Letter To Iain Duncan Smith

Dear IDS,
I want to register how angry and dismayed I am that you want to close down the Remploy factories.

I cannot believe that as work and pensions minister, with unemployment over 2.5 million, you are voluntarily throwing over a thousand people out of work - especially this group of disabled people, who you know have little chance of getting another job.

How can you justify closing British factories and putting disabled people on benefits like this? The people who work for Remploy are proud of being able to contribute to our economy and our society, and you will be ruining lives if you go ahead with this move.

The workers want you to meet them at their factory in Barking near your constituency, and I wanted to join the call to pass their message on. You can arrange a time with the factory manager John Severn. His email address is john.severn@remploy.co.uk, or his phone number is 0208 507 5820.

Vulnerable people should not be part of your Tory ideology of shrinking the state. There are business models and business opportunities that could be adopted to make Remploy profitable. One has to ask why you are so insistent in shutting Remploy down.

Yours sincerely
Maelo Manning

To readers: This letter can be found at http://www.uniteforoursociety.org/page/speakout/remploy-speakout?js=false&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=20120529saveremployfb&source=20120529saveremployfb.
Please show your support as liberal democrats and sign it.

Postcards from the Land of the Disabled

The 1922 Committee is the REAL Bogeyman

I have been wondering who the Bogeyman is since I was little. All I knew is that he was a 'he' (BogeyMAN). As I grew up I started questioning who he was. Was he a single man, I mean was he operating on his own and not whether he was married, or did he have followers? Did they all travel the world scaring little children whose parents summoned them? Or was it one man who appeared simultaneously everywhere like God does? 

 

I think I have found the answer. It's the 1922 Conservative Backbench Committee and they reside in Westminster. If they are capable of scaring Tory MP's and the Prime Minister who, in turn, aren't scared of depriving the already deprived (Remploy, Children from poor homes whose parents are suffering further because of welfare cuts) then they must be the Bogeyman. This week the 1922 MP's fought between themselves. There was chaos in Bogeyman land because they couldn't decide whether they have the right to criticise the PM. It was that Nadine Dorries who started it all by calling the PM and George O 'posh boys'. Stewart Jackson, MP for Peterborough was told off (to put it midly)  for wanting the right to speak up against the PM. 

The 1922 Committee Executive has elections next week. Rumours are stalking the hallways of Westminster about the party leadership (I say Cameron and George O) putting forward MP's who will speak favourably about them. I used to imagine the Bogeyman lurking in the corridor outside my bedroom when I was little. The similarities are too much. I now know he does exist. We need Santa to fight him off. 

P/S. For those who are interested my mother also would scare me by telling me about the 'Curry Woman' who would force me to eat curries if I didn't go to bed on time etc. I hated curries till I was 10 years old. 

Interview with press TV

Where's Daddy Bernie?

 

Dear Tamara Ecclestone,

Your Daddy is in Bahrain helping prop up a devious regime. Have you watched the news today or did it clash with your fashion TV viewing? 

Maelo Manning

The Stark Reality of Remploy Closures

Jesus at Trafalgar Square

Easter is about the death and the resurrection of Jesus. These pictures were taken of the Passiontide on Good Friday at Trafalgar Square.

I made this sign for stations of the cross at my church.

£20 for the Tory Party

How much does our Lib Dem membership cost a  year? £20 and less for young people like me. DO you know how much the Tory party charges for membership? They do it on a sliding scale. It starts at £50,000 annual membership which will give a member direct access to Cameron at parties and lunches. The lowest charge is £50 a month (£600 a year) and it only gives a member the privillege of campaigning in marginal seats as a party patron.

Even if I wanted too, which I don't, I couldn't afford to be a Tory supporter. I then  thought about what i could offer the Tories. I have a shredder which I pestered my Mum to get me for Christmas. It hasn't come in much use apart from accidentaly shredding my Mum's bills. If I give the Tories £20 can i do their shredding for them? This would be the modern day equivalent of sending the child up the chimney.

The Remploy Ploy - part 3

On 7th of march 2012 Maria Miller MP, Disabilities Minister, said that money to support disabled people into employment should follow individuals not insitutions and that Remploy factories should be set free from Government control. She also said that Government funded segregated employment is not consistent with an objective of disability equality.

If segregated employment is not the way then why not close all of the  Remploy factories? Instead the Government is going to work with Remploy's Board to identify which of Remploy's businesses can become free from Government control. Why is the Government then picking winners which will still result in segregated employment? Talking about segretated employment, only 25% of Remploy's management were disabled. Remploy's management consisted of 75% of able-bodied and able-minded people. Where was the segregated employment then in this?

The Government have made an attack on disabilities. They have used very clever wording like 'segregated employment'. The Government has portrayed places like Remploy as being similar to Victorian workhouses. They make segregated employment look like a place where disabled people are imprisoned and are unable to intergrate into society. This is not true. I speak to people who work at Remploy and working there provides them with a livelihood and a safe place to go to. Normal workplaces cannot always provide the right help or service needed to enable disabled people to work. You help people who have special needs by catering to those special needs.

The Remploy Ploy - Part 2

I previously blogged in Part 1 about how manufacturing is on the Government's agenda but Remploy's work in manufacturing does not seem to have made an impact. This is a mystery to me.

A campaign called 'Make It In Great Britain'  which is assisted by the Government is 'aiming to transform the image of modern British manufacturing and to raise awareness of its importance for the economy'  and is scheduled to stage an exhibition during the Olympics and PARALYMPICS. Why is Remploy, where manufacturing is done by disabled people, being closed down then?

The Welsh government seems to recognise this point because the Education Minister, Leighton Andrews, wants to consider developing a social enterprise issue for Remploy. Seven Welsh Remploy factories are due to close and 272 disabled people will be laid off. Maria Miller, the UK Minister for disability, said that by closing down Remploy the government can help more of the thousands of disabled people in Wales who do not get support at the moment and who would benefit from doing so. What sort of logic is this? So Maria Miller wants to make a few employed disabled people unemployed so they can join the other unemployed disabled people who will have to live off reduced welfare benefits.

The 'Greater Good' argument does not apply to the rich does it? It only applies to those lower down. Redistribution is a poor man's game. The rich accumulate.