07 March 2023 , 20:27
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There are weeks when I could almost come to blows with my editors here about how much I can write about the many and varied appalling ways that Government views and treats Disabled people. So much to say, so little space.
I was going to write about the SEND Plan (special educational needs and disability plan) this week – an important government document in response to parents’ concerns about the state of education for Disabled children (hint: it’s inadequate, and the review does nothing of substance to assuage our fears).
But. But but but. Isabel Oakeshott has unleashed a hundred thousand whatsapps/the hounds of hell upon Matt Hancock to the Telegraph, and a slow dripfeed of astonishing attitudes and comments is now in the public domain.
This week’s shocker (not actually a shocker) for Disabled people was the news that a jolly little chat between then Health Secretary Matt Hancock and aide Allan Nixon concerned withholding funding for a centre for people with learning disabilities in order to whip an MP into voting a certain way for lockdown rules.
James Daly, the MP for Bury, had spoken to Hancock in January 2020 about the need for the centre. By December, Nixon was raising it as a way of coercively controlling Daly’s vote for stronger tiered controls.
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Hancock’s response? “yes 100%”. That’s yes, 100% threaten to withdraw funding if Daly doesn’t comply.
Just to recap, this was at a point in time when people with learning disabilities were six times more likely to die from Covid than people without learning disabilities.
This was also at a time when people with learning disabilities were also denied information about the pandemic, and protective measures, due to the persistent failure of Government to produce critical public information in alternative formats at the same time as conventional formats.
Easy read formats are a type of pictorial document used widely by people with learning disabilities. These were often produced weeks after mainstream posters and video campaigns.
All the while, people with learning disabilities were racking up as figures as part of the six in ten deaths from Covid which were those of Disabled people. Except they weren’t just figures. They were people. Valid, loveable, worthwhile people.
I am so sick of seeing people with learning disabilities treated like babies. Treated like people who are incapable. Like people who are not worth time, care, respect or dignity.
Day to day, many of us don’t even meet people with learning disabilities. We don’t see the brilliance and richness they can bring to families, society, work, culture and media.
In the media, they are often presented as cute or pitiable people – almost like pets. I’ve argued before about the sense and wisdom people with learning disabilities bring to the table – particularly in business. This outright contempt – utterly horrific contempt – displayed from the top down – from Government down – has to stop.
Now. It has to. What does it say about society – our society – that sees such people and the resources for them, as so expendable that they can be thrown away with a glib, dismissive “100%”? It says we are the ones worthy of contempt. We are the ones lacking in dignity. Enough.