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Why I hate the Conservative Party with a fiery passion and why you should too
(CONTENT WARNING: Suicide, upsetting images of emaciated people)
(CONTENT WARNING: Suicide, upsetting images of emaciated people)
The Conservative's program of austerity since 2010 has led to 120,000 excess deaths as a result of health and social care cuts in the UK
https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/health-and-social-care-spending-cuts-linked-to-120000-excess-deaths-in-england/
https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/health-and-social-care-spending-cuts-linked-to-120000-excess-deaths-in-england/
They have also embarked on a program of severe welfare reforms that have been deadly for the poorest and most vulnerable in society. I'll do a quick explanation for non-UK people:
When the Tories and Lib Dems came to power, they set out making welfare harder to gain
When the Tories and Lib Dems came to power, they set out making welfare harder to gain
This included cuts to the amount people would receive and the introduction of "sanctions". To receive Employment Support Allowance, you would have to pass an intentionally designed impossible-to-pass test. If you couldn't pass that test, you'd have to go on Jobseeker's Allowance
If you couldn't pass the test, you'd be declared 'fit for work' and would not be eligible for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) meaning you would have to go onto JSA.
Jobseeker's Allowance required you to apply for a certain amount of jobs each week to continue receiving it. The rate over-25s would receive on Jobseeker's was £74.35 a week ($82.54) to survive on. You'd have to go to a job centre each week and prove you applied for jobs.
If you missed an appointment at the Job Centre, you would be sanctioned and your JSA would be taken away from you.
The Tories created a welfare trap. What it led to was things like this:
The Tories created a welfare trap. What it led to was things like this:
Mark and Helen Mullins lived in one room of their house to save on heating and cooked everything on a camping hob. They walked miles to the local soup kitchen to get vegetables that they kept in the garden bc they couldn't afford a fridge. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059238/Army-veteran-Mark-Mullins-wife-Helen-driven-suicide-poverty.html
David Clapson missed two appointments at the Job Centre so his benefits were cut off. He was diabetic, which meant when he was sanctioned he couldn't afford to keep his fridge on for his insulin.
He was found with an empty stomach & £3.44 in his account. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/benefits-sanction-resulted-in-my-brother-david-clapson-s-death-says-gill-thompson-as-she-pleads-for-a6911386.html
He was found with an empty stomach & £3.44 in his account. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/benefits-sanction-resulted-in-my-brother-david-clapson-s-death-says-gill-thompson-as-she-pleads-for-a6911386.html
Neil Groves was facing changes to his Employment Support Allowance that would likely see him forced back onto Jobseeker's Allowance. Neil committed suicide on his birthday at Surbiton railway station. https://www.surreycomet.co.uk/news/11025948.father-of-man-killed-by-train-at-surbiton-station-said-benefits-changes-weighed-on-his-mind/
Brian McArdle was paralyzed down one side of his body, blind in one eye and was unable to speak or dress himself properly. He died of a heart attack when he was told he was deemed 'fit to work' and had to apply for Jobseeker's Allowance. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/atos-killed-my-dad-says-boy-1411100
Mark Wood died of malnourishment a few months after he failed his fitness for work assessment and had his housing benefit and ESA cut, leaving him to survive on £40 a week (£5.70 a day) disability benefit.
He weighed 78lbs when he died. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/28/man-starved-to-death-after-benefits-cut
He weighed 78lbs when he died. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/28/man-starved-to-death-after-benefits-cut
Brian McArdle suffered serious chronic back issues, a heart condition and diabetes. He was diagnosed with cancer when he would be told he was fit for work. He appealed the decision but died before he could win. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cancer-killed-husband-atos-took-2467964
Linda Wooton suffered regular blackouts and complications with a double heart and lung transplant she'd received 30 years earlier, and was on 10 prescription medications. She was laying on her death bed when the news arrived she was declared fit to work. https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/05/28/linda-wootton-dies-after-being-judged-fit-for-work_n_3346582.html
Stephanie Bottril was told she would be subject to the bedroom tax (a tax on empty bedrooms within council properties) in the house she raised her children in but had then moved out. She took her own life by walking in front of a lorry on the M6. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/12/stephanie-bottrill-worried-bedroom-tax-committed-suicide-coroner
Annette Francis was wrongly denied her benefits for six months after she was caught in a bureaucratic backlog. She suffered from depression and a personality disorder when she was forced onto the bread line. She took her own life in an overdose. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/woman-overdosed-cry-help-after-4016880
Stephen Smith died in hospital, aged 64, was deemed fit for work despite having a number of physical ailments, including requiring a colostomy bag and had no muscles in his legs so struggled standing. He weighed just 70lbs when he died in hospital. https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/22/starving-man-deemed-fit-work-just-6st-dies-9283149/
The Department for Work and Pensions told a man who was partially paralyzed, suffered severe memory problems and was awaiting a metal plate in the side of his skull to protect his brain was told he was fit to work and had his benefits slashed. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/partially-paralysed-man-part-head-7955792
A severely disabled young woman who would never be independent and would always require a carer was demanded to prove that she was unable to work. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/disabled-girl-mental-age-four-6630369#ICID=sharebar_twitter
Paul Mickleburgh had four failed transplants and 14 heart attacks when he was told he was fit to work by the Department of Work and Pensions https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13059901.father-who-suffered-14-heart-attacks-fit-for-work/
Robert Barlow suffered a major heart defect and a brain tumour, yet was deemed fit to work despite doctors insisting he needed a heart transplant. He died under 2 years after he was declared fit to work. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/dying-merseyside-man-told-benefits-6924979
Nicholas Barker, a farmer, was paralyzed down the left side of his body after a brain haemmorhage a decade earlier. He was due to attend an appeal hearing against the decision to cut his benefits. He shot himself with his shotgun a week before his hearing https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/20/benefits_disabled-man-nicholas-barker-welfare-reform_n_3121688.html
Mark William Jacka was a dad-to-be when he took his own life following his stress at filling out application forms for Jobseeker's Allowance and had to borrow money off of his girlfriend. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mark-william-jacka-jobless-dad-to-be-5528536
These are just a few examples. You can find a much more extensive catalogue here: https://mzolobajluk.wordpress.com/2015/09/14/the-increasing-death-toll-due-to-the-loss-of-benefits/
The architect of this misery was @MPIainDS - and what was he doing whilst he was driving so many to early graves? https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/13/taxpayers-spending-mps-portraits
This is just the *welfare* aspect of the Tories. The Home Office under @theresa_may and @AmberRuddUK also absolutely ruined lives with the Windrush Scandal.
The Windrush Generation was several thousand Caribbean, African, Indian and Pakistani people who came to Britain...
The Windrush Generation was several thousand Caribbean, African, Indian and Pakistani people who came to Britain...
...after World War II under the British Nationality Act 1948 that allowed anyone living in the British Empire to move and live anywhere else freely. The people on Windrush came to Britain completely legally and were encouraged to do so.
The Home Office then decided that it would like to try deporting people who had come to the UK completely legally and implementing a hostile environment for POC in the UK who had come as part of the Windrush generation. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/16/windrush-era-citizens-row-timeline-of-key-events
Many of these people lost their jobs and their homes, let alone the immense stress the threat of deportation to a country many of them hadn't been to since they were toddlers threatened.
The @Conservatives wanted to deport POC - it's as simple as that.
The @Conservatives wanted to deport POC - it's as simple as that.
And let us not forget as well that the Tories are accomplices to war crimes being committed in Yemen https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/saudi-arabia-admits-use-uk-made-cluster-bombs-yemen
And don't forget when the Tories tried to reinstated slavery through workfare - working for private companies for benefits instead of a wage paid by the company. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefits-department-for-work-and-pensions-mandatory-work-activity-government-major-companies-free-a7163646.html
And we haven't even touched how under the Tories, 1/3 of children are in poverty and hundreds of thousands of people using food banks just to survive and child homelessness has reached 135,000 children with over 22,000 rough sleeping in Britain.
https://www.channel4.com/news/breadline-britain-2
https://www.channel4.com/news/breadline-britain-2
And it was only recently that Boris Johnson was planning on starving children over the summer by scrapping free school meal vouchers and it was only because of the intervention of the great @MarcusRashford that the Tories didn't fucking starve children https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53065806
They have done all of this - ALL OF THIS - whilst slashing corporation tax, letting companies get away with avoiding billions in tax, slashing tax on top earners and gouging the poorest through welfare cuts and disgusting taxes like the fucking bedroom tax
If you want to see in a very heartbreaking and cinematic way how the Tories have turned the welfare system into a trap, watch the film 'I, Daniel Blake' by Ken Loach (who was a big Corbyn supporter)
And I can't stress enough - watch this documentary. It's deeply upsetting but absolutely necessary to see:
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/on-demand/68553-001
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/on-demand/68553-001
