I don’t know how you guys are doing, but life under our present government is an anxiety-inducing experience of hell for me.
A weird, subversive world where right is wrong and wrong is worse, way worse than you could ever imagine.
And a world where MS is magically reversible because a former A&E nurse says so, after ‘observing’ you for half an hour.
MS. The illness they can’t even find a test for, far less a cure.
Cast your mind back to the last General Election – all those earnest politicians vying for your vote; the couple, the couple with 2.5 kids, the retired couple, the middle-aged couple. Where were you?
Did you once hear our leaders address the 1 in 5 of us who are disabled? I’m a media junkie and I didn’t hear a thing.
I heard about tax relief (I don’t earn enough), inheritance tax (I don’t have enough), and tax in general (I live at sub-poverty level). I heard about ‘hard-working’ families. About ‘hard-done-by-pensioners’. Disabled people? Nope.
In fact, I was so annoyed, I responded to a BBC Wales tweet and ended up being interviewed, my absolute pet-hate, but the point had to be made. Not that it made much difference.
Our government was simply not listening to people with disabilities, Let’s be honest, few of us will get through life without some form of ‘disability’, so why be so shy about it?
Truth be told, we are simply not media-worthy, and the whole transition taking place from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payments is just another modern tragedy taking place in every single street up and down the country, but is under-reported on a terrible scale.
Want to know a secret?
Should you live long enough (and many, many illnesses are non-age-specific), you too will be disabled! Yep.
I am absolutely fed up with being ignored by politicians unless we are a good excuse for a photo-op. Some of us are in wheelchairs, some of us are not. Weirdly – we are all different.
Is it fair we have to fight just to get a taxi? Just to keep our job?
In my view, there has to be a backlash soon.
And it cannot come soon enough.
Bloody brilliant, I agree with every single word. I cannot believe what is going on, it exhausts me just thinking about how everyone is so ignorant about what can happen in life. It feels like we are being driven underground, shut away. If they cant see us, they are not reminded of what can go wrong.
Everyday, people find themselves waiting outside a Consultants room and they are about to get devastating life changing news. Whether society likes it or not, that is reality. We represent what happens post that appointment, dont like it? Well, try living it knowing your country doesnt care one single bit. There isnt a political party out there that cares.
Who is going to fight for us so we can stop fighting for what little we have left. Our battles are already greater than most people can imagine, which makes what is happening so much more sickening.
Sam x
Fantastic comment, Sam, thank you.
I absolutely love your last paragraph – sums everything up and I feel the same way. I just want to have a little rest and not fight for a time. PIP has been going on for me since October and I’m nowhere near finished with it yet. It seems to take over everything at the moment.
X