CommonSpace columnist James McEnaney pens a message to Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith
[Reblogged with permission]
HELLO IAIN,
You don’t know me, but I’ve taken a keen interest in your work over the years. I didn’t manage to catch your speech on Tuesday but the reaction on social media suggested that you made some characteristically callous comments about disabled people (presumably to rapturous applause).
I read your speech when I got home and, to be honest, the premise seemed fairly straightforward: you believe that it is not the role of the state to lift, or keep, people out of poverty; the only appropriate tool to ensure a good life is individual hard work.
With that in mind I’d like you to meet Michael, a 27-year-old man with severe autism.
Michael cannot read, write or speak and, although he is capable of communicating with those who know him (at least on a basic level), he spends a great deal of his time frustrated at his inability to express himself.
Michael lives in a residential care centre in Ayrshire, 40 miles away from his family. He has a bedroom with an ensuite, and shares a kitchen and lounge with other service users who also live in the unit (it would be an insult to call it a home).
Though he used to enjoy a range of educational activities which improved his quality of life these have been discontinued due to funding problems rooted in your government’s austerity agenda.
Michael cannot read, write or speak and, although he is capable of communicating with those who know him (at least on a basic level), he spends a great deal of his time frustrated at his inability to express himself.
Sometimes, depending on a range of largely uncontrollable factors, this frustration manifests itself in violent outbursts during which Michael may injure himself or his staff.
In addition to his autism, Michael also suffers from a number of health problems including epilepsy – as a consequence he has little, if any, privacy.
To be clear, no amount of ‘support’ will ever change these simple facts.
Having read your speech on Tuesday I spent much of the evening trying to imagine the sort of job that Michael could do in order to deserve a life free from poverty and its associated consequences (such as an earlier death).
Reduced to a statistic, Michael is simply a problem; to you, it would be better if he didn’t exist at all.
Eventually, just when I was about to give up, it hit me – there is something that Michael could do, a role perfectly suited to both his abilities and his situation.
Michael, it turns out, would make an excellent scapegoat.
In this role Michael could help you to convince the people of Britain that their problems are caused by people who are disabled, low-paid, young or foreign, thus allowing your government to go about its business of protecting those who are actually to blame.
It’s perfect really, and wouldn’t even involve any expensive training or set-up costs – just a bit of casual demonisation from a failing minister looking to build a legacy on a pile of shattered lives.
The thing is, Iain, I get it: in a world – your world – where humans are separated into black and white, scroungers and strivers, Michael is the former. He is a burden on society, an unproductive unit, a red mark on the balance sheet.
Reduced to a statistic, Michael is simply a problem; to you, it would be better if he didn’t exist at all.
But he is not just a statistic, and he does exist.
Michael is my brother.
But he is not just a statistic, and he does exist. Michael is my brother.
So while you have spent the last 23 years ‘serving’ as an MP, enjoying an outrageous salary and taxpayer-funded breakfasts (at £39 a go), I’ve seen my brother’s physical and mental health decline.
While you have been living like a Lord in your father-in-law’s countryside mansion my brother has been trapped in a care setting which – despite the best efforts of his fantastic staff – fails to meet his needs.
While your government has ensured that the richest in society continue to get richer, Michael’s quality of life has steadily declined.
If there is a silver lining it is this: at least Michael does not understand that those running the country simply don’t care about him.
Of course, you will say that your reforms are not intended for people like Michael, that only those who can work but choose not to will be caught up in the maelstrom of shame, bureaucracy, contempt and incompetence which has defined the last five years for vulnerable people up and down this country.
In reality – as you must surely know – the decisions you have made in recent years have brought misery to people who benefitted the least from the pre-recession boom years and who bear no responsibility for the economic crash of 2008.
Disabled people have, for example, been worst affected by the bedroom tax, while the introduction of Universal Credit could end up costing families with disabled children £1,400 a year.
On top of this, research by Inclusion Scotland has shown that disabled people and their families are suffering “stress, fear and isolation” as a result of your welfare reforms.
None of this matters to you because disabled people like my brother are the easiest of targets and you are never likely to come face-to-face with the human cost of your political choices.
But, of course, none of this matters to you because disabled people like my brother are the easiest of targets and, in the splendid isolation of your privileged life, you are never likely to come face-to-face with the human cost of your political choices.
So, again, I’d like you to meet Michael. I’d like you to spend a whole day with him, to at least try to understand what life is like for someone in his situation and to see just how hollow the ‘all in it together’ rhetoric really is.
Finally, I’d like you to look me in the eye and tell me that it is not the role of the state to ensure that my brother has a life worth living.
A normal, compassionate human being would never be able to do it; I suspect that you just might.
Eloquently put, James; it may be, probably will be, ignored, but it is on record. What also massively worries me, is that Smith and the Tories still have so much support, not only from Tories but also so-called Labour supporters; also, if my memory serves me correctly, only 48 Labour MPs voted against the Welform Reform and Work Bill 2015, when it was voted on in July last year. Allowing for those 6 Labour MPs ‘not able to vote’, that effectively means 178 Labour MPs did not oppose the contents of the Bill and, effectively, are no better than Privileged Ian Duncan Smith and his privileged Tory colleagues. May Jeremy Corbyn succeed in his efforts to change this heartless attitude of his own MPs, then work on the heartless public who support these barbaric policies. Michael, although, you may never know it you, your brother and your family have our full support. Hope your footy team wins tomorrow!
So very sad that it has come to this, years were spent trying to change the perception and understanding of people with disabilities. A lot of hard work went into integrating people back into communities and society, treating them with the dignity and respect they deserved following the closure of institutions back in the 90’s. This government have no empathy or conscience and I fear their actions will destroy the very fabric of our society. My heart goes out to Michael and his family, we all have to stand up and be counted.
My son exactly the same as Michael he as up to 40 fits a day and is autistic he has had 2 brain operations to reduce his fits which hasn’t helped and this clown brought my son in for interview he 2 Carnt communicate so I took him along for interview and when they asked questions I said your speaking to my son not me he 32 now and couldn’t cooperate they didn’t know how to answer the lot of them need educating oh n just a minute who looked after Cameron’s disabled the son the tax payers not him creeps the lot of them
Thank you for your courage. The truth will set us free.
Dear James
I cannot disagree with your concerned compassionate comments in regard to your Brother Michael.
I salute you James & all those loving caring brothers who struggle for “Humanity” Keep up & at em James, they don’t like the reality to be known. Sadly they still believe in the creed of non society of humanity. Your life long task is not too prove your love for your brother. Something which they can never comprehend. You have been given this gift , keep on fighting.
I know what Michael must be going through – I have lock in syndrome and am in a hospital bed downstairs in my living room. Ian Smith wants to come to my house and try living with my condition for 24 hours. He is trying to stop Disability Living Allowance like he stopped the Inipendent Living Allowance and all those poor people who were on that are unable to claim DLA or PIPS as its now known. He needs to sort things out and think ahead for the future of all disabled people.
Well said and true, however , no matter how heartfelt please understand the ilk of IDS are totally immune to the concept of human compassion. They have zero comprehension of it. This form of sub human has been around for millenia, they are an evil infection within humanity that has genetically failed to develop the normal empthatic faculties that define humaness. Thus they are unable to undertake the framework that enables our species to be what it is, human ! One cannot execute the attitudes of rationale, unity, modulation etc, in order to have societal cohehesion with this dead end life form, to do so is exactly what they take advantage of and distort and defile to their evil advantage. As you point out the demise of you brother would solve this evil little mans problems to which is part of a much wider long game that was played before in 1939 to 1945 ! As they do to us,thus we must do to them ! ! there is no other way. Ray
I do hope your brother’s situation improves quickly. .Smith has a lot to answer for and his approach to those of us that are disabled is the act of a coward hiding behind his master whose bidding he does. .Please pass my regards to your brother. .i wish you and your brother well.
Very sad, but very good story
so sad makes you wonder why we lost so many going to war to stop the likes of this the saddest thing of all is that he is not interested and the letter will be filed along with other disabled people but the un might knock that smirk off his face, the lets be honest he his the pm’s fall guy see how fast they cut him lose when it hits the fan, often wonder what would have been if the pm did not suffer his loss or are we paying the price for that I am also a believer of what goes around comes around, best wishes for both yourself and brother t must be very hard
Thank you for writing this excellent, poignant response, so that others may learn about your brother and something of his situation. So many people are suffering and dying at the hands of Duncan Smith and his cronies. So many people have no voice as they are silenced by the Tories in their despair, a despair purposefully manufactured by care-less Conservatives.
I wish you and your brother well : like others I am joining forces to promote a Peoples’ politics, for dignity and compassion for all , not the privileged few.
Same old story from him calling people Scroungers & Low Lifes he needs to be sacked ASAP
A very sad tale. I’ve penned my own note to IDS and Cameron, but it doesn’t have the poignancy nor pure despair this portrays. I sincerely hope Michael’s situation improves!
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We must keep FIGHTING. Never give up there time will come