Disabled people and carers across the country are trying, in vain, to contact MPs about the proposed disability cuts.
Disabled people have been telling us that, at best, most Labour MPs deliver a copy and pasted standard letter with no engagement on any points raised. No matter where you are in the country, it’s always the same letter, or the same script. A ‘four-line whip’ direct from Labour party HQ?
In my constituency of Gower (Swansea), we haven’t even had the boilerplate from Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi. Torsten Bell, for Swansea West, at least had the decency to make a fool of himself on Newsnight. In Gower, we get no response at all.
At our Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) protest in Swansea, disabled people were approaching us with complicated technical questions about their benefits. We are not equipped to be their caseworkers. Our MPs claim a hefty sum from the taxpayer in order to employ the staff who are supposed to help with these issues. Always, the same reply – we’ve asked our MP, they’ve ignored us, so we’re asking DPAC.
We have very little faith in a so-called “consultation process” that starts by setting out a table of all the areas it is not consulting on. There is only one public consultation being held for the whole of Wales, meaning those few who can even register for a ticket will have to travel to Cardiff.
The fact that a so-called Labour government could act this way should spark an urgent debate about political representation. I would suggest that means a new workers’ party, backed by the trade unions, involving disabled people at the heart of everything it does.
We challenge our MPs to publicly debate us. If they refuse, we will soon hold the debate, in public, without them.
Have no doubt about this. Disabled people and carers have had enough of being ignored. The consultation runs for 12 weeks. Just two days after meeting for the first time, DPAC Swansea organised a protest of a hundred people, opened the microphone to the crowd, and made national news. If we did that in two days, what will we achieve in 84?
Ben, Swansea Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC)
