Manifestly a mess....
Apr. 15th, 2015 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidgillon Tweeting last night about fact the Greens released their manifesto with accessible versions, had one of their candidates replying telling me he was on the manifesto working group, and disability had been a priority, but they had chosen to launch without the accessible versions. I advised him to stop digging, the hole was deep enough already. Meanwhile I'm damned if I know whether the Tory or Labour manifestos have accessible versions because their websites are as clear as mud. Labour's is particularly a mess and clearly wasn't subject to an access audit. They have lots of options to 'create your own manifesto', likely in an attempt to profile you at the constituency level - it insists on full postcode, and the option to download the full manifesto is tucked away at the bottom as the very last of about thirty options. I barely found it, God help anyone trying to get through with a screen reader. (I don't think UKIP or the Lib Dems have launched yet).
Highlights so far, the Tories are now officially fat shaming in their manifesto, they threaten to cut the benefits of anyone disabled and obese if they 'refuse recommended treatment', with the clear implication that anyone who does is a lazy scrounger. The idea of compelled treatment is bad enough, but obesity in disability is generally the result of disability, not vice versa, which means the Tories are deliberately instigating disability hate as a manifesto policy. Meanwhile they want to repeal the Human Rights Act, which is of course how we defend ourselves against things like compelled treatment. Labour, meanwhile, is proposing a massive overhaul of Social Care, but carefully doesn't mention the fact the Independent Living Fund is being shut down in two months, that the funding for that won't be ring-fenced when it transfers to Local Authorities, and that there is no transition plan to cover ILF users between then and the start of the new system in however many years time. Meanwhile they're hellbent on keeping the WCA, never mind what we think of it.
Oh, and yesterday the Tory candidate in Cambridge tried to argue people with mental health issues should wear coloured wristbands to identify them to police etc. Another political party tried that once, but re-implementing Nazi policies isn't usually considered an electoral positive.
Highlights so far, the Tories are now officially fat shaming in their manifesto, they threaten to cut the benefits of anyone disabled and obese if they 'refuse recommended treatment', with the clear implication that anyone who does is a lazy scrounger. The idea of compelled treatment is bad enough, but obesity in disability is generally the result of disability, not vice versa, which means the Tories are deliberately instigating disability hate as a manifesto policy. Meanwhile they want to repeal the Human Rights Act, which is of course how we defend ourselves against things like compelled treatment. Labour, meanwhile, is proposing a massive overhaul of Social Care, but carefully doesn't mention the fact the Independent Living Fund is being shut down in two months, that the funding for that won't be ring-fenced when it transfers to Local Authorities, and that there is no transition plan to cover ILF users between then and the start of the new system in however many years time. Meanwhile they're hellbent on keeping the WCA, never mind what we think of it.
Oh, and yesterday the Tory candidate in Cambridge tried to argue people with mental health issues should wear coloured wristbands to identify them to police etc. Another political party tried that once, but re-implementing Nazi policies isn't usually considered an electoral positive.
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Date: 2015-04-15 01:31 pm (UTC)(Just realised I didn't look at what it says on disability, must check).
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Date: 2015-04-15 02:00 pm (UTC)Well, the chances of anybody sticking to their manifesto seem pretty slim. But I think it's worth pointing out that their manifesto was for a Lib Dem government, not one where they were very much junior to the Tories. Even then, the Lib Dems seem to have delivered more of their namifesto than was expected for the amount of power they have, and at least as importantly, blocked the Tories from doing some of the more egregiously heartless things they'd like to.
Just the fact that the 2015 Tory manifesto seems to be so similar to the 2010 one is heartening as it seems to illustrate how little of what they wanted then they've done in the last five years. I don't think any party can be trusted to stick to what they say in their manifesto, after the election.
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Date: 2015-04-15 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-15 02:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-15 03:46 pm (UTC)Actually it's bloody Baroness Floella Benjamin voting for stuff even ex-Thatcherite ministers couldn't stomach that really gets my goat!
And I'm against Lords reform as it's the only way we get the disabled cross-bench peers like Tanni Grey-Thompson and Jane Campbell who are our only voices in either house.