McDonald, R (on the application of) v Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea

 "I want to make sure that my government always looks after the elderly, the frail, the poorest in our country"

David Cameron, October 2010

The Supreme Court have made a decision in the case of Elaine McDonald a former principal ballerina in the Scottish Ballet. The legal arguments are varied but centre around whether there was a fair review of care conducted, whether the decision infringed Ms McDonald's rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and whether there was a breach of section 21 and 49A of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) (now superseded by Equality Act 2010)

On a 4-1 majority the Supreme Court have dismissed Ms McDonald's appeal. Whilst the legal principles are important, for most of us they aren't relevant. The crux of this issue is very simple.

"What do we, as a society, think is an acceptable way to treat our elderly people, our disabled people, our sick people?"

The answer from the courts is damning to us all. It says that as a country we find it acceptable to leave our elderly people, our disabled people, our sick people lying in their own piss. All night. Even when that person is not incontinent and only requires a few moments assistance from another person to ensure their dignity and comfort.

Is this what we want for our mothers and fathers? Is it what we want for our grandparents? For a generation who fought for all our freedoms? Is this what we want for ourselves? Even if you don't really care about sick or disabled people one day we will all be old. We will all be vulnerable. We will all learn the lessons of powerlessness, of how it feels to have our lives held in an uncaring hand. When that time comes for you, do you really want to be left in your own urine. All night. Every night. Until you die?

Anne Novis, MBE - Issues with BBC Breakfast Show interview #DLA #TBofB

I was interviewed by the BBC for the Breakfast show on DLA linked to the Disability Alliance initiating legal action re the consultation on DLA.

The crew came to me and did a long interview and filmed aspects of my home that indicated extra costs I had as a disabled person.

All well and good a great interview and interested journalist.

Then late in the day a man phoned from the BBC asking if they could use some of the interview on the BBC news, he asked me questions about my impairments which I declined to share publicly as I have multiple health issues as well as a spinal condition.

He asked how much I received in DLA so I explained about the two components and that my Mobility fund was spent on a wheelchair adapted car leased via Motability and that half my high rate care component was taken in charges for Independent Living Fund support for care so in reality I receive only £125 per month.

So I was shocked and surprised to hear him state I received this per week!

Also my surname was not pronounced properly , it became ‘Nevis’ not ‘Novis’ and the MBE I received this year was not noted on my name as it was in the morning.

Although he stated I had a spinal condition he did not state I had multiple health issues too.

It seemed to me the stance of the piece shown was different from the Breakfast show piece and so much was left out of my interview.

I had explained about the multiple impact of all the cuts on disabled people, the closure of the Independent living Fund, the anxiety caused to so many due to lack of appropriate consideration of our views on the proposed changes to DLA.

It seemed in the morning the genuine concerns of disabled people were to be heard but by the evening I became a burden too far as Maria Miller and the tax alliance focused on misuse and how ‘unsustainable’ DLA is, also the ignorance of disabled people not understanding the government stance which is oh so clear these days was also the focus by Maria Miller.

We have to ask why the approach to this information changed from the morning sharing real concerns and anxieties to the evening where the focus seemed to be more on disabled people expecting too much.

Anne Novis, MBE

CHINA: #ChenGuangchen - Blind Activist Tortured & Beaten Unconscious #TBofBTT #solidarity

URGENT ACTION APPEAL FOR BLIND ACTIVIST 
CHEN GUANGCHENG

FROM: Bob Fu, President, China Aid Association

bobfu@chinaaid.org

Reggie Littlejohn, President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

reggie@womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org

Request for Immediate Medical Release

DATE: June 19, 2011

Summary

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng’s health is in serious jeopardy.  According to a letter from Chen’s wife obtained by China Aid on June 15, the Nobel Peace Prize nominee’s health has continued to deteriorate since his fierce torture in February, after which he was denied medical treatment.  He is now in a severely weakened state.  China Aid and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers issue this urgent action appeal that Chen be immediately released from China to receive critical medical attention in the United States.

Background
 

Self-taught, blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng exposed the widespread use of coercion in the implementation of China’s One Child Policy.  Specifically, he uncovered the fact that there were 130,000 forced abortions and involuntary sterilization in Linyi County, Shandong Province, in 2005.  Time Magazine named him in its list of “2006’s Top 100 People Who Shape Our World,” in the category of “Heroes and Pioneers.”  In 2007 he was awarded the Magsaysay award, known as Asia’s Nobel Prize. 

The Chinese Communist Party sentenced him to four years and three months in jail.  His defense lawyers were detained and unable to attend his trial.  His wife and children were subjected to harassment, surveillance and confinement during the duration of Chen’s imprisonment.  Released in September 2010, he is now under strict house arrest.  Both in prison and under house arrest, Chen has been tortured severely and denied medical treatment.  He was released from prison with a chronic, debilitating intestinal illness for which he has been allowed no treatment. 

 A video featuring Chen was leaked to the China Aid Association Wednesday, February 9, 2011.  In this video, Chen encouraged his fellow citizens to stand up for human rights.  Chen and Yuan also described the conditions of their house arrest:  A total of 66 security police surround their home day and night.  Their telephone and internet access have been severed. They suffer from a lack of food.  No one can enter or leave their home, except officials, who can enter at any time, without notice. 

Chen and Yuan were “beaten senseless” and denied medical treatment in connection with the release of this video, and denied medical treatment.  Security forces appear to have intimidated their entire village.  According to a Radio Free Asia report, a woman attempting to visit Chen said, “No one in this village will speak a word about [Chen] . . . None of the villagers I spoke to, nor the police, was even willing to utter his name.”

In February 2011, lawyers scheduled a meeting to discuss how to help Chen.  Several lawyers and rights defenders were placed under house arrest, preventing them from attending this meeting.  Lawyers who did attend the meeting, including Jiang Tianyong and Teng Biao, were detained or placed under house arrest.  Authorities grabbed Jiang by the neck and smashed his head against the wall.  Foreign journalists have been prevented from entering Chen’s village.  CNN released a video of men pushing a journalist and throwing rocks at him to prevent him from entering Chen’s village.

On June 15, 2011, China Aid obtained an undated letter from Yuan, in which she gives further details about the torture and abuse she and Chen have endured:

 They beat and tortured my husband Chen Guangcheng and me for more than 2 hours . . . More than 10 men covered me totally with a blanket and kicked my ribs and all over my body . . . I saw more than ten men surrounded Chen Guangcheng, torturing him. Some of them twisted his arms forcefully while the others were pushing his head down and lifting his collar up tightly.

 Yuan’s letter also states that the police sealed their windows with sheets of metal, seized their computer, confiscated their books, stole Chen’s blind cane, and grabbed toys belonging to their young daughter. Her letter expresses anguish over Chen’s health:

Guangcheng’s mother is closely followed and physically monitored by 3 men every day, step by step, even when she works in the farm’s field. After mid-March, she was not allowed to go out even for buying vegetables. Therefore our daily life has gotten too hard to survive. Besides, Guangcheng’s health condition got worse. The blood from his diarrhea turned to dark instead of red as before. That is why I am so worried.

Recommendations

The governments of the free world should unite to protest to the Chinese government for Chen's brutal treatment and urge the Chinese government to immediately arrange medical treatment for Chen Guangcheng and his wife Yuan Weijing

The governments of the free world should unite to negotiate an exit strategy for Chen and his family to be allowed to leave China for medical reasons

The United States Ambassador, and other Ambassadors, should visit Chen
 

Citizens of free nations should call and write Chinese embassies and consulates and sign the petition to Free Chen Guangcheng: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=chen-guangcheng#petition

Links to latest reports by two major news agencies:

 

By the New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/world/asia/18china.html

Letter Alleges Beating of Chinese Activist and Wife

 By the  Lifesitenews Report

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/blind-chinese-pro-life-activist-beaten-unconscious-tortured-wife/

100 Voices

I have been invited to speak at the 100 Voices conference hosted by The Brandon Trust in Bristol on saturday. It's the first conference of it's kind, so that people with learning disabilities can choose what they want to be on the Brandon Trust agenda for the next 12 months.

If anyone would like to watch the conference it is being live streamed here and I will be speaking at approximately 10.15am. Expect lots of noise, bubbles and fun!

Kaliya Franklin 

Work shy? Work deprived! #TBofBTT

In a blog post I wrote last week, I suggested that the government give monetary incentives to businesses who enable disabled and/or ill people to work, whether by providing equipment for them to work from home, or by adapting their offices. A lot of companies in cities (at least I know this to be true in London) are required to ensure that any new buildings – of which there are many – must be accessible to the disabled. But those in old buildings, particularly small, local firms, might not have the means to fund adaptations. Necessary adaptions might not be viable in each building, of course, but this is hypothetical. Or what if the government provided grants or loans to people who could set up their own business and work from home? If a loan is given, it could be paid back over a fair period, with either base rate interest, or no interest at all. I’m sure that, within a year, the government would be recompensed by a decrease in claims for ESA, IB, IS, JSA etc.

Let me be clear, I do not think any disabled or ill person should be forced into work. I do think, however, that I have too many ill or disabled friends whose talents are going to waste. Some are great at PR, some would be fantastic researchers, others are writers, or techies, or bakers and artists. Their wealth of experience, and their want to make use of it are being left to rot just because their bodies or minds are keeping them out of the standard work place. It makes me angry to think that there are less skilled and less qualified able bodied people getting jobs above my disabled/ill friends, purely down to their lack of wheelchair, absence of surgical scars, or “clean” mental health record.

So, I would really be interested to hear what adaptations you would need to work in an office, or what kinds of equipment you would need to work at home (if, like me, your health/body/mind wouldn’t suit an office). For example, screen magnifying equipment, voice recognition software, aids to allow you to work comfortably from your bed, ramps or a wheelchair lift to access an office, a specialist pen that you can hold, or adapted kitchen appliances, a mobility scooter or powerchair. If you need a medical treatment, but are being denied it by your GP or consultant, that would be interesting, too. We all know about the “Postcode Lottery”.

Costs would be great, but not essential. I’ve never been able to go to work, but I know that so many of you have been pushed and forced out of your jobs, by your health and/or by ignorant bosses and co-workers. Equally, if you’ve never been able to work, but know what access adaptations or equipment you would need to go to work, do tell us.

Please do contribute your needs and/or experiences. The government might not want to listen to us, but we can make our voices heard. Even if you post anonymously, please do give us your story. Doubters and skeptics ask us what we would do instead of these cuts – well, let’s give them something to think about!

Mel x

aka @QueenieJelly


Cross-posted from:

http://blogeration.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/work-shy-work-deprived/