurl a dictionary at my own television when you spoke after the budget was announced because you seem to have misplaced yours. When you find it you might care to look up the word opposition. I feel you have forgotten what the word means. How you can stand there and say you will not vote against the cuts that will cripple our nation is beyond me. You are out of tune with the thinking of the party and that is more alarming to me than anything else.
It is depressing enough knowing that the country is setting out to destroy itself from the inside out without you casually stepping aside to let Osbourne achieve what he is setting out to do.
I am seriously questioning my membership. Our only hope is Jeremy Corbyn because unlike you he hasnt turned his back on us. We are never to get out of the poverty that traps so many of us with a budget that is set to increase childhood poverty. We expect that from conservatives who are ideologically opposed to any form of state support. But Labour is supposed to be the opposite of that; its supposed to be compassionate, its supposed to be rooted in the idea that those who need support can have that support, so that no one lives in destitution. And yet that is what you resign a nation to with your staggering indifference.
I despair at humanity sometimes, I really do.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend
Missing Sundays is becoming a habit for me. You will forgive me though as I was hit by a wave of depression and grief yesterday that hit me like a ten ton truck. Saturday night someone from my social circle who I had lost touch with when I moved took his own life.
Depression is now the number 1 killer of men under the age of 50 with 90% of suicides linked to depression. Its alarming that this is the case. Well it is to me anyway.
Im finding it hard to write to you in the way I had begun, with hope that I could make a change as one voice because you had promised to listen. Im not sure who you are listening to right now but its not me, its not 3 of our leadership candidates and its certainly not the Labour party members, the students, the disabled or the mentally ill, or anyone with more than 2 children.
You have turned your back on us all, and at the time that we need you most. I wanted to hurl a dictionary at my own television when you spoke after the budget was announced because you seem to have misplaced yours. When you find it you might care to look up the word opposition. I feel you have forgotten what the word means. How you can stand there and say you will not vote against the cuts that will cripple our nation is beyond me. You are out of tune with the thinking of the party and that is more alarming to me than anything else.
It is depressing enough knowing that the country is setting out to destroy itself from the inside out without you casually stepping aside to let Osbourne achieve what he is setting out to do.
I am seriously questioning my membership. Our only hope is Jeremy Corbyn because unlike you he hasnt turned his back on us. We are never to get out of the poverty that traps so many of us with a budget that is set to increase childhood poverty. We expect that from conservatives who are ideologically opposed to any form of state support. But Labour is supposed to be the opposite of that; its supposed to be compassionate, its supposed to be rooted in the idea that those who need support can have that support, so that no one lives in destitution. And yet that is what you resign a nation to with your staggering indifference.
I despair at humanity sometimes, I really do.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist, grieving friend
Saturday, 11 July 2015
Email #39
Dear Harriet
The first rule in activism of any kind is to look after yourself. I need to listen to this rule. I'm tired. I'm worn out and worn down. So tonight's email will be brief. Because I am no good to anyone if I do not look after myself.
Loving my job doesn't take away the fact that I am still depressed. It doesn't take away from the fact that what triggers my depression the most is fear of what lies ahead.
Post budget we are all driven by this fear and people seek guidance and reassurance and understanding of simply how we will be affected in our day to day lives. The BBC have an online calculator that allows people to see from a very basic perspective of how better or worse they will be under the changes brought by the budget..according to which I will be no better or worse off than I am now. In one respect this helps calm me however it's simplistic and fails to recognise that I'm only just scrapping by and that once the tax credit people start combing through my business they will decide it's unviable and I will be forced to give up a job I love that keeps me sane.
i might not be a millionaire but I contribute to the economy and I support other businesses I have to obtain stuff from. My contribution and that of other small ventures like mine all add up to a business model that is profitable that may well go under without the contributions small businesses like mine make.
Short sighted economics seems to be the policy all round.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Attempting to engage a Tory lite Labour is seemingly pointless as you seem to agree with how the poor and vulnerable are treated. I despair at such behavior and lament the world my children are growing up in.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist
The first rule in activism of any kind is to look after yourself. I need to listen to this rule. I'm tired. I'm worn out and worn down. So tonight's email will be brief. Because I am no good to anyone if I do not look after myself.
Loving my job doesn't take away the fact that I am still depressed. It doesn't take away from the fact that what triggers my depression the most is fear of what lies ahead.
Post budget we are all driven by this fear and people seek guidance and reassurance and understanding of simply how we will be affected in our day to day lives. The BBC have an online calculator that allows people to see from a very basic perspective of how better or worse they will be under the changes brought by the budget..according to which I will be no better or worse off than I am now. In one respect this helps calm me however it's simplistic and fails to recognise that I'm only just scrapping by and that once the tax credit people start combing through my business they will decide it's unviable and I will be forced to give up a job I love that keeps me sane.
i might not be a millionaire but I contribute to the economy and I support other businesses I have to obtain stuff from. My contribution and that of other small ventures like mine all add up to a business model that is profitable that may well go under without the contributions small businesses like mine make.
Short sighted economics seems to be the policy all round.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Attempting to engage a Tory lite Labour is seemingly pointless as you seem to agree with how the poor and vulnerable are treated. I despair at such behavior and lament the world my children are growing up in.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator, frustrated activist
Friday, 10 July 2015
Email #38
Dear Harriet
You didn't get an email from me yesterday because yesterday's had to chose between putting money on my electricity key, fuel in my car and food on my children's plates. I had £5. In the end I opted for putting it on the key however it wasn't enough to bring me off emergency credit and so I had to boil a kettle and give my children super noodles because I couldn't switch on my cooker. We sat in one room to use one light and did not turn on the tv.
In a time when the standard of living is much higher than sitting around playing parlour games my children found this particularly distressing, especially my eldest as he uses the PlayStation to relax and unwind from the pressures of being an aspie in a neurolotypical world.
Many might scoff at this but if they were living with aspergers or caring for someone with it they would understand.
I'm still pretty angry at the way you failed to stand up to the chancellor on Wednesday and I'd love to have the eloquence of Jeremy Corbyn but I don't. Had you stayed long enough to hear his speech maybe you could have picked up on some tips on how to answer a conservative budget-namely with a socialist response rather than a Tory Lite one. His speech should have been the speech you gave for he speaks of how the budget with further inequality and further the destitution many of us face whether in work or not. Since you claim Labour wants a fairer society this is the speech we should have heard from our Labour leader. Why didnt we? Why did you give quite a diluted repugnant version that failed to tackle the inequality at the core of the chancellor's plans.
I honestly think interim leader or not you need to listen to his speech and wake up to how the conservatives are tearing this country apart and how they are ruining the lives of the poor and the hard-working as well as the vulnerable. https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ZxhQy6oDacg
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator
You didn't get an email from me yesterday because yesterday's had to chose between putting money on my electricity key, fuel in my car and food on my children's plates. I had £5. In the end I opted for putting it on the key however it wasn't enough to bring me off emergency credit and so I had to boil a kettle and give my children super noodles because I couldn't switch on my cooker. We sat in one room to use one light and did not turn on the tv.
In a time when the standard of living is much higher than sitting around playing parlour games my children found this particularly distressing, especially my eldest as he uses the PlayStation to relax and unwind from the pressures of being an aspie in a neurolotypical world.
Many might scoff at this but if they were living with aspergers or caring for someone with it they would understand.
I'm still pretty angry at the way you failed to stand up to the chancellor on Wednesday and I'd love to have the eloquence of Jeremy Corbyn but I don't. Had you stayed long enough to hear his speech maybe you could have picked up on some tips on how to answer a conservative budget-namely with a socialist response rather than a Tory Lite one. His speech should have been the speech you gave for he speaks of how the budget with further inequality and further the destitution many of us face whether in work or not. Since you claim Labour wants a fairer society this is the speech we should have heard from our Labour leader. Why didnt we? Why did you give quite a diluted repugnant version that failed to tackle the inequality at the core of the chancellor's plans.
I honestly think interim leader or not you need to listen to his speech and wake up to how the conservatives are tearing this country apart and how they are ruining the lives of the poor and the hard-working as well as the vulnerable. https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ZxhQy6oDacg
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership, angry social commentator
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
Email #37
Dear Harriet
How can you stand there today and say that you would have taken the same measures had you been in government? A "grown up and constructive opposition" would be one that is grown up and constructive enough to see through the Tory rhetoric that blinds a nation into accepting social cleansing. The cuts yes, affect those who receive in work support, but they also deeply affect those who are the most vulnerable members of our society. A "Fairer Society for All" would be one that is compassionate and stands true to socialist principles and looks after the most vulnerable of society.
It is not enough to stand there are say not enough has been done to curb tax avoidance. It is down to the you to be a "constructive opposition" yes, to show the public the truth, to spell out the Tory rhetoric, to dispel the myths that the deficit and the slow economic growth is due to welfare spending.
It is not.
It is due to austerity measures that are harming the people of this country and ripping apart the very fabric of this nation as the chancellor sets about dismantling the infrastructure of our welfare state.
Tax avoidance and needless spending on Trident and an out of control "Universal Credit" system which is massively over budget are the real black holes in the budget and the real causes of the ever growing poverty in this country.
If you SERIOUSLY want to be a party that is a viable option for election in 5 years then you need to wake up to what the truth is and start seriously thinking about what politics you and the Labour party are playing before you question the politics of the chancellors budget.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership
How can you stand there today and say that you would have taken the same measures had you been in government? A "grown up and constructive opposition" would be one that is grown up and constructive enough to see through the Tory rhetoric that blinds a nation into accepting social cleansing. The cuts yes, affect those who receive in work support, but they also deeply affect those who are the most vulnerable members of our society. A "Fairer Society for All" would be one that is compassionate and stands true to socialist principles and looks after the most vulnerable of society.
It is not enough to stand there are say not enough has been done to curb tax avoidance. It is down to the you to be a "constructive opposition" yes, to show the public the truth, to spell out the Tory rhetoric, to dispel the myths that the deficit and the slow economic growth is due to welfare spending.
It is not.
It is due to austerity measures that are harming the people of this country and ripping apart the very fabric of this nation as the chancellor sets about dismantling the infrastructure of our welfare state.
Tax avoidance and needless spending on Trident and an out of control "Universal Credit" system which is massively over budget are the real black holes in the budget and the real causes of the ever growing poverty in this country.
If you SERIOUSLY want to be a party that is a viable option for election in 5 years then you need to wake up to what the truth is and start seriously thinking about what politics you and the Labour party are playing before you question the politics of the chancellors budget.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up, someone seriously questioning their membership
Tuesday, 7 July 2015
Email #36
Dear Harriet
My campaign came under criticism today because for a social activist, im not very good at being active or rather I have only rants not any solutions.
I feel the point has been missed somewhat by those who chose to criticise me. I email you not to advise you- I am not a political adviser nor do I have any delusions of gradeur regarding my raison d'etre. I write to you because I feel there is no point writing to the our Prime Minister who sees nothing wrong in his chosen course of action, and because I strongly feel that as opposition leader, interim or not, it is your job to challenge the chosen course of action by the incumbent government.
It is not down to me to provide solutions, if I had solutions I would be in government, but it is my chosen fight, to fight for social justice, to speak up for those who are suffering under the policies of the incumbent government. The point as I said from day one was to illustrate how such polices affect the average man on the street, because how they affect me and my family is replicated across the country; the cumulative affect being seen in a rise in childhood poverty, a rise in homelessness, a rise in food bank usage, a rise in the suicide rate and a rise in the number of deaths attributed to sanctions.
Pointing these things out, illustrating the affect of policy made by central government on the average man on the ground, the grassroots electorate member, is not ranting: it is simply fighting for social justice.
And no matter how many times I am criticised for it, I will continue to call on you to put pressure on this incumbent government, to challenge the rhetoric, to stand up for the common man who suffers under these policies, because while I may only be one person, I am representative of many: one voice speaking up and speaking out for us all. Because all it takes is one voice to make a difference.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up
My campaign came under criticism today because for a social activist, im not very good at being active or rather I have only rants not any solutions.
I feel the point has been missed somewhat by those who chose to criticise me. I email you not to advise you- I am not a political adviser nor do I have any delusions of gradeur regarding my raison d'etre. I write to you because I feel there is no point writing to the our Prime Minister who sees nothing wrong in his chosen course of action, and because I strongly feel that as opposition leader, interim or not, it is your job to challenge the chosen course of action by the incumbent government.
It is not down to me to provide solutions, if I had solutions I would be in government, but it is my chosen fight, to fight for social justice, to speak up for those who are suffering under the policies of the incumbent government. The point as I said from day one was to illustrate how such polices affect the average man on the street, because how they affect me and my family is replicated across the country; the cumulative affect being seen in a rise in childhood poverty, a rise in homelessness, a rise in food bank usage, a rise in the suicide rate and a rise in the number of deaths attributed to sanctions.
Pointing these things out, illustrating the affect of policy made by central government on the average man on the ground, the grassroots electorate member, is not ranting: it is simply fighting for social justice.
And no matter how many times I am criticised for it, I will continue to call on you to put pressure on this incumbent government, to challenge the rhetoric, to stand up for the common man who suffers under these policies, because while I may only be one person, I am representative of many: one voice speaking up and speaking out for us all. Because all it takes is one voice to make a difference.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic, one voice speaking up
Monday, 6 July 2015
Email #35
Dear Harriet
I missed a day yesterday, I was simply too tired after a long day to do anything other than go to bed. Unfortunately that is depression for you. Not some "holy grail" for the unemployed as a certain Katie Hopkins likes to Tweet, but a psychological condition that can be at best draining and at worst physically disabling.
So what was I up to this time? Well I was gathered with 11k other people at the Amex stadium. It was one of those moments where my secular life and my spiritual life intermingle in the most bizarre of ways. As I updated my facebook status I chuckled inwardly at the confusion it would cause later. Because everyone would assume I was at the Amex for a football match or for some other work related event. No. I was with 11k other Catholics from the diocese of A&B celebrating our Jubliee with our newly appointed Bishop.
It was a beautiful day, and it was a good day to be a Catholic. I am quite private about my faith; it isnt something I share lightly, nor discuss often. For me, faith is a private matter that I express in my own way. I take my lead from Christ himself, who spoke against outward piety. Therefore I rarely talk about how I practice my Catholicism other that when I have to timetable work around Christian festivals (traditionally games are played on Boxing day and Easter Saturday and Easter Monday) the only exception being when I told everyone I knew as I was so filled with pride (my priest assures me motherly pride is allowed!) when my son served at Midnight Mass last year as our parish is the Cathedral parish that was chosen for the televised mass. But yesterday made me reflect on my spiritual journey and I remembered again why I feel such joy at being a Catholic.
I have always felt a strong conviction with my calling to be a Catholic. And that is the same conviction with which I write to you as a social activist. I feel called to DO something.
Because all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do NOTHING.
We cannot sit quietly by the sidelines any more.
I feel as passionately about my Catholicism, and about my social activism as I do my work.
I do not sit quietly on a bench, watching a game silently. I complain when things go wrong, I rejoice when things go right. And when I feel it necessary I stand up. When someone is down, I get up, I help them up. When someone is being trampled on in the middle of an on-pitch punch-up, I go into the brawl and I pull the vulnerable out. That is my job. That is my life. That has always been my calling. To fight. Where I see injustice, I fight.
Because if I do not, who will?
I urge you, therefore, Harriet, interim or not, to fight with me. Fight for me. Fight for us all. Fight against the oppression we face. Because this battle is bloody. The interim government already has blood on its hands.
Do not turn your back.
Because if Labour turns its back on the vulnerable, the electorate will never forgive you.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic
I missed a day yesterday, I was simply too tired after a long day to do anything other than go to bed. Unfortunately that is depression for you. Not some "holy grail" for the unemployed as a certain Katie Hopkins likes to Tweet, but a psychological condition that can be at best draining and at worst physically disabling.
So what was I up to this time? Well I was gathered with 11k other people at the Amex stadium. It was one of those moments where my secular life and my spiritual life intermingle in the most bizarre of ways. As I updated my facebook status I chuckled inwardly at the confusion it would cause later. Because everyone would assume I was at the Amex for a football match or for some other work related event. No. I was with 11k other Catholics from the diocese of A&B celebrating our Jubliee with our newly appointed Bishop.
It was a beautiful day, and it was a good day to be a Catholic. I am quite private about my faith; it isnt something I share lightly, nor discuss often. For me, faith is a private matter that I express in my own way. I take my lead from Christ himself, who spoke against outward piety. Therefore I rarely talk about how I practice my Catholicism other that when I have to timetable work around Christian festivals (traditionally games are played on Boxing day and Easter Saturday and Easter Monday) the only exception being when I told everyone I knew as I was so filled with pride (my priest assures me motherly pride is allowed!) when my son served at Midnight Mass last year as our parish is the Cathedral parish that was chosen for the televised mass. But yesterday made me reflect on my spiritual journey and I remembered again why I feel such joy at being a Catholic.
I have always felt a strong conviction with my calling to be a Catholic. And that is the same conviction with which I write to you as a social activist. I feel called to DO something.
Because all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do NOTHING.
We cannot sit quietly by the sidelines any more.
I feel as passionately about my Catholicism, and about my social activism as I do my work.
I do not sit quietly on a bench, watching a game silently. I complain when things go wrong, I rejoice when things go right. And when I feel it necessary I stand up. When someone is down, I get up, I help them up. When someone is being trampled on in the middle of an on-pitch punch-up, I go into the brawl and I pull the vulnerable out. That is my job. That is my life. That has always been my calling. To fight. Where I see injustice, I fight.
Because if I do not, who will?
I urge you, therefore, Harriet, interim or not, to fight with me. Fight for me. Fight for us all. Fight against the oppression we face. Because this battle is bloody. The interim government already has blood on its hands.
Do not turn your back.
Because if Labour turns its back on the vulnerable, the electorate will never forgive you.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic
Saturday, 4 July 2015
Email #34
Dear Harriet
Its been a long day. I have had little sleep. In fact I was awake at 5am. Stress does that. I was determined to enjoy my day however, as I would be spending most of it at football. I took my youngest to his 'keeper session and then took him with me to work. When he wasnt kicking balls into stinging nettles (now he knows not to next time!) he was helping me work on my medical bag.
Sorting out what is left over from the last season and the new bits and bobs I have got to restock is time consuming. Its an arduous but rewarding task. It involves more than you might think too.
It starts at the end of the season when you look at whats left over, and what will last into the next season, and making lists of what you need. Then comes the negotiation with the stockists. This year I have decided to work with a new company because they are cheaper (please let Mr Ian Duncan Smith know that I can budget after all). Then once all the new stock arrives you have to work out what is excess (how many foil blankets will I really need in one match? this is the South of England not the Himylayas!) what can be moved into other teams bags (Ive given the reserve teams one of my rebreathe masks on the basis that I can only physically perform CPR on one person at a time thus I do not need 4!) and what in return I can pinch from the other teams (cheers M I dont think you need all those ice sprays and the Town physio beat me to the deal in Poundland). Theres also a lot of receipt keeping too- someone may one day challenge me to prove that I got medical stock for a football club in Poundland, Wilko and Savers (needs must I'm afraid!).
We chatted while we worked with the club skipper and a committee member. We have worked hard to turn a club that almost went bankrupt at the end of the 2013 season to finish 8th in our league, and our reserves team and ladies team won their leagues and the club ended the financial year with a small profit. All the corner cutting, the trips to Poundland and the sock tape from screwfix direct (the relabelling of insulating tape as sock tape and marked up at 300-500% more is to me the epitome of captialist free market economics!) has paid off.
This is a small scale model of how a government deals with something like the NHS. It takes stock at the end of one five year season of government and then starts planning for the next five year season of government. Unfortunately the incumbent government intends rather than to restock and reorder and spend some money, to break open the bag, spill out the contents, and ship it all off at rock bottom prices to other people in the name of enterprise.
Perhaps, I wonder, as I pack all the dressings into one bag, I should get my sharpie pen and take the Jeremy Hunt approach to medicine, and write on each dressing FUNDED BY THE TAX PAYER.
Somehow I doubt that would go down well with the players. And they would be right to be narked if I pointed out how much each item costs, how much my time costs, each time they got injured.
Perhaps also I should fine the league each time they call off a match because of bad weather, because that wastes my time and wasted time costs money does it? Well thats certainly what the encumbent government want to do each time someone misses an appointment. Well we cant help the weather I guess would be what the league would say, just like sometimes missed appointments are not down to ignorance but rather happenstance.
I guess, then, that I should be fined for the fact that my son was late to his assessment with CAMHS last Tuesday then, even though it was made for 9.45am at a hospital 25 miles away, where the only two options for getting there involved dealing with heavy traffic where people were going to work and school, I guess I should have got up and left early, except I had to take my other son and nephew to school for 9am and I can only leave them so early at a school with no breakfast club. Added to this was the fact that because my son was stressed about the appointment he had a meltdown before we even left the house. Sometimes LIFE just happens.
In and ideal world people would be able to afford the 55p for ibuprofen when they are unwell or have a chronic pain condition. or the £4 for Calpol when their baby has a 3 day fever but we are not in an ideal world, we are in one where people rely on foodbanks to feed their children, and run out of gas and electric on their prepaid meters before they get money again because of exorbitant tarifs imposed by the "energy giants". And thats happening to people IN work not just the unemployed.
The NHS like the welfare state was set up for cradle to grave care at the point of need, so it shouldnt matter if you need 55p worth of ibuprofen, £4 worth of calpol or a £500 MRI- if you need it, its there to get because you are supposed to be insured for it. That is what the National Insurance payment is for: you and your family, if they need it. So its not supposed to matter if you never worked, because someone related to you did and all of us pay tax whether ANY government wants to admit it.
If someone had an accident in their car and it was written off, you wouldnt have another company continually assess the car to see if it was driveable, and you wouldnt get a decision maker disregard the vehicle inspectors report saying the car was not driveable and then try to make the owner drive it. They wouldnt get told you cant have any money for this car, or be told here is a payment for the car, but its in the form of a loan so once you have a driveable car, you must pay this back. There would be outrage because the insured party had already paid their premiums.
Someone needs to inject a bit of realism and a bit of common sense into the policies, both current and suggested for the future and start tearing through the myths, half truths and down right lies.
That needs to come from the opposition benches and that means the Labour Party.
Inject some realism into the debate. Start spelling out in real terms what this means for the lay member, the common man, the Mr Joe Public down the street.
Speak up and speak out against what is happening and challenge the arguments with the truth. Debunk their myths. Give people the truth.
Be a party that stands up for the common man, who is suffering under the reality of policies that lack even a modicum of sense.
Let people see what is really happening to the Great British Public
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic
Its been a long day. I have had little sleep. In fact I was awake at 5am. Stress does that. I was determined to enjoy my day however, as I would be spending most of it at football. I took my youngest to his 'keeper session and then took him with me to work. When he wasnt kicking balls into stinging nettles (now he knows not to next time!) he was helping me work on my medical bag.
Sorting out what is left over from the last season and the new bits and bobs I have got to restock is time consuming. Its an arduous but rewarding task. It involves more than you might think too.
It starts at the end of the season when you look at whats left over, and what will last into the next season, and making lists of what you need. Then comes the negotiation with the stockists. This year I have decided to work with a new company because they are cheaper (please let Mr Ian Duncan Smith know that I can budget after all). Then once all the new stock arrives you have to work out what is excess (how many foil blankets will I really need in one match? this is the South of England not the Himylayas!) what can be moved into other teams bags (Ive given the reserve teams one of my rebreathe masks on the basis that I can only physically perform CPR on one person at a time thus I do not need 4!) and what in return I can pinch from the other teams (cheers M I dont think you need all those ice sprays and the Town physio beat me to the deal in Poundland). Theres also a lot of receipt keeping too- someone may one day challenge me to prove that I got medical stock for a football club in Poundland, Wilko and Savers (needs must I'm afraid!).
We chatted while we worked with the club skipper and a committee member. We have worked hard to turn a club that almost went bankrupt at the end of the 2013 season to finish 8th in our league, and our reserves team and ladies team won their leagues and the club ended the financial year with a small profit. All the corner cutting, the trips to Poundland and the sock tape from screwfix direct (the relabelling of insulating tape as sock tape and marked up at 300-500% more is to me the epitome of captialist free market economics!) has paid off.
This is a small scale model of how a government deals with something like the NHS. It takes stock at the end of one five year season of government and then starts planning for the next five year season of government. Unfortunately the incumbent government intends rather than to restock and reorder and spend some money, to break open the bag, spill out the contents, and ship it all off at rock bottom prices to other people in the name of enterprise.
Perhaps, I wonder, as I pack all the dressings into one bag, I should get my sharpie pen and take the Jeremy Hunt approach to medicine, and write on each dressing FUNDED BY THE TAX PAYER.
Somehow I doubt that would go down well with the players. And they would be right to be narked if I pointed out how much each item costs, how much my time costs, each time they got injured.
Perhaps also I should fine the league each time they call off a match because of bad weather, because that wastes my time and wasted time costs money does it? Well thats certainly what the encumbent government want to do each time someone misses an appointment. Well we cant help the weather I guess would be what the league would say, just like sometimes missed appointments are not down to ignorance but rather happenstance.
I guess, then, that I should be fined for the fact that my son was late to his assessment with CAMHS last Tuesday then, even though it was made for 9.45am at a hospital 25 miles away, where the only two options for getting there involved dealing with heavy traffic where people were going to work and school, I guess I should have got up and left early, except I had to take my other son and nephew to school for 9am and I can only leave them so early at a school with no breakfast club. Added to this was the fact that because my son was stressed about the appointment he had a meltdown before we even left the house. Sometimes LIFE just happens.
In and ideal world people would be able to afford the 55p for ibuprofen when they are unwell or have a chronic pain condition. or the £4 for Calpol when their baby has a 3 day fever but we are not in an ideal world, we are in one where people rely on foodbanks to feed their children, and run out of gas and electric on their prepaid meters before they get money again because of exorbitant tarifs imposed by the "energy giants". And thats happening to people IN work not just the unemployed.
The NHS like the welfare state was set up for cradle to grave care at the point of need, so it shouldnt matter if you need 55p worth of ibuprofen, £4 worth of calpol or a £500 MRI- if you need it, its there to get because you are supposed to be insured for it. That is what the National Insurance payment is for: you and your family, if they need it. So its not supposed to matter if you never worked, because someone related to you did and all of us pay tax whether ANY government wants to admit it.
If someone had an accident in their car and it was written off, you wouldnt have another company continually assess the car to see if it was driveable, and you wouldnt get a decision maker disregard the vehicle inspectors report saying the car was not driveable and then try to make the owner drive it. They wouldnt get told you cant have any money for this car, or be told here is a payment for the car, but its in the form of a loan so once you have a driveable car, you must pay this back. There would be outrage because the insured party had already paid their premiums.
Someone needs to inject a bit of realism and a bit of common sense into the policies, both current and suggested for the future and start tearing through the myths, half truths and down right lies.
That needs to come from the opposition benches and that means the Labour Party.
Inject some realism into the debate. Start spelling out in real terms what this means for the lay member, the common man, the Mr Joe Public down the street.
Speak up and speak out against what is happening and challenge the arguments with the truth. Debunk their myths. Give people the truth.
Be a party that stands up for the common man, who is suffering under the reality of policies that lack even a modicum of sense.
Let people see what is really happening to the Great British Public
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic
Friday, 3 July 2015
Email #33
Dear Harriet
I have a headache. Not surprising really, its partly dehydration and partly stress. In the middle of a heatwave, I have no drinking water. Dont ask me why, I havent a clue. Nor have I a clue where the plumber I was promised is, because despite 6 phone calls back and forth over as many hours, I am still waiting. Ive lost count of how many times I have given my address and postcode to the same person, in the same call, but its a lot. I would go to the garage but I have no money- that will be my inability to budget again if you ask Mr Ian Duncan Smith (but then where he gets off I do not know, given that hes had his parliamentary credit card taken away for that very reason).
I grow tired of these games you see, the ones that the social landlords and their contractors like to play. Last week it was Robert Heath Heating failing to turn up for my annual gas safety check, ya know, the one they politely remind me I must stay home for because its required by law. They apparently dont like to be reminded the same thing when I complain about their lack of attendance. Nor do they feel the need to compensate me for loss of earnings for the time I was sat at home. After all, social tenants are stay at home lazy workshy scum who pretend to have disabilities arent they?
Are there any issues with my water board I am asked. Well Im not in Thames valley, so there isnt a leak. And since I have water coming from my bath tap and my washing machine is going I am going to guess no. No I am not going to waste a phone call asking, besides I dont like water companies, I think its immoral to charge for water. Sorry Mr Nestle CEO, I believe clean drinking water and sanitation are a basic human right (oops I forgot we wont have them soon) not a luxury for you to make a profit from. I believe water sanitation should be provided by the state, publically owned, and paid for via general taxation. Or have a licence fee, like the scam way we are made to pay for BBC even if we dont use their service.
But then what do I know? I am just a loony lefty who thinks public transport, the postal service, the NHS, the Police, the Fire Service, the probation service and schools should all be state owned too.....
Forgive the dry sarcasm tonight, Harriet, Im a little [insert chosen profanity] off right now....
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber
I have a headache. Not surprising really, its partly dehydration and partly stress. In the middle of a heatwave, I have no drinking water. Dont ask me why, I havent a clue. Nor have I a clue where the plumber I was promised is, because despite 6 phone calls back and forth over as many hours, I am still waiting. Ive lost count of how many times I have given my address and postcode to the same person, in the same call, but its a lot. I would go to the garage but I have no money- that will be my inability to budget again if you ask Mr Ian Duncan Smith (but then where he gets off I do not know, given that hes had his parliamentary credit card taken away for that very reason).
I grow tired of these games you see, the ones that the social landlords and their contractors like to play. Last week it was Robert Heath Heating failing to turn up for my annual gas safety check, ya know, the one they politely remind me I must stay home for because its required by law. They apparently dont like to be reminded the same thing when I complain about their lack of attendance. Nor do they feel the need to compensate me for loss of earnings for the time I was sat at home. After all, social tenants are stay at home lazy workshy scum who pretend to have disabilities arent they?
Are there any issues with my water board I am asked. Well Im not in Thames valley, so there isnt a leak. And since I have water coming from my bath tap and my washing machine is going I am going to guess no. No I am not going to waste a phone call asking, besides I dont like water companies, I think its immoral to charge for water. Sorry Mr Nestle CEO, I believe clean drinking water and sanitation are a basic human right (oops I forgot we wont have them soon) not a luxury for you to make a profit from. I believe water sanitation should be provided by the state, publically owned, and paid for via general taxation. Or have a licence fee, like the scam way we are made to pay for BBC even if we dont use their service.
But then what do I know? I am just a loony lefty who thinks public transport, the postal service, the NHS, the Police, the Fire Service, the probation service and schools should all be state owned too.....
Forgive the dry sarcasm tonight, Harriet, Im a little [insert chosen profanity] off right now....
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber
Thursday, 2 July 2015
Email #32
Dear Harriet
I am finally home from work, my youngest is shattered and fell asleep in the car. Life is exhausting sometimes. It drains you physically, mentally and emotionally.
Its a peaceful evening here. I saw the planetary alignment on my drive home, as the sun set across the downs. Im now sat at my computer, with the back door open, listening to the stillness, with my coffee and in the distance I can hear the hum of life beyond my village.
Its a world away from how my life was a year ago, when I lived in the middle of a nightmare that felt as though it would never end.
Im grateful for what I have, but it didnt come easy. It came from my family and I fighting.
And right now I have hope. I have a hope that we can find a light at the end of this tunnel, out of the darkness of austerity, so I keep fighting.
Because we can only achieve this through fighting.
We need left unity. We must fight together, alongside each other, shoulder to shoulder. Politician and common person alike.
To do that though we need Labour to back the #endausteritynow campaign as a whole, not just individual MPs. Labour MUST be vocal against austerity.
We are days away from a new budget. Labour MUST be vocal about opposing cuts. Speak up and speak out as a whole against the incumbent government.
Demand they cease their war on the poor.
Austerity does NOT work. Its time to break down the myths and speak the truth about the real affects it is having on individuals.
We must unite society and look after one another. We must stop this selfishness that is driving Britain. We must start to have more compassion especially for the most vulnerable.
For if we do not, what kind of world are we leaving for our children?
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner
I am finally home from work, my youngest is shattered and fell asleep in the car. Life is exhausting sometimes. It drains you physically, mentally and emotionally.
Its a peaceful evening here. I saw the planetary alignment on my drive home, as the sun set across the downs. Im now sat at my computer, with the back door open, listening to the stillness, with my coffee and in the distance I can hear the hum of life beyond my village.
Its a world away from how my life was a year ago, when I lived in the middle of a nightmare that felt as though it would never end.
Im grateful for what I have, but it didnt come easy. It came from my family and I fighting.
And right now I have hope. I have a hope that we can find a light at the end of this tunnel, out of the darkness of austerity, so I keep fighting.
Because we can only achieve this through fighting.
We need left unity. We must fight together, alongside each other, shoulder to shoulder. Politician and common person alike.
To do that though we need Labour to back the #endausteritynow campaign as a whole, not just individual MPs. Labour MUST be vocal against austerity.
We are days away from a new budget. Labour MUST be vocal about opposing cuts. Speak up and speak out as a whole against the incumbent government.
Demand they cease their war on the poor.
Austerity does NOT work. Its time to break down the myths and speak the truth about the real affects it is having on individuals.
We must unite society and look after one another. We must stop this selfishness that is driving Britain. We must start to have more compassion especially for the most vulnerable.
For if we do not, what kind of world are we leaving for our children?
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
Email #31
Dear Harriet
Its been a very long, hot and tiring day. I love my job, but only when I am out on the side of a pitch or in a changing room. When I am sat at a desk all day doing accounts, I hate it!
I will keep it short tonight, because I am zapped of everything.
But I have been musing this evening on something I saw on social media about Greenham Common. Those fierce ladies fought so hard and paved the way for activists like me, their brand of Non-Violent Direct Action was a new thing and something I admire. I have a deep respect for those women.
We are going to need that kind of fierceness, that kind of strength in the days to come. We have a long road ahead of us, but because of their spirit, I know we can and we will achieve an end to austerity, and an end to Trident. Their spirit lives on, and in Faslane today the people of Scotland are making their voices heard once again. Scotland says quite clearly its time: scrap Trident.
In an uncertain economic climate, we could achieve savings of around £100bn from nuclear disarmament. Trident wont curb the threat of terrorism. Nuclear stockpiling does not act as a deterrent.
But it is a black hole that could instead fund the NHS.
It is time for Westminster to listen to Scotland and the people of the rest of the UK who add their voices together to say SCRAP TRIDENT.
Now is the time for Westminster to listen, on both sides of the commons.
Pledge to bring an end to Trident.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter
Its been a very long, hot and tiring day. I love my job, but only when I am out on the side of a pitch or in a changing room. When I am sat at a desk all day doing accounts, I hate it!
I will keep it short tonight, because I am zapped of everything.
But I have been musing this evening on something I saw on social media about Greenham Common. Those fierce ladies fought so hard and paved the way for activists like me, their brand of Non-Violent Direct Action was a new thing and something I admire. I have a deep respect for those women.
We are going to need that kind of fierceness, that kind of strength in the days to come. We have a long road ahead of us, but because of their spirit, I know we can and we will achieve an end to austerity, and an end to Trident. Their spirit lives on, and in Faslane today the people of Scotland are making their voices heard once again. Scotland says quite clearly its time: scrap Trident.
In an uncertain economic climate, we could achieve savings of around £100bn from nuclear disarmament. Trident wont curb the threat of terrorism. Nuclear stockpiling does not act as a deterrent.
But it is a black hole that could instead fund the NHS.
It is time for Westminster to listen to Scotland and the people of the rest of the UK who add their voices together to say SCRAP TRIDENT.
Now is the time for Westminster to listen, on both sides of the commons.
Pledge to bring an end to Trident.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Email #30
Dear Harriet
I go back to work this evening. I say back to work but thats a misnomer actually because I work all year round. What I mean is I go back to my footie club this evening. I have missed it during the "off season" period; I miss the camaraderie between us all and I miss the highs and lows of The Beautiful Game.
I keep odd hours, working evenings and weekends with the occasional day time paperwork or ordering session thrown in. It adds to the unpredictability that I enjoy so much but its also demanding on my family. My Dad has to help out with lifts, and my sister helps out with the babysitting. We are the epitome of the matriarchal extended family, where the care is female centric and female led. I used to feel sorry for my Dad being outnumbered by so many strong female characters, but he has been blessed with 4 grandsons so he is less outnumbered as they grow up, becoming alies as well as grandchildren. This is especially evident in the bond he has with my eldest.
Family is therefore important to me, and family values resonate strongly for me. Its one reason I write to you with so much passion. Each day I highlight a different topic, sometimes the same topics come up but each time I come at it from a different angle, each time highlighting it from a differing perspective. But each topic I address affects my family deeply, and therefore affects every family no matter their make up across the country. It is important to remember though that I am lucky to have such strong familial support. Not everyone has the support that I do.
Up and down the country tonight, as I prepare to go to work, there are other Mums and Dads doing the same thing, preparing themselves and their families for their shift. Some have no family support, some have limited family support, some have no support from anyone. Each of us is struggling to make ends meet, robbing Peter to pay Paul, many of us reliant upon welfare.
Some of us would be less reliant were we paid a living wage.
Many businesses disagree and prefer a system where they pay peanuts for their monkeys, while the tax payer supports both the businessman with his subsidies and the employee with their tax credits.
This is not what I would call a fair and just society, its certainly not what I would call a fair distribution of wealth, but it is definitely what I would call the owner of the means of production exploiting the workforce.
You dont have to be a socialist to consider this wrong. You only have to be a human with compassion.
Companies need to pay a living wage so that welfare can concentrate on the most vulnerable without having to protect the white collar middle management bringing home just enough to feed their family, always one pay cheque or one redundancy away from poverty. This isnt just the means of achieving a fairer society. This is common sense.
If companies pay a living wage, less people would need the support of the welfare system, which would result in savings for Her Majesties Treasury, without the forced cuts to be announced come Budget Day.
Next week, as Mr Osbourne announces his cuts, Labour MUST speak up and speak out against the cuts, but it must also demand that the incumbent government force employers to pay a minimum wage that reflects the cost of living, and is therefore a living wage.
This is what we need. Listen to us.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian
I go back to work this evening. I say back to work but thats a misnomer actually because I work all year round. What I mean is I go back to my footie club this evening. I have missed it during the "off season" period; I miss the camaraderie between us all and I miss the highs and lows of The Beautiful Game.
I keep odd hours, working evenings and weekends with the occasional day time paperwork or ordering session thrown in. It adds to the unpredictability that I enjoy so much but its also demanding on my family. My Dad has to help out with lifts, and my sister helps out with the babysitting. We are the epitome of the matriarchal extended family, where the care is female centric and female led. I used to feel sorry for my Dad being outnumbered by so many strong female characters, but he has been blessed with 4 grandsons so he is less outnumbered as they grow up, becoming alies as well as grandchildren. This is especially evident in the bond he has with my eldest.
Family is therefore important to me, and family values resonate strongly for me. Its one reason I write to you with so much passion. Each day I highlight a different topic, sometimes the same topics come up but each time I come at it from a different angle, each time highlighting it from a differing perspective. But each topic I address affects my family deeply, and therefore affects every family no matter their make up across the country. It is important to remember though that I am lucky to have such strong familial support. Not everyone has the support that I do.
Up and down the country tonight, as I prepare to go to work, there are other Mums and Dads doing the same thing, preparing themselves and their families for their shift. Some have no family support, some have limited family support, some have no support from anyone. Each of us is struggling to make ends meet, robbing Peter to pay Paul, many of us reliant upon welfare.
Some of us would be less reliant were we paid a living wage.
Many businesses disagree and prefer a system where they pay peanuts for their monkeys, while the tax payer supports both the businessman with his subsidies and the employee with their tax credits.
This is not what I would call a fair and just society, its certainly not what I would call a fair distribution of wealth, but it is definitely what I would call the owner of the means of production exploiting the workforce.
You dont have to be a socialist to consider this wrong. You only have to be a human with compassion.
Companies need to pay a living wage so that welfare can concentrate on the most vulnerable without having to protect the white collar middle management bringing home just enough to feed their family, always one pay cheque or one redundancy away from poverty. This isnt just the means of achieving a fairer society. This is common sense.
If companies pay a living wage, less people would need the support of the welfare system, which would result in savings for Her Majesties Treasury, without the forced cuts to be announced come Budget Day.
Next week, as Mr Osbourne announces his cuts, Labour MUST speak up and speak out against the cuts, but it must also demand that the incumbent government force employers to pay a minimum wage that reflects the cost of living, and is therefore a living wage.
This is what we need. Listen to us.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian
Monday, 29 June 2015
Email #29
Dear Harriet
This afternoon my dad came round to help me put up my fencing. While we were doing this I was greeted by my new European neighbours.
[insert anti immigration diatribe here].
Except I wont, because this is not how I feel. Immigration is the right wing red herring. If ever there was a right wing bandwagon, this is it. And on everyone jumps, every time it rides past.
Anti immigration rhetoric is almost at the point of being a cultural phenomenon. National pride is seeped in a tradition of Britishness that is swiftly becoming anti foreigner. Except what everyone forgets, or is completely ignorant to, is the fact that as a nation we are all foreigners. Not one of us, however British we feel, can trace their own heritage back to being purely of this land. Simply because each invading nation from the year dot wiped out the previous.
And yet that doesnt stop those who fall into the trap of blaming immigrants for the problems of this nation. Even without immigrants we would still have homelessness, an economy that is struggling in a climate of fiscal uncertainty, a drastically underfunded NHS, a ruthless government with dictatorial undertones.
Immigration is not to blame for a global economic crisis. And those who point the finger tend to forget that immigration is simply a bandwagon to be wheeled out whenever it suits the ruling class (who like to conveniently forget their own cultural roots), namely when they want the majority of the electorate to focus on it rather than the other important issues of the day.
And so many people are grossly misinformed on the issue.
But then thanks to the incumbent government many people are grossly misinformed on every issue, and that includes MPs who ought to know better.
I would like to invite you therefore to take a little test, just for fun, no need for answers on a postcard!
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/quiz/2014/oct/29/quiz-how-well-do-you-know-the-uk
See how well you know the UK
And when you know how to sort myth from fact, start informing people of the facts behind the myths and lies that this incumbent government hides behind. After all as Frances Bacon once said:
"Knowledge is Power."
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant
This afternoon my dad came round to help me put up my fencing. While we were doing this I was greeted by my new European neighbours.
[insert anti immigration diatribe here].
Except I wont, because this is not how I feel. Immigration is the right wing red herring. If ever there was a right wing bandwagon, this is it. And on everyone jumps, every time it rides past.
Anti immigration rhetoric is almost at the point of being a cultural phenomenon. National pride is seeped in a tradition of Britishness that is swiftly becoming anti foreigner. Except what everyone forgets, or is completely ignorant to, is the fact that as a nation we are all foreigners. Not one of us, however British we feel, can trace their own heritage back to being purely of this land. Simply because each invading nation from the year dot wiped out the previous.
And yet that doesnt stop those who fall into the trap of blaming immigrants for the problems of this nation. Even without immigrants we would still have homelessness, an economy that is struggling in a climate of fiscal uncertainty, a drastically underfunded NHS, a ruthless government with dictatorial undertones.
Immigration is not to blame for a global economic crisis. And those who point the finger tend to forget that immigration is simply a bandwagon to be wheeled out whenever it suits the ruling class (who like to conveniently forget their own cultural roots), namely when they want the majority of the electorate to focus on it rather than the other important issues of the day.
And so many people are grossly misinformed on the issue.
But then thanks to the incumbent government many people are grossly misinformed on every issue, and that includes MPs who ought to know better.
I would like to invite you therefore to take a little test, just for fun, no need for answers on a postcard!
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/quiz/2014/oct/29/quiz-how-well-do-you-know-the-uk
See how well you know the UK
And when you know how to sort myth from fact, start informing people of the facts behind the myths and lies that this incumbent government hides behind. After all as Frances Bacon once said:
"Knowledge is Power."
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant
Email #28
Dear Harriet
I didnt email yesterday. By the time I got home from visiting my uncle I was shattered. Its normally a drive I can do with ease, but Im so tired lately.
Tired physically and tired emotionally.
Fighting all the time is draining. Im tired of having to fight.
But fighting has become a way of life for me. There is always a reason to be fighting, a fire that needs putting out somewhere, a battle to be had. This isnt the life I chose- no one chooses their personal struggles, whatever the conservative rhetoric may tell you. Each is given his own cross to bear by a greater power: it is what it is.
I dont choose to fight: I must. Because if I dont fight who will? who will stand up for me and my children? who will stand up for the disabled? the homeless? the veterans? the sick? the poor? the hungry?
It isnt just a case of Chrisitan values; it is social conscience/
I dont just ask you to stand up for me and my kin: I ask you to stand up for the whole of society but especially the most vulnerable of society.
This is moral.
This is right.
This is socialism.
And we need it.
The Labour party must return to socialism if it truely wants a fair society. Because all the time it does not, no one speaks up for the vulnerable, and injustice continues.
Speak up, and help stop the injustice.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner
I didnt email yesterday. By the time I got home from visiting my uncle I was shattered. Its normally a drive I can do with ease, but Im so tired lately.
Tired physically and tired emotionally.
Fighting all the time is draining. Im tired of having to fight.
But fighting has become a way of life for me. There is always a reason to be fighting, a fire that needs putting out somewhere, a battle to be had. This isnt the life I chose- no one chooses their personal struggles, whatever the conservative rhetoric may tell you. Each is given his own cross to bear by a greater power: it is what it is.
I dont choose to fight: I must. Because if I dont fight who will? who will stand up for me and my children? who will stand up for the disabled? the homeless? the veterans? the sick? the poor? the hungry?
It isnt just a case of Chrisitan values; it is social conscience/
I dont just ask you to stand up for me and my kin: I ask you to stand up for the whole of society but especially the most vulnerable of society.
This is moral.
This is right.
This is socialism.
And we need it.
The Labour party must return to socialism if it truely wants a fair society. Because all the time it does not, no one speaks up for the vulnerable, and injustice continues.
Speak up, and help stop the injustice.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner
Saturday, 27 June 2015
Email #27
Dear Harriet
This morning I had to pay for my youngest sons registration for the coming football season. Next week I need to pay his monthly fees for his academy sessions and his gymnastics. I also need to put some money aside for his summer holiday academy sessions. I love that my children are so into their chosen sports, especially since this has lead to me getting more and more involved. I now manage his under 7s team as well as working for my club in my sports therapist role, and from time to time I also work for my county FA. In September I will be starting an afterschool club at my sons primary school. We are truly a football family and its one of the many reasons I enjoy my job-because it means even when I am working I get to spend time with my children.
But sport all adds up. And added to the annual school uniform shopping trip, some time away in the Peak district, new sports kits and back to school equipment, the next couple of months are going to hit my bank account hard. And all of this is on top of what they need on a day to day basis. Basically: children are expensive.
The classic argument from the right is that I shouldnt have children if I cannot afford them. Well thats all very good before the event but not very good after. Neither of my children were planned, the pill doesnt seem to do to well with me. As a Catholic I dont accept termination as an option but I certainly dont based on the fact that I may not be able to afford them because "afford" is a very relative term.
Yes, I am reliant on state support. No I dont lose any sleep over this or feel any guilt (I have enough to lose sleep over and feel guilty about-and even Catholics only go in for so much guilt!)
Because I give back in so many ways. I give back fiscally by contributing to the economy, and by paying taxes (both on my income-which right wingers like to forget it taxed at source and my carers allowance I pay tax on and on my purchases), I give back to my community by volunteering and helping out at my sons schools, I give back professionally by volunteering my skills at sporting events and I give back by raising my children.
Children are our future. In an ageing population, where £57.2 billion of the welfare spending bill goes on pensioners versus the £16.4 billion spent on families and children I think raising children is a fair long term investment.
But even with state support, I struggle. And so do many other parents in our country. Tonight, as I type, hundreds of parents will be coming home from their second job and still having to work out how many meals they can make out of the contents of their freezer or cupboards if they forgo a meal for themselves.
Many children go without extra curricular activities because their parents are just unable to make the payments and not every academy (like my sons) is registered with ofsted as childcare.
Many children go without an annual school new school uniform, with parents having second hand items from schools. hand-me-downs from other siblings or relatives or from nearly new sales.
Many children are not able to have a trip to another part of the country to add to their learning and understanding of their cultural heritage.
Many children, simply go without even the basics.
That is why I am opposed to welfare cuts in general but certainly from the £16.4 billion spent on families and children. Children should not be seen as a drain on our economy, but as a long term investment in our future. The children today are the adults of tomorrow, and the decisions we adults make today affect them more than us.
Labour pledged to eradicate childhood poverty by 2020 when it introduced Tax Credits. Now it sits idly by as 3.5 million children - that's 1 in 4- children sit in poverty, and David Cameron plans to make welfare spending cuts that will plunge an additional 250, 000 people into poverty. To put that into a visual perspective, remember all those protesters in London last weekend? Now imagine they were all children. Thats how many children we are talking. Enough to fill Parliament Square, and then some. This disgusts me as a socialist but as a compassionate human. To think that so many children will go without is a painful image for me and for many people.
Labour MUST remember its pledge and protect its legacy but above all it MUST speak up and speak out for each of those children. The 3.75 million children who would be suffering if this comes to fruition.
Do NOT sit idly by.
Stand up to this bulling, oppressive regime.
For the sake of each of those 3.75 MILLION children.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum
This morning I had to pay for my youngest sons registration for the coming football season. Next week I need to pay his monthly fees for his academy sessions and his gymnastics. I also need to put some money aside for his summer holiday academy sessions. I love that my children are so into their chosen sports, especially since this has lead to me getting more and more involved. I now manage his under 7s team as well as working for my club in my sports therapist role, and from time to time I also work for my county FA. In September I will be starting an afterschool club at my sons primary school. We are truly a football family and its one of the many reasons I enjoy my job-because it means even when I am working I get to spend time with my children.
But sport all adds up. And added to the annual school uniform shopping trip, some time away in the Peak district, new sports kits and back to school equipment, the next couple of months are going to hit my bank account hard. And all of this is on top of what they need on a day to day basis. Basically: children are expensive.
The classic argument from the right is that I shouldnt have children if I cannot afford them. Well thats all very good before the event but not very good after. Neither of my children were planned, the pill doesnt seem to do to well with me. As a Catholic I dont accept termination as an option but I certainly dont based on the fact that I may not be able to afford them because "afford" is a very relative term.
Yes, I am reliant on state support. No I dont lose any sleep over this or feel any guilt (I have enough to lose sleep over and feel guilty about-and even Catholics only go in for so much guilt!)
Because I give back in so many ways. I give back fiscally by contributing to the economy, and by paying taxes (both on my income-which right wingers like to forget it taxed at source and my carers allowance I pay tax on and on my purchases), I give back to my community by volunteering and helping out at my sons schools, I give back professionally by volunteering my skills at sporting events and I give back by raising my children.
Children are our future. In an ageing population, where £57.2 billion of the welfare spending bill goes on pensioners versus the £16.4 billion spent on families and children I think raising children is a fair long term investment.
But even with state support, I struggle. And so do many other parents in our country. Tonight, as I type, hundreds of parents will be coming home from their second job and still having to work out how many meals they can make out of the contents of their freezer or cupboards if they forgo a meal for themselves.
Many children go without extra curricular activities because their parents are just unable to make the payments and not every academy (like my sons) is registered with ofsted as childcare.
Many children go without an annual school new school uniform, with parents having second hand items from schools. hand-me-downs from other siblings or relatives or from nearly new sales.
Many children are not able to have a trip to another part of the country to add to their learning and understanding of their cultural heritage.
Many children, simply go without even the basics.
That is why I am opposed to welfare cuts in general but certainly from the £16.4 billion spent on families and children. Children should not be seen as a drain on our economy, but as a long term investment in our future. The children today are the adults of tomorrow, and the decisions we adults make today affect them more than us.
Labour pledged to eradicate childhood poverty by 2020 when it introduced Tax Credits. Now it sits idly by as 3.5 million children - that's 1 in 4- children sit in poverty, and David Cameron plans to make welfare spending cuts that will plunge an additional 250, 000 people into poverty. To put that into a visual perspective, remember all those protesters in London last weekend? Now imagine they were all children. Thats how many children we are talking. Enough to fill Parliament Square, and then some. This disgusts me as a socialist but as a compassionate human. To think that so many children will go without is a painful image for me and for many people.
Labour MUST remember its pledge and protect its legacy but above all it MUST speak up and speak out for each of those children. The 3.75 million children who would be suffering if this comes to fruition.
Do NOT sit idly by.
Stand up to this bulling, oppressive regime.
For the sake of each of those 3.75 MILLION children.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum
Friday, 26 June 2015
Email #26
Dear Harriet
Today has been one of those days where my medication has affected me greatly. It can take some getting used to taking anti depressants and they can have an impact on you as you get used to them. I find they knock me out quite quickly but the depth of sleep is so significantly different to the light and broken and at times no existent sleep that I am used to naturally, is having an impact on me. I wake up feeling as though I am heavily sedated despite the low dosage, not "refreshed" like most people do from a decent nights sleep.
I often find in the afternoon that I feel quite tired too. For the last couple of days the groggy feeling has lasted all day. Today it was so bad I couldnt do the work I had piled up on my desk- I will now have to make time over the weekend for that. At some point around lunch time I fell asleep, and only woke when my sister rang me to find out where I was around 2.30. Had she not done that I might have still been asleep when the children needed collecting from school. As it was, despite the coffee from the community-lead project across from the school, I was still pretty zombiefied when I did collect them.
This, for me, is part of the reality of living with a mental health condition. This is part of the reason I am self employed. No employer would put up with me oversleeping and not getting to work on time, no employer would put up with me taking 2 weeks off every time I had a change in medication, no employer would put up with me cognitively impaired while my body adjusted to medication or a fluctuation in my sleep pattern. For others, even self employment isnt an option.
And no, I am sorry to tell you, a 6 session course of voluntary NHS CBT did not cure me last year so it is highly doubtful a 6 session course of involuntary Job Centre Plus CBT would cure me.
Today, members of the Mental Health Resistence Network, supported by members of DPAC, staged a protest at Streatham Job Centre Plus. The mainstream media for the most part ignored this protest, so I doubt you will have heard of it- its not as exciting as wheelchair users "storming parliament" or a terrorist attack in Grenoble. But if you have a look at The Guardian online there is a piece about it on there.
The DWP have been vocal in their demonisation of the poor and those reliant on state welfare. They are adamant there is no link between sanctions and food bank usage (despite usage being at an all time high and plenty of academic research that says there most certainly IS a link) and Ian Duncan Smith is certain there is no record of any deaths caused by sanctions (despite David Cameron saying the figures will be published "shortly") so the Right Wing Mainstream Media have been equally vocal about their plans to install counselors trained in CBT to force people with mental health issues to receive treatment that is regarded by most experts as being at best, only any use for "some" patients so long as there is no history of trauma or diagnosis of learning difficulties and at worst a short term solution that is by no means a cure. Many psychologists have actually said CBT can be very UN-helpful for a lot of people- and this was certainly my experience.
Mental health service users already report increased fear, anxiety and anguish due to welfare reforms and sanctions and this has lead to an increase in suicide rates. Experts are in agreement that CBT does not work for everyone, and is completely ineffectual if patients are forced into it by means of coercion, either directly with sanctions or indirectly with the perception that sanctions may be applied if a client is seen to be non-compliant.
Treatment that is given because a client has been coerced into receiving it is not only ineffectual, it is immoral and unethical. It also furthers the stigma that unemployment is due to the person who is unemployed and is a temporary state that can be cured by simple "reprogramming". Unemployed people are not broken machines who you can call an engineer out to repair: mental health is far more complex. The idea that unemployment is a psychological disorder is at best incorrect and at worst a dangerous myth to be perpetuating.
The British Association of Cog native Behaviour Practitioners released a statement on this matter saying:
"the position of BABCP’s Board of Trustees is that BABCP is against any offer of any treatment (including CBT) based on coercion or associated with unfair or disproportionate inducements. This applies to whether CBT interventions are offered as part of therapy, research, or in any other context (for example, corporate training/development). Coercion is defined by BABCP as the threat of punishment, and unfair and disproportionate inducements are defined by us as rewards for participation which are such that an individual is pressurised by the extent or form of the inducement to accept an offer which they would otherwise refuse."
Now is the time for Labour to speak up against this and speak out in support of those who might fall victim to yet another cruel game of this incumbent government that sees those who are reliant on state welfare as an underclass to be purged.
Say NO to forced treatment.
Speak up in parliament against this. Show those the electorate that you are the party in opposition, OPPOSING such dangerous games that at best are nothing more than a waste of tax payers money. Show the electorate that the 2020 election is not something you will start to be thinking about in 2019.
Every day, ordinary people are fighting back, not just for six months before every election. Join with them.
Fight back against the attempts of social cleansing and purges of the underclass.
Represent us. After all, that is what you are paid to do.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user
Full statement here:
http://www.babcp.com/About/Press/Coercive-Therapy-Proposals-for-Jobcentres-Statement-From-BABCP-Board.asp
Today has been one of those days where my medication has affected me greatly. It can take some getting used to taking anti depressants and they can have an impact on you as you get used to them. I find they knock me out quite quickly but the depth of sleep is so significantly different to the light and broken and at times no existent sleep that I am used to naturally, is having an impact on me. I wake up feeling as though I am heavily sedated despite the low dosage, not "refreshed" like most people do from a decent nights sleep.
I often find in the afternoon that I feel quite tired too. For the last couple of days the groggy feeling has lasted all day. Today it was so bad I couldnt do the work I had piled up on my desk- I will now have to make time over the weekend for that. At some point around lunch time I fell asleep, and only woke when my sister rang me to find out where I was around 2.30. Had she not done that I might have still been asleep when the children needed collecting from school. As it was, despite the coffee from the community-lead project across from the school, I was still pretty zombiefied when I did collect them.
This, for me, is part of the reality of living with a mental health condition. This is part of the reason I am self employed. No employer would put up with me oversleeping and not getting to work on time, no employer would put up with me taking 2 weeks off every time I had a change in medication, no employer would put up with me cognitively impaired while my body adjusted to medication or a fluctuation in my sleep pattern. For others, even self employment isnt an option.
And no, I am sorry to tell you, a 6 session course of voluntary NHS CBT did not cure me last year so it is highly doubtful a 6 session course of involuntary Job Centre Plus CBT would cure me.
Today, members of the Mental Health Resistence Network, supported by members of DPAC, staged a protest at Streatham Job Centre Plus. The mainstream media for the most part ignored this protest, so I doubt you will have heard of it- its not as exciting as wheelchair users "storming parliament" or a terrorist attack in Grenoble. But if you have a look at The Guardian online there is a piece about it on there.
The DWP have been vocal in their demonisation of the poor and those reliant on state welfare. They are adamant there is no link between sanctions and food bank usage (despite usage being at an all time high and plenty of academic research that says there most certainly IS a link) and Ian Duncan Smith is certain there is no record of any deaths caused by sanctions (despite David Cameron saying the figures will be published "shortly") so the Right Wing Mainstream Media have been equally vocal about their plans to install counselors trained in CBT to force people with mental health issues to receive treatment that is regarded by most experts as being at best, only any use for "some" patients so long as there is no history of trauma or diagnosis of learning difficulties and at worst a short term solution that is by no means a cure. Many psychologists have actually said CBT can be very UN-helpful for a lot of people- and this was certainly my experience.
Mental health service users already report increased fear, anxiety and anguish due to welfare reforms and sanctions and this has lead to an increase in suicide rates. Experts are in agreement that CBT does not work for everyone, and is completely ineffectual if patients are forced into it by means of coercion, either directly with sanctions or indirectly with the perception that sanctions may be applied if a client is seen to be non-compliant.
Treatment that is given because a client has been coerced into receiving it is not only ineffectual, it is immoral and unethical. It also furthers the stigma that unemployment is due to the person who is unemployed and is a temporary state that can be cured by simple "reprogramming". Unemployed people are not broken machines who you can call an engineer out to repair: mental health is far more complex. The idea that unemployment is a psychological disorder is at best incorrect and at worst a dangerous myth to be perpetuating.
The British Association of Cog native Behaviour Practitioners released a statement on this matter saying:
"the position of BABCP’s Board of Trustees is that BABCP is against any offer of any treatment (including CBT) based on coercion or associated with unfair or disproportionate inducements. This applies to whether CBT interventions are offered as part of therapy, research, or in any other context (for example, corporate training/development). Coercion is defined by BABCP as the threat of punishment, and unfair and disproportionate inducements are defined by us as rewards for participation which are such that an individual is pressurised by the extent or form of the inducement to accept an offer which they would otherwise refuse."
Now is the time for Labour to speak up against this and speak out in support of those who might fall victim to yet another cruel game of this incumbent government that sees those who are reliant on state welfare as an underclass to be purged.
Say NO to forced treatment.
Speak up in parliament against this. Show those the electorate that you are the party in opposition, OPPOSING such dangerous games that at best are nothing more than a waste of tax payers money. Show the electorate that the 2020 election is not something you will start to be thinking about in 2019.
Every day, ordinary people are fighting back, not just for six months before every election. Join with them.
Fight back against the attempts of social cleansing and purges of the underclass.
Represent us. After all, that is what you are paid to do.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user
Full statement here:
http://www.babcp.com/About/Press/Coercive-Therapy-Proposals-for-Jobcentres-Statement-From-BABCP-Board.asp
Thursday, 25 June 2015
Email #25
Dear Harriet
Today was my youngest son's sports day. It was an enjoyable afternoon with many activities showcasing the children's achievements throughout the academic year in PE. Lots of children were awarded medals and cups for sporting achievements and sporting attitude throughout the year. All the parents were proud of the children, whether given an award or not.
I enjoy spending time celebrating the success of my children and their peers but it is bittersweet for me because I worry about their futures as much as I cherish the present.
I, like many parents, want my children to keep achieving and to meet and then exceed expectations. I want them to realise their potential and then break through to go beyond and achieve their dreams. But I worry that if the present course that this incumbent government continues, they will slip through the cracks: the cracks in education and the cracks in society.
My children, though they have their own issues, are wonderfully bright, humourous, gifted and caring individuals, They have potential. My eldest is gifted academically and my youngest is a talented sportsman. They both could achieve so much more than I have. They have it in talent to rise out of the poverty that traps me. But here is the crunch: because of my poverty, if this incumbent government gets its way, they might end up trapped too. Simply because they lack the privelidge of birth. This isnt "socialist envy" this isnt "jealousy". This is realism.
Labour says it wants a fairer society for all. Be the change that you want to see. Start driving through the barriers of race and class. Create the fairer society that is beyond class division. Strive for the success of all on merit, regardless of birth.
This starts with standing up to the incumbent government at every opportunity against every action they seek to take that only divides society further.
Fight the power, change the system.
Today was my youngest son's sports day. It was an enjoyable afternoon with many activities showcasing the children's achievements throughout the academic year in PE. Lots of children were awarded medals and cups for sporting achievements and sporting attitude throughout the year. All the parents were proud of the children, whether given an award or not.
I enjoy spending time celebrating the success of my children and their peers but it is bittersweet for me because I worry about their futures as much as I cherish the present.
I, like many parents, want my children to keep achieving and to meet and then exceed expectations. I want them to realise their potential and then break through to go beyond and achieve their dreams. But I worry that if the present course that this incumbent government continues, they will slip through the cracks: the cracks in education and the cracks in society.
My children, though they have their own issues, are wonderfully bright, humourous, gifted and caring individuals, They have potential. My eldest is gifted academically and my youngest is a talented sportsman. They both could achieve so much more than I have. They have it in talent to rise out of the poverty that traps me. But here is the crunch: because of my poverty, if this incumbent government gets its way, they might end up trapped too. Simply because they lack the privelidge of birth. This isnt "socialist envy" this isnt "jealousy". This is realism.
Labour says it wants a fairer society for all. Be the change that you want to see. Start driving through the barriers of race and class. Create the fairer society that is beyond class division. Strive for the success of all on merit, regardless of birth.
This starts with standing up to the incumbent government at every opportunity against every action they seek to take that only divides society further.
Fight the power, change the system.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier
Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Email #24
Dear Harriet
Its been a long day, but a victorious day for me, because that court case I mentioned was coming up?That was today. I achieved a moral victory. I fought the system and I won. I am quite proud of myself for that. I wasnt going to be bullied into paying for items that were the LA responsibility as part of the landlord and tenant act.
And while I was fighting the system, you are probably more than well aware, some of my fellow activists were fighting the system right on your doorstep because the incumbent government is trying to bully LA's into financial responsibility for disabled people.
I am of course talking about the Independent Living Fund. A fund that was set up by central government so that people could live independently but supported. A fund that is extremely vital for so many disabled people. A fund that one day, my own son might need access to, simply because he was born with a disability that affects his day to day living and his ability to process the normal things people who are not living with a disability take for granted.
This fund is VITAL to so many. And it needs people to fight for it.
And those people need backing from Labour. Labour MPs MUST fight back against this government that seems so fixated on targetting the most vulnerable of our society. This should outrage EVERY MP within the Labour party.
Recently the MP Ms Patel caused outrage for stating in parliament that there was no link between sanctions and foodbank usage. Audible gasps were heard from the Labour benches. But this is not enough, It is not enough to be quietly outraged, it is not enough to gasp as the audacity of such a claim. Outrage should be expressed with words not gasps; Labour MPs need to start asking pressing questions and demanding expedient answers. It is not enough that Mr Cameron has stated that the death figures will be published "shortly" in contrast to Ian Duncan Smith's statement that they should never be released, Labour MPs MUST start demanding these figures be released IMMEDIATELY.
The silence is no longer acceptable. Labour MUST start standing up for the vulnerable and those who are not able to fight the system and achieve any kind of victory.
Demand more as the party in opposition.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Email #23
Dear Harriet
I am not a perfect mother. I fail sometimes, because I am human. I try my best to be both parents to my children but there are days when I slip up. Today has turned into one of those days. Im tired, I am stressed and my body is getting used to the new chemical balance in my brain from my medication which makes my own issues hard to control.
I have had a row with my son on the way home from school. Over sports day.
Because he physically cannot do what he has been asked by the house captain to do, the house captain has complained to the teacher "Sir, Edwards said he wanted to do it!" and his teacher has told him that he must or face detention, conveniently forgetting that he is a child with a SEN profile and an IEP that indicates a DLA claim.
Sounds like he goes to private school doesnt it? No. He goes to a Catholic school- where you would expect more compassion but some days receive very little.
I have tried in vain to explain to my son how to handle this situation, but he refuses to listen. Not out of spite, but because this is all wrapped up in denial, self worth, self esteem and self identity. Because he doesnt want to view himself as disabled. He would rather not attend school on sports day and face 5 hours of detentions-one for every lesson missed- that admit to a disability.
Why? Because society looks down on the disabled. Whats worse, is that they look down with condemnation and disgust. In most cases they look down in disbelief.
"I dont have a wheelchair do I?" Yelled my son. No he does not. But he is still just as disabled as the next person whether they are in a wheelchair or not.
Since when did the term "disabled" become synonymous with "wheelchair user"? Since when did the term disabled become an insult?
But it has and it hurts me as much as it sickens me.
He shouldnt feel this way.
And we shouldnt be arguing about him feeling this way.
I am taking my anger at society out at him because he is the one verbalising this. Im trying really hard not to, but I slip because I dont want him to feel like this and I am yelling at him as much as he is yelling at me when I tell him "but you are disabled" when I am trying to give him the reasoning he must explain to his teacher.
Im trying to teach my son independence, to stand up for himself as much as I support him. I will be emailing the school but he has to be able to articulate the problems. He doesnt want to because he knows he will face condemnation. He faces this every day. And I am sick of it. Im sick of witnessing what it does to him. He suffers enough inner turmoil.
When is Labour going to stand up to the bullying from the right? You say you want a fairer society for all, and yet when push comes to shove, or rather when foul insults come to shoving people out of mobility scooters, were is the condemnation of this from Labour?
Labour must listen and Labour must oppose the very rhetoric that drives this. And that starts with opposing the cuts to welfare. Stand up for every member of society if you truely want a fairer society for all. Do not go silent. Fight with us. Fight back. Or not only are you sentencing us to five more years of cuts, you are sentencing many to death.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent
I am not a perfect mother. I fail sometimes, because I am human. I try my best to be both parents to my children but there are days when I slip up. Today has turned into one of those days. Im tired, I am stressed and my body is getting used to the new chemical balance in my brain from my medication which makes my own issues hard to control.
I have had a row with my son on the way home from school. Over sports day.
Because he physically cannot do what he has been asked by the house captain to do, the house captain has complained to the teacher "Sir, Edwards said he wanted to do it!" and his teacher has told him that he must or face detention, conveniently forgetting that he is a child with a SEN profile and an IEP that indicates a DLA claim.
Sounds like he goes to private school doesnt it? No. He goes to a Catholic school- where you would expect more compassion but some days receive very little.
I have tried in vain to explain to my son how to handle this situation, but he refuses to listen. Not out of spite, but because this is all wrapped up in denial, self worth, self esteem and self identity. Because he doesnt want to view himself as disabled. He would rather not attend school on sports day and face 5 hours of detentions-one for every lesson missed- that admit to a disability.
Why? Because society looks down on the disabled. Whats worse, is that they look down with condemnation and disgust. In most cases they look down in disbelief.
"I dont have a wheelchair do I?" Yelled my son. No he does not. But he is still just as disabled as the next person whether they are in a wheelchair or not.
Since when did the term "disabled" become synonymous with "wheelchair user"? Since when did the term disabled become an insult?
But it has and it hurts me as much as it sickens me.
He shouldnt feel this way.
And we shouldnt be arguing about him feeling this way.
I am taking my anger at society out at him because he is the one verbalising this. Im trying really hard not to, but I slip because I dont want him to feel like this and I am yelling at him as much as he is yelling at me when I tell him "but you are disabled" when I am trying to give him the reasoning he must explain to his teacher.
Im trying to teach my son independence, to stand up for himself as much as I support him. I will be emailing the school but he has to be able to articulate the problems. He doesnt want to because he knows he will face condemnation. He faces this every day. And I am sick of it. Im sick of witnessing what it does to him. He suffers enough inner turmoil.
When is Labour going to stand up to the bullying from the right? You say you want a fairer society for all, and yet when push comes to shove, or rather when foul insults come to shoving people out of mobility scooters, were is the condemnation of this from Labour?
Labour must listen and Labour must oppose the very rhetoric that drives this. And that starts with opposing the cuts to welfare. Stand up for every member of society if you truely want a fairer society for all. Do not go silent. Fight with us. Fight back. Or not only are you sentencing us to five more years of cuts, you are sentencing many to death.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent
Monday, 22 June 2015
Email #22
Dear Harriet
Today I am angry. Angry because someone had the cheek to tell my mother that she was lazy for not supporting me so that I didnt need carers allowance.
This is the sort of attitude Labour needs to be addressing- because this is the attitude of a Labour supporter who has bought into right wing rhetortic,
I did EVERYTHING i thought i was supposed to do. I went to uni even though I was a single mum. when I couldnt get a job because of sixth form and open uni at the same time took up too many hours I started a business. I tried to go into teacher training but the workload so much i had a breakdown. i retrained, I volunteered to get the experience i needed for a career and started working my way up the ladder rather than complain how do i get 5 years experience without any experience.
I havent had a single bit of help from my son's dad because he walked out and never looked back even thou he lives (as it turns out) round the corner from my parents now. I moved back home to my parents sofa with a small baby so as not to be a huge drain in a bed and breakfast claiming housing benefit.
The incumbent government has not only stabbed me in the back-just like my uni- they twisted the knife in taking away the funding for his art therapy and making sure that because of bedroom tax I sleep on the sofa. And now it wants my carers allowance too.
Ive got worse with my own aspergers, dyspraxia, dyslexia, and bipolar (ive had three significant "breaks" and one bout of psychosis and a seizure and yet i darent claim because if i have to go through 1 10th of what mum went through just to KEEP DLA I will end up either on a psyche ward or a in morgue.
My parents do EVERYTHING they can for me and my kids, my sisters and my nephews and neice, and they are the main reason I am not yet using a food bank. They are not supposed to be financially responsible for me at 31 years old or my children. I try to be as a self employed person but I can only work certain hours- I HAVE to take care of my son and I do not deserve to be punished for that and he DOES NOT deserve to grow up feeling like a burden because of it. That is why there is carers allowance in the first place.
And to then hear that Labour would have been worse for welfare cuts, from a Labour MP?
That makes me want to cut my membership card in half and send it back to you.
But I have hope; hope that this is the tide turning, that Jeremy Corbyn will become the Labour Party leader and that the small light at the end of our 5 year long darkened tunnel will grow to illuminate the way out for us all.
Labour need to be that light. Labour needs to start addressing the right wing rhetoric and stop with the crypto fascist agenda. BE the opposition. Speak up against the cuts, dont tell us that your way would have been worse. THAT right there is the main reason you are still in opposition. DO something about it, for all our sakes!
Today I am angry. Angry because someone had the cheek to tell my mother that she was lazy for not supporting me so that I didnt need carers allowance.
This is the sort of attitude Labour needs to be addressing- because this is the attitude of a Labour supporter who has bought into right wing rhetortic,
I did EVERYTHING i thought i was supposed to do. I went to uni even though I was a single mum. when I couldnt get a job because of sixth form and open uni at the same time took up too many hours I started a business. I tried to go into teacher training but the workload so much i had a breakdown. i retrained, I volunteered to get the experience i needed for a career and started working my way up the ladder rather than complain how do i get 5 years experience without any experience.
I havent had a single bit of help from my son's dad because he walked out and never looked back even thou he lives (as it turns out) round the corner from my parents now. I moved back home to my parents sofa with a small baby so as not to be a huge drain in a bed and breakfast claiming housing benefit.
The incumbent government has not only stabbed me in the back-just like my uni- they twisted the knife in taking away the funding for his art therapy and making sure that because of bedroom tax I sleep on the sofa. And now it wants my carers allowance too.
Ive got worse with my own aspergers, dyspraxia, dyslexia, and bipolar (ive had three significant "breaks" and one bout of psychosis and a seizure and yet i darent claim because if i have to go through 1 10th of what mum went through just to KEEP DLA I will end up either on a psyche ward or a in morgue.
My parents do EVERYTHING they can for me and my kids, my sisters and my nephews and neice, and they are the main reason I am not yet using a food bank. They are not supposed to be financially responsible for me at 31 years old or my children. I try to be as a self employed person but I can only work certain hours- I HAVE to take care of my son and I do not deserve to be punished for that and he DOES NOT deserve to grow up feeling like a burden because of it. That is why there is carers allowance in the first place.
And to then hear that Labour would have been worse for welfare cuts, from a Labour MP?
That makes me want to cut my membership card in half and send it back to you.
But I have hope; hope that this is the tide turning, that Jeremy Corbyn will become the Labour Party leader and that the small light at the end of our 5 year long darkened tunnel will grow to illuminate the way out for us all.
Labour need to be that light. Labour needs to start addressing the right wing rhetoric and stop with the crypto fascist agenda. BE the opposition. Speak up against the cuts, dont tell us that your way would have been worse. THAT right there is the main reason you are still in opposition. DO something about it, for all our sakes!
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant
Sunday, 21 June 2015
Email #21
Dear Harriet
I am still sore from yesterday but this is only the beginning of our fight. We must carry on and we must be heard. We cannot be silent any more. We need the support of Labour. It is NOT enough that Andy Burnham has said he opposes George Osbournes planned cuts to the Welfare Budget next month. We need constant support from Labour ministers, in our individual constiuencies and in government. Oppose the cuts yes but speak UP! Speak OUT
We need more MPs to join us in our fight. We need your presence on our marches and our demonstrations. 73% did NOT vote for this. 99% of the country will suffer because of it.
Speak UP and speak OUT against EACH of the cuts the incumbent government plans. Speak up in defense of our brave firefighters, who risk their lives to save others.
I add my voice to the unions and I invite NOW every MP aged between 55 and 60 to volunteer to take part in a fire training simulation of a burning building and see how well you do. It is UNACCEPTABLE to expect fire personnel to work until they are 60 and then sack them when they fail their fitness test and then to add insult to injury by stopping their pensions for a MINIMUM of 7 years. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. Labour is in opposition and should be outraged too. SPEAK UP AND SPEAK OUT FOR OUR FIRE BRIGADES!
Speak UP and Speak OUT about cuts to the health service
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to education
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to university maintenance grants
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to CAMHS
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to mental health
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to the police
Speak UP and Speak OUT about cuts to our military personnel
DO NOT let the incumbent government go unchallenged
DEMAND that Cameron stay true to his anti corruption stance by DEMANDING the corporations who owe BILLIONS in tax PAY UP
Speak UP and Speak OUT in OPPOSITION to the selling of RBS
Speak UP and Speak OUT for the 99%
BE a party in opposition by opposing these planned cuts by challenging each and every one of them
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter
I am still sore from yesterday but this is only the beginning of our fight. We must carry on and we must be heard. We cannot be silent any more. We need the support of Labour. It is NOT enough that Andy Burnham has said he opposes George Osbournes planned cuts to the Welfare Budget next month. We need constant support from Labour ministers, in our individual constiuencies and in government. Oppose the cuts yes but speak UP! Speak OUT
We need more MPs to join us in our fight. We need your presence on our marches and our demonstrations. 73% did NOT vote for this. 99% of the country will suffer because of it.
Speak UP and speak OUT against EACH of the cuts the incumbent government plans. Speak up in defense of our brave firefighters, who risk their lives to save others.
I add my voice to the unions and I invite NOW every MP aged between 55 and 60 to volunteer to take part in a fire training simulation of a burning building and see how well you do. It is UNACCEPTABLE to expect fire personnel to work until they are 60 and then sack them when they fail their fitness test and then to add insult to injury by stopping their pensions for a MINIMUM of 7 years. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE. Labour is in opposition and should be outraged too. SPEAK UP AND SPEAK OUT FOR OUR FIRE BRIGADES!
Speak UP and Speak OUT about cuts to the health service
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to education
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to university maintenance grants
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to CAMHS
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to mental health
Speak UP and Speak OUT about the cuts to the police
Speak UP and Speak OUT about cuts to our military personnel
DO NOT let the incumbent government go unchallenged
DEMAND that Cameron stay true to his anti corruption stance by DEMANDING the corporations who owe BILLIONS in tax PAY UP
Speak UP and Speak OUT in OPPOSITION to the selling of RBS
Speak UP and Speak OUT for the 99%
BE a party in opposition by opposing these planned cuts by challenging each and every one of them
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter
Notes from the Underclass....
Yesterday was a day I will never forget; a day that I will proudly tell my children and their children about. Yesterday was the start. The start of something big, of something that will change society for the better.
250k people, from all walks of life, able bodied and disabled, made their way, some setting off the day before, others as early as 1am to travel from all the corners of the UK to gather outside the Bank of England to start their march against the oppressive government seated in Westminster. Young and old, liberal, socialist, democratic, student, worker, unemployed; mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, comrades and colleagues. We were one. One body, one voice: STOP THE CUTS. We were loud and we were proud.
It was a colourful, vibrant and glorious display of unity and diversity. Left Unity. We are the 99%. Largely self identifying as the working class proletariat, we are considered by the government to be the Underclass.
Starting our march at 1pm in the muggy humid throng, proudly displaying our banners, many diverse causes from unions to not-for-profit organisations, the common people and the celebrities alike, even the odd MP, we blew our whistles, we booed at Downing Street, we chanted our protest, and we made ourselves heard. The best response our leaders could come up with?
"leave running the country to the grownups"
As the hands on the face of St James' Tower ticked over to 4.30 the last of the marchers arrived in Parliament Square in time to hear Jeremy Corbyn. 15 years ago I heard Tony Benn address a group of eager young students at Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre just down the road. That was the day that cemented me as a socialist. Yesterday I became a prolitariate fighting back, proud to be lead by the Peoples Assembly and honoured to hear Jeremy Corbyn speak in person.
I have hope; hope that this is the tide turning, that he will become the Labour Party leader and that the small light at the end of our 5 year long darkened tunnel will grow to illuminate the way out for us all.
This is only the beginning. We must all fight as one: unity and diversity.
We, the Underclass must rise up at every opportunity. We take comfort in the fact that we are not alone. We must loosen the chains of oppression. We must take the fight to their doorstep wherever and whenever we can. We must speak up and speak out, for ourselves, for each other, for our kin and our enemy, for our children and their children; for our future and theirs.
We must not go silently. We must be heard.
For as Burke said:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing."
250k people, from all walks of life, able bodied and disabled, made their way, some setting off the day before, others as early as 1am to travel from all the corners of the UK to gather outside the Bank of England to start their march against the oppressive government seated in Westminster. Young and old, liberal, socialist, democratic, student, worker, unemployed; mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends, comrades and colleagues. We were one. One body, one voice: STOP THE CUTS. We were loud and we were proud.
It was a colourful, vibrant and glorious display of unity and diversity. Left Unity. We are the 99%. Largely self identifying as the working class proletariat, we are considered by the government to be the Underclass.
Starting our march at 1pm in the muggy humid throng, proudly displaying our banners, many diverse causes from unions to not-for-profit organisations, the common people and the celebrities alike, even the odd MP, we blew our whistles, we booed at Downing Street, we chanted our protest, and we made ourselves heard. The best response our leaders could come up with?
"leave running the country to the grownups"
As the hands on the face of St James' Tower ticked over to 4.30 the last of the marchers arrived in Parliament Square in time to hear Jeremy Corbyn. 15 years ago I heard Tony Benn address a group of eager young students at Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre just down the road. That was the day that cemented me as a socialist. Yesterday I became a prolitariate fighting back, proud to be lead by the Peoples Assembly and honoured to hear Jeremy Corbyn speak in person.
I have hope; hope that this is the tide turning, that he will become the Labour Party leader and that the small light at the end of our 5 year long darkened tunnel will grow to illuminate the way out for us all.
This is only the beginning. We must all fight as one: unity and diversity.
We, the Underclass must rise up at every opportunity. We take comfort in the fact that we are not alone. We must loosen the chains of oppression. We must take the fight to their doorstep wherever and whenever we can. We must speak up and speak out, for ourselves, for each other, for our kin and our enemy, for our children and their children; for our future and theirs.
We must not go silently. We must be heard.
For as Burke said:
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing."
Saturday, 20 June 2015
Email #20
Dear Harriet
Did you hear us? We were LOUD and we were PROUD!
Fight the power
Change the system
What we need is
SOCIALISM
That is my message, on behalf of everyone marching today from the Bank of England to Parliament Square, to you. Because we NEED you to help us change the system. You are the party in opposition, and in opposition to a party that has NO mandate for power. Only 37% of the country voted for this party. 63% did NOT. Unite with us. Be TRUELY in opposition to this party.
FIGHT BACK
Stand up and stand out and DEMAND they stop the war against the poor. Austerity does NOT work.
LISTEN to us.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester
Did you hear us? We were LOUD and we were PROUD!
Fight the power
Change the system
What we need is
SOCIALISM
That is my message, on behalf of everyone marching today from the Bank of England to Parliament Square, to you. Because we NEED you to help us change the system. You are the party in opposition, and in opposition to a party that has NO mandate for power. Only 37% of the country voted for this party. 63% did NOT. Unite with us. Be TRUELY in opposition to this party.
FIGHT BACK
Stand up and stand out and DEMAND they stop the war against the poor. Austerity does NOT work.
LISTEN to us.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester
Friday, 19 June 2015
Email #19
Dear Harriet
Today I sent an email generated by the housing charity Shelter to George Osbourne regarding the emergancy budget and the conservative pledge to build more affordable homes. This shouldnt just mean homes that are cheap to buy but social housing. With their planned extention to the Right to Buy Scheme, the incumbent government are failing to see that this will ADD to the housing crisis not eleviate it if no social housing schemes are planned to make up for the sales.
Labour MUST add to the calls for more affordable homes and Labour MUST insist on social housing schemes being built. Labour MUST also help protect the Focus E15 who are working tirelessly calling for social housing not social cleansing.
Here is my email to George Osbourne
Dear Mr Osborne,
My name is , and I want to see an end to the housing crisis.
In the upcoming Budget and Spending Review, I want you to promise you’ll protect the Affordable Homes Programme until at least 2020.
Housing was a big issue for so many voters at the recent election. The dream of a secure, affordable home is out of reach for too many people.
There just aren’t enough affordable places to live any more in . For decades, governments have failed to build the homes we need. In fact, we are now building just half as many as we need every year.
All parties responded to voters’ anxiety. David Cameron stood on the steps of Downing St and pledged that the next four years would partly be about ‘the homes I want to build’. He told a young person in the TV debates that he wants to build homes ordinary people can afford. And the Conservatives promised to deliver 275,000 additional affordable homes by 2020.
I was glad to see these promises. Now, I want to see them happen.
The Budget and Spending Review is the first test of how seriously the Government takes the shortage of affordable homes, and a huge opportunity to tackle it.
The Affordable Homes Programme provides vital funding for new affordable homes. It’s about creating homes to rent for working people who can’t afford the private rented sector’s sky-high costs. We also need homes to ‘part-buy, part-rent’ for those who can’t afford full ownership, but want to own a small stake in the place they live.
I know that budgets are tight. But if the Government is to keep its word to voters, it must protect or increase this programme. In particular, it must continue to fund affordable homes to rent. We can’t build the affordable homes we need without the right investment.
For a more comprehensive look at how to fix the housing crisis, see Shelter and KPMG’s joint programme at www.thehomesweneed.org.uk.
PLEASE support those in need of social housing
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant
Today I sent an email generated by the housing charity Shelter to George Osbourne regarding the emergancy budget and the conservative pledge to build more affordable homes. This shouldnt just mean homes that are cheap to buy but social housing. With their planned extention to the Right to Buy Scheme, the incumbent government are failing to see that this will ADD to the housing crisis not eleviate it if no social housing schemes are planned to make up for the sales.
Labour MUST add to the calls for more affordable homes and Labour MUST insist on social housing schemes being built. Labour MUST also help protect the Focus E15 who are working tirelessly calling for social housing not social cleansing.
Here is my email to George Osbourne
Dear Mr Osborne,
My name is , and I want to see an end to the housing crisis.
In the upcoming Budget and Spending Review, I want you to promise you’ll protect the Affordable Homes Programme until at least 2020.
Housing was a big issue for so many voters at the recent election. The dream of a secure, affordable home is out of reach for too many people.
There just aren’t enough affordable places to live any more in . For decades, governments have failed to build the homes we need. In fact, we are now building just half as many as we need every year.
All parties responded to voters’ anxiety. David Cameron stood on the steps of Downing St and pledged that the next four years would partly be about ‘the homes I want to build’. He told a young person in the TV debates that he wants to build homes ordinary people can afford. And the Conservatives promised to deliver 275,000 additional affordable homes by 2020.
I was glad to see these promises. Now, I want to see them happen.
The Budget and Spending Review is the first test of how seriously the Government takes the shortage of affordable homes, and a huge opportunity to tackle it.
The Affordable Homes Programme provides vital funding for new affordable homes. It’s about creating homes to rent for working people who can’t afford the private rented sector’s sky-high costs. We also need homes to ‘part-buy, part-rent’ for those who can’t afford full ownership, but want to own a small stake in the place they live.
I know that budgets are tight. But if the Government is to keep its word to voters, it must protect or increase this programme. In particular, it must continue to fund affordable homes to rent. We can’t build the affordable homes we need without the right investment.
For a more comprehensive look at how to fix the housing crisis, see Shelter and KPMG’s joint programme at www.thehomesweneed.org.uk.
PLEASE support those in need of social housing
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant
Thursday, 18 June 2015
Email #18
Dear Harriet
We have just got back from our GP. I am back on anti depressants because my mood has taken a sky dive over the last few weeks-from my emails you can probably see why. My son also had an appointment so that he can be referred to establish the cause of the seizure he had a few weeks ago.
Luckily it isnt too bad trying to get an appointment to see the particular GP we needed to see, and I only needed to wait just over a week. However in the past I have had to wait nearly a month to see a specific GP and the national average is around 2 weeks to see a GP.
Quite honestly it shouldnt be so difficult to get to see a GP and this is bad enough, but we dont even know how long we could be waiting for him to see a consultant. The latest figures show that the average patient waits around 18 weeks to be seen by a hospital physician. This is the worst set of figures for seven years.
Of course the incumbent government has a plan: its going to stop publishing these statistics.
It is unacceptable to society that a government should behave in this way but this is par for the course with this government as they have made it quite clear that they have no intention of providing the true figures of deaths caused by the DWP despite a court ruling that they must. It seems the incumbent government believes they are above the law; above reproach of any kind.
And yet it feels able to make cuts of £12 billion stating that the current welfare cost is "unsustainable". Surely what is unsustainable is their economic plans if they feel it is acceptable to sell RBS as a loss and then claim their is not enough money to fund the welfare state. Perhaps they need it explained to them that this is actually what national insurance is for: to insure each citizen for any potential welfare they may require.
Recently they have suggested that welfare should be paid in the form of a loan to be paid back. Labour MUST appose any suggestion of this. This is NOT how insurance works. If you insure a car and pay your premium and then have an accident, you get compensation for the accident. You are not then required to pay this back to your insurance company. This is exactly what welfare is. People pay their national insurance and then should they require welfare they get a sum of welfare. Even if someone has never worked, they have relatives who have worked and everyone pays tax on benefits. So everyone is paying into the system somewhere.
Labour needs to remember that the welfare state and NHS are their legacy and that they were set up for "cradle to grave" and "at the point of need". Labour MUST stand up for these vital systems that so many people need. There are few people who are never going to require any form of welfare, whether it be child benefit or state pension therefore it is needed by everyone, not just the unemployed.
Protect it. Protect your legacy for every citizen.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user.
We have just got back from our GP. I am back on anti depressants because my mood has taken a sky dive over the last few weeks-from my emails you can probably see why. My son also had an appointment so that he can be referred to establish the cause of the seizure he had a few weeks ago.
Luckily it isnt too bad trying to get an appointment to see the particular GP we needed to see, and I only needed to wait just over a week. However in the past I have had to wait nearly a month to see a specific GP and the national average is around 2 weeks to see a GP.
Quite honestly it shouldnt be so difficult to get to see a GP and this is bad enough, but we dont even know how long we could be waiting for him to see a consultant. The latest figures show that the average patient waits around 18 weeks to be seen by a hospital physician. This is the worst set of figures for seven years.
Of course the incumbent government has a plan: its going to stop publishing these statistics.
It is unacceptable to society that a government should behave in this way but this is par for the course with this government as they have made it quite clear that they have no intention of providing the true figures of deaths caused by the DWP despite a court ruling that they must. It seems the incumbent government believes they are above the law; above reproach of any kind.
And yet it feels able to make cuts of £12 billion stating that the current welfare cost is "unsustainable". Surely what is unsustainable is their economic plans if they feel it is acceptable to sell RBS as a loss and then claim their is not enough money to fund the welfare state. Perhaps they need it explained to them that this is actually what national insurance is for: to insure each citizen for any potential welfare they may require.
Recently they have suggested that welfare should be paid in the form of a loan to be paid back. Labour MUST appose any suggestion of this. This is NOT how insurance works. If you insure a car and pay your premium and then have an accident, you get compensation for the accident. You are not then required to pay this back to your insurance company. This is exactly what welfare is. People pay their national insurance and then should they require welfare they get a sum of welfare. Even if someone has never worked, they have relatives who have worked and everyone pays tax on benefits. So everyone is paying into the system somewhere.
Labour needs to remember that the welfare state and NHS are their legacy and that they were set up for "cradle to grave" and "at the point of need". Labour MUST stand up for these vital systems that so many people need. There are few people who are never going to require any form of welfare, whether it be child benefit or state pension therefore it is needed by everyone, not just the unemployed.
Protect it. Protect your legacy for every citizen.
Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user.
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