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Thursday, 6 October 2016

What is mentioned directly in a government 'consultation' and what is not specified?


I blogged yesterday about a Ministry of Justice 'consultation' toward scrapping disability benefits tribunals as we know them,
and then attempted to reply to the online 'consultation' myself and found that it is about much more than was reported at
as well as being more insidious.

Eg, on the responses page regarding benefit tribunals, there was not a word of Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) or Personal Independence Payments (PIP) that I could see,
https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals/consultation/subpage.2016-09-12.7465746187/
and other sections of the responses pages also deal with stuff about magistrates courts and more.

Helping direct and inform people's responses to 'consultations'


With my dyspraxia and very slow reading and information processing speed, I panicked in my responding and found much of it bewildering, especially as the 'consultation' was packaged into sub-consultations and they seemed to be deliberately not mentioning relevance to ESA and PIP in the sub-section on tribunals.

With hindsight however, I become researcher with questions generated by 'consultation' recommendations.

In the earlier sub-consultations about magistrates courts, there is talk of 'digitising services'. Obvious questions there regard who stands to gain from such a transformation. Apart from Atos, it seems there are several other 'players' pulling the strings. A simple keyword search of think tank 'ReformUK' website
proves very revealing. (Go to http://www.reform.uk/?s=magistrates)


What is really behind the drive to reduce the role of judges and face-to-face tribunals?


Yet it's vital to consider what has prompted the Ministry of Justice to want to consult about 'reducing the role of magistrates'. Here, I reckon, is a vital clue — based on what I heard some months or even a year ago from a magistrate:
leads to

Decline in the staffing of the judiciary leads to greater backlogs. It's as simple as that.

And of course, while fees increased dramatically when Michael Gove was Justice Minister, so would increased poverty lead to the cause of fare dodging and other 'offences' for which there are financial penalties to compound pre-existing poverty.

On the matter of benefit tribunals, altering the process of disability benefit tribunals is inferred but not mentioned at
Why would the Ministry of Justice not mention ESA and PIP tribunals? Perhaps the answer can be found at
http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3553-virtual-abolition-of-pip-dla-and-esa-appeal-tribunals-as-we-know-them ?
 ;-)


Winding up this blog post for today

With my extremely slow 'information processing speed', it is very easy for me to get timed out of things and not complete exam papers and assessment stuff on time.

Yesterday, shortage of blood sugar as I laboured beyond lunch time to attempt to complete that 'consultation' while in a dyspraxic panicked state while there was the option of continuing my responses further on-line as advertised.
So I shall close this blog post here and invite comments and further contributions from my contacts. I need my lunch.


Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

Deadline 21.10.2016 for Ministry of Justice 'consultation' on scrapping of disability benefit tribunals

Sorry for earlier typo on this deadline. The actual deadline is Thursday 27 October.

Deadline 27.10.2016 for Ministry of Justice 'consultation' on scrapping of disability benefit tribunals

Q: When is a 'public consultation' not a public consultation?

A: When the consulting organisation does not notify those most affected by the proposed changes that the 'consultation' is happening — while parasitic companies that profit from the proposed changes have paid up departments to respond to and drive government policy.

Benefits and Work Publishing report: 
Virtual abolition of PIP, DLA and ESA appeal tribunals as we know them (1)
The government is poised to bring an end to the shaming success rates at benefits appeals, but they will do so by nobbling the appeals system rather than by improving decision making.
In the future many more appeals will be “on the papers” where success rates are drastically lower, hearings that do take place will be on the phone or via Skype type links and most appeals will be decided by a solicitor (often retired) sitting alone, without a medical wing member or a disability wing member....
ConsultationThe whole plan is open to consultation until 27 October 2016. However, judging by other recent consultations, the outcome – regardless of the evidence submitted – is a foregone conclusion.
You can read more about the plans and give your views on the Justice website. (2)

Officious authority demands that claimants notify them of any changes to the claimants' circumstances. So why don’t the Government write benefit claimants directly to notify us of such proposed changes?

I am reminded of the time that I was at a ‘Manpower Services Commission’-run ‘Employment Rehabilitation Centre’ in 1978. We were told that the ‘vocational assessment’ reports made about us there were “too confidential” for us to ever have home access to them outside the presence of a ‘Disablement Resettlement Officer’ or their Assistant. Further, the medical reports made on us there were deemed, “Too confidential for you to ever have access to,” for fear that our knowledge of what was in could be detrimental to our health.
By contrast, I believe that sick and disabled people knowing of this ‘consultation’ and getting support in responding to it can result in better outcomes for us than our being kept entirely in the dark about it.
The deadline is 27 October, further info at Ministry of Justice website and give them your views here.(3)

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Link addresses

  1. http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/3553-virtual-abolition-of-pip-dla-and-esa-appeal-tribunals-as-we-know-them
  2. https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals
  3. https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals/consultation

Saturday, 1 October 2016

Deadline 21 October for responses to Important UN inquiry into care and support provision


Important UN inquiry into care and support provision – respond by October21st

<http://dpac.uk.net/2016/09/important-un-inquiry-into-care-and-support-provision-respond-by-october-21st/>

Posted: 27 Sep 2016 12:13 PM PDT
Please submit evidence to this enquiry by October 21st  if you use care and
support or Personal Assistants or are a parent of someone who uses these
services. It is important that individuals let the rapporteur know what has
happened since the closure of the ILF both to new applicants in 2010 and to
all… 

Continue Reading Important UN inquiry into care and support provision
– respond by October 21st
<http://dpac.uk.net/2016/09/important-un-inquiry-into-care-and-support-provision-respond-by-october-21st/>

Wednesday, 21 September 2016

Brent Kilburn Connects to discuss air pollution, proposed parliamentary constituency changes & benefit cap, Wed 21 Sept at 7pm

7pm @ London Interfaith Centre, 125 Salusbury Road, NW6 6RG Location map
(Modern Building with glass frontage and dome on top between Queens Park and Brondesbury Park stations). 206 bus plus walk down from Brondesbury Park Station.

Further details, including agenda, available at http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/brent-kilburn-connects-to-discuss-air.html

Women Against State Pension Inequality sing 'When I'm sixty and poor'

From Colin Hampton of Chesterfield Unite Community

Clip of Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women singing in Chesterfield New Square.  Thanks to Wendy Bell, David Eccles and yours truly from Chesterfield Unite Community  for the words.



When I get older, dyeing my hair
Not so long from now.
Will you still be bailing out your banking chums
Whilst we’re being treated like bums.
Making my plans when I’m a retiree
Then you slammed the door.
Will you still bleed me, corrupt and greedy
When I’m 60 n poor.

You’re gold plated too!
But now you have broken your word
We won’t vote for you.

The Tory Grandees thought it a ruse
Pension Rights are gone
Nineteen fifties women won’t be took for a ride
We’re not for turning, no place to hide.
Screwing the public, know where it leads
Damned for evermore.
Will you still bleed me, corrupt and greedy
When I’m 60 n poor.

Every woman she can send a message to the Tory right
And make it clear
We did scrimp and save.
Politicians not for me
Teresa, George and Dave.

Send me a forecast, drop me a line
Time to change your mind.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
WASPI women, this is your day.
Give me your answer, time for reform
Or be damned for evermore.
Will you still bleed me, corrupt and greedy
When I’m 60 n poor.

Monday, 19 September 2016

Patriotism and disabled people's inclusion

The blog post below was conceived originally as a comment on Craig Murray's blog post The Sad End of British Liberalism.(1) The youtube video was included as part of Craig Murray's blog post. I have edited it slightly.




Thanks for this, especially the Tom Paine-rich video.(1) The references to patriotism on the video remind me of Orwell’s observation that ‘patriotism’ differed from ‘nationalism’, and apparently dictionary founder Johnson described ‘patriotism’ as the last resort of scoundrels.
The Paine observation that patriots have a duty to protect their country from its government emphasises for me the importance of citizens engaging in ‘public consultations’. I was a contributor to the Green Party of England & Wales response to Labour’s 2008 welfare reform green paper. Especially as a veteran of decades of ‘benefit claimant’ status while a disabled jobseeker, I reckoned that my ‘expert witness’ status by default required me to help point out the dangers of misjudging and being nasty to vulnerable people. 

Sadly, UK mass media wanted to pigeon-hole the Green Party as purely about protecting the geographical environment; thus mass media sat on a report that would have given greater enlightenment than was available from Blairites and Thatcherites, etc.(2) ‘Writing off Workfare: for a Green New Deal, not the flexible New Deal’ is still available online however. An outline press statement of that report can also be found at “Workfare is not the answer”. (3)

Sadly these days, many vulnerable citizens fear that they will be victimised if they stand out for their lives and social justice by demonstrating. I have heard that the DWP launched an investigation of ‘benefit fraud’ against someone they predicted would not be disabled enough to qualify for the disability benefits he was claiming; they said his Facebook output was too plentiful for such a disabled person.

What would be necessary to make ANY form of alternative government unelectable in England?

A current public consultation that people need to use to help protect England from its government is that of constituency boundary changes. Parliamentary Boundary Changes could lead to a Permanent Tory Government in the UK.(4)
Meanwhile, some Labour Party grandees such as now Lord Kinnock proclaim Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership a disaster for the Labour Party. BBC website reports: 
Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock tells BBC Panorama he is doubtful there will be another Labour government in his lifetime if Jeremy Corbyn remains at the helm..(5)
Might not such proclamations be described as ‘prediction terrorism’? If such ‘party patriots’ really cared for democracy and their party, should they not devote more energy to getting the public to protect England from the ravages of a dysfunctional ‘boundaries commission’? 

Were Labour to become ‘unelectable’, I believe that such pontificatingly out-of-touch Labour ‘grandees’ are largely responsible for pissing off the economically vulnerable and for pointing scapegoating fingers at Corbyn rather than at the prospect of patriots telling England's boundary commissioners what to do and where to go to make elections truly fair.

And regarding disabled people's inclusion, I believe that when disabled people include themselves/ourselves in democratic processes our power to 'speak out' comes not from fraudulent benefit claiming as the DWP would have it, but from Pete Seeger's interpretation of what anthropologist Robert Ardrey wrote of as the Territorial Imperative. In Seeger's song Uncle Ho citing North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh as an exemplar of Ardrey's 'territorial imperative', Seeger wrote and sang:
He educated all the peopleHe demonstrated to the worldIf a man [sic] will stand for his own landHe's got the strength of ten...(6)

Dude Swheatie of Kwug, writing in an individual capacity

Related link addresses

  1. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/09/sad-end-british-liberalism/#tc-comment-title
  2. https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/reports/GPEW_writing_off_workfare_final.doc
  3. https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/workfare-is-not-the-answer.html
  4. http://londongreenleft.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/parliamentary-boundary-changes-could.html
  5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37401188
  6. http://www.songlyrics.com/pete-seeger/uncle-ho-lyrics/


Sunday, 18 September 2016

People's Assembly Against Austerity presents I, Daniel Blake: Special advance screening for supporters

The People's Assembly is pleased to announce an exciting addition to our programme of events as part of our weekend protesting the Tory Party Conference on 1 & 2 October in Birmingham. We will be hosting a special advance screening of Ken Loach's latest award winning film, 'I, Daniel Blake.' The Screening is exclusively available to attendees of The People's Conference on Saturday 1 October.

The weekend of action includes:

The People's Conference - Our Alternative to Austerity
Saturday 1 October, 10:30am, Birmingham Town Hall, B3 3DQ

Special Advance Screening, 'I, Daniel Blake' (with introduction from Ken Loach)
Saturday 1 October, 7:00pm, Cineworld Broad Street, Birmingham, B15 1DA
NOTE: Spaces for the screening are limited, please book early. This screening is available exclusively to attendees of the People's Conference

Book tickets from http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/peoplesconference



Special thanks to Ken Loach and his team for the opportunity to show this important film in advance of its official release.

Check out the Guardian review of the film at 
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/12/i-daniel-blake-ken-loachs-welfare-state-polemic-is-blunt-dignified-and-brutally-moving