UK hosts 'ignaural 'Global Conference on Disability' unbelievable!

[treelover]

Britain’s treatment of disabled people reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale
Frances Ryan

For the Conservatives to host the inaugural Global Disability Summit, with their track record, is a staggering hypocrisy
@drfrancesryan

The first ever Global Disability Summit took place in London last week, with more than 700 delegates from governments, charities and disability organisations around the world.

In a speech last year to herald the event, Penny Mordaunt – the international development secretary and former minister for disabled people – said the summit would showcase Britain’s “commitment to transform the lives of people living with disabilities”. Theresa May was similarly enthusiastic, pledging the summit would be dedicated to “transforming the lives” of disabled people, and showing how “committed” Britain is to ending disability discrimination.

I can’t help but be reminded of a scene in The Handmaid’s Tale in which the rulers of Gilead put on a grand show to impress visiting international delegates; with the bruised handmaids kept hidden, they are free to present their nation’s treatment of women as something to aspire to.
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I wasn’t the only one who found this situation jarring. Disabled campaigners, supported by international guests, held a counter-event outside the summit in a bid to highlight to visiting delegates the British government’s track record on disability rights.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...ability-summit

Just hard to believe and bear: over 700 delegates from many countries, this with a govt that has twice been savagely criticised by the U.N for its treatment of disabled and sick people, where hundreds of the above have committed suicide as a direct consequence of the brutal welfare reforms, and where DASP are demonised by the state and its media.

The Left and civil society has to share some of the blame: they have not supported disabled and sick people's struggles/campaigns against the brutal welfare regime, in the numbers or intensity it merits. They mobilised in huge numbers against Trump, so where were the mass mobilisations against this truly unbelievable event?, there are no photos, so numbers outside are difficult to gauge, but well done to DASP who did oppose it.

This could have been a game-changer in embarrassing a very weak Govt. it is not the left/civil society who have created this monstrous welfare regime but they have some culpability in their lack of a sustained response

 

[NoXion]

You are aware that the left isn't in the greatest shape these days, right? And that things like the relatively massive attendance at the anti-Trump protest, compared to ones relating to disabilities, are a symptom, not a cause?

 

[SpineyNorman]

Most of the people who mobilised against trump are liberals mate (or student socialists /anarchists who are only a mortgage away from turning lib dem or tory) I think its misguided to see that as a measure of the strength/numbers the left can mobilise. They've not mobilised against benefit sanctions because they agree with them.

Unfortunately what id think of as the proper left doesn't have the power, influence or numbers to do anything effective about this.

Its really fucking depressing I know that.

 

[treelover]

Tbh, i think I agree with that, and yes, the left is very weak, but the SWP and People's Assembly, etc, even the LP, have resources, etc(yes given my views on the former, but we are desperate) they could have helped fund a mobilisation, that they choose not too, speaks volumes.

If this had been publicised more, i would have moved heaven and earth to be outside it to put the delgates right, it must have been known about for ages, where where the disability charities?

 

[Sasaferrato]

Just hard to believe and bear: over 700 delegates from many countries, this with a govt that has twice been savagely criticised by the U.N for its treatment of disabled and sick people, where hundreds of the above have committed suicide as a direct consequence of the brutal welfare reforms, and where DASP are demonised by the state and its media.

The Left and civil society has to share some of the blame: they have not supported disabled and sick people's struggles/campaigns against the brutal welfare regime, in the numbers or intensity it merits. They mobilised in huge numbers against Trump, so where were the mass mobilisations against this truly unbelievable event?, there are no photos, so numbers outside are difficult to gauge, but well done to DASP who did oppose it.

This could have been a game-changer in embarrassing a very weak Govt. it is not the left/civil society who have created this monstrous welfare regime but they have some culpability in their lack of a sustained response

The left, in the form of the Blair government started the campaign against disabled people. The Civil Service, which was a haven for disabled workers, was transformed into a living hell, where disabled people were regularly threatened with dismissal, due to absence associated with their disability. How do I know this? Because I was the PCS rep defending them.

 

[likesfish]

As shit as conditions with atos etc in the uk.

Globally we are streets ahead of treatment of the disabled BBC employ two wheelchairs presenters and one with a missing arm. Whereas outside of Western Europe the disabled are hidden away

 

[NoXion]

The left, in the form of the Blair government started the campaign against disabled people. The Civil Service, which was a haven for disabled workers, was transformed into a living hell, where disabled people were regularly threatened with dismissal, due to absence associated with their disability. How do I know this? Because I was the PCS rep defending them.

The Blair government wasn't left wing, indeed it was part of the whole Labour Party's rightward shift. Not to mention that successive Conservative governments enthusiastically picked up and expanded the attacks on the disabled, so it is disingenuous in the extreme, to the point of mendacity, to imply as you are doing that New Labour's crap had anything to do with the left.

 

[Sasaferrato]

The Blair government wasn't left wing, indeed it was part of the whole Labour Party's rightward shift. Not to mention that successive Conservative governments enthusiastically picked up and expanded the attacks on the disabled, so it is disingenuous in the extreme, to the point of mendacity, to imply as you are doing that New Labour's crap had anything to do with the left.

The left can disown Blair as much as they like, but the fact remains that he could not have been elected without the votes of mainstream Labour voters.

Are you suggesting that no one who voted for him had left wing views? That would be mendacious.

I was a PCS rep for five years, you?

 

[NoXion]

The left can disown Blair as much as they like, but the fact remains that he could not have been elected without the votes of mainstream Labour voters.

Are you suggesting that no one who voted for him had left wing views? That would be mendacious.

Not at all. But you know as well as I do that politicians in a bourgeois democracy are not bound by the will of the electorate. People voted for Blair, but had they known that Blair was going to start a pointless war in Iraq under false pretences, then many would have voted for someone else or stayed at home. As shown by the massive protests against the invasion.

I was a PCS rep for five years, you?

So what? You think your union work acts to shield you from criticism?

 

[RubyToogood]

If this had been publicised more, i would have moved heaven and earth to be outside it to put the delgates right, it must have been known about for ages, where where the disability charities?

Some of them were there, making their voices heard. Most of them were also at this: Festival of Resistance- July 21st-24th – DPAC. Well, disabled people's organisations anyway.

 

[mx wcfc]

Decent article on this from the i last week.
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/columnists/disabled-rights-penny-mordaunt/

The Guardian - over a week behind.