Idris Elba Nails Diversity

This is one of the best speeches on diversity I've ever seen, though specifically aimed at diversity in the creative arts, and he delivered it to Parliament

I'm not here to talk about black people;

 

I’m here to talk about diversity.

And he keeps up that refrain throught the speech, that diversity is about everyone having an equal chance, and that it is far wider an issue than simply race.

Not bad for a tyre fitter from Dagenham ;)

(For non-Brits, the 'Oona' in the speech is presumably Baroness Oona King, the second ever black woman MP - until she was unseated by that unspeakably self-serving arsehole George Galloway in one of the most calculatedly racist campaigns on record)

Disability Consultations Closing Imminently

Commons Public Affairs Committee on experience of ESA and PIP assessments with Atos, Capita and Maximus. Closes Thursday
 
Possibly of interest to kaberett given last week's incident with Atos. I'm intending to write about my own Kafkaesque experience with Atos, and the results that followed from that, such as panic attacks to the point of being unable to face another assessment and now having severe anxiety issues.

DWP Consultation into PIP and use of Disability Aids. Closes Friday

This one is really disturbing, The language used is clearly calculated to portray use of disability aids as insignificant and undertaken solely in order to qualify for benefits. It's so bad there's a strong case for lodging a complaint about the consultation atPIP.consultationfeedback@DWP.GSI.GOV.UK and at least one complaint has already been lodged with the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. My really worrry here is that they're doing it to establish a precedent that smaller disability aids disqualify you from benefits that will then be extended to exclude wheelchairs and other mobility aids from counting. (This isn't simply paranoia, this is the government department that introduced the 'imaginary wheelchair' into ESA assessments, allowing the assessor to make judgements on the basis of 'You don't have a wheelchair, but if you did I don't think mobility would be an issue')

Apologies for the short notice, but they both seem to have been deliberately hidden over the  New Year break in the hope people would either not see them, or see them and forget about them. (I missed one and forgot about the other - fortunately other people remembered).

ETA: Removed stray second reference to Kab, no idea how that got there!