What is the point your Intellectual Eminence? Are you suggesting that the disabled were treated fairly and in accordance with the law under Labour? I can assure you that was not the case, at least for children, during that era.

Can't speak for children but as a disabled adult I was treated fairly under Labour. I got just enough IB & IS to keep me afloat and keep my mortgate payments up until I was able to return to work which I did. I then got progressivly worse and again in 2004 when I had no choice but to either spend 5 days a week in hospital or give up my job I was treated fairly. I had enough medical evidence to get DLA and IB. Now under the Tories I have been given one year to get better - to say they have no idea is an understatement! As from September I have to join the job centre queues (in my wheelchair because I can't stand for long periods) but actually I can't because I can't legally say I can work 40 hours a week.



If you believe we are being treated the same under the Tories as Labour then you are very much mistaken, or very naive.

Such was the blatancy of local authority's (and still is) a charity even produced tea-towels:

Do you both think I sit here I make things up for the sake of it??? Of course whats happening is this governments fault, they are the ones who made the rules on the Welfare Reform Bill, not Labour. All I ask for is to be treated fairly, just like I have been since 1998 when I was diagnosed. I'm not lying, I'm not exaggerating, I try and link articles when and where possible because there are many, many people who think like you two, either have no idea what is happening, can't believe what is happening or don't really care about what is happening because it doesn't affect them.



Everyone is just a hearbeat away from becoming sick and disabled and you are the sort of people who would be the first ones raising the roof if this was happening to you, as I know you are capable of Dally with hospitals you have encounted.



Yes, this is really happening to the sick and disabled. Men in comas are being found fit for work, disabled people from birth are given one year to "get better" then having to join the dole queue and disabled people are being told to get a proper job (a la IDS referring to Remploy workers) and all in the name of saving money from this callous, nasty government.



The sooner this shower "do a u-turn" right out of Number 10 the better.

Of course not. But all governments are poor in this country in this regard.



One think I've noticed in my lifetime is that in times of high unemployment claimants are branded scroungers and there are moves to cut benefits whereas in times of 'full' employment the real scroungers are given good benefits. It ironic. (NB I am not talking of the sick / disabled here).

Its only the press that call benefit claimants scroungers. They whip the public up into such a frenzy. I have been claiming benefits for my illness for many years - DLA is not an out of work benefit, and I never heard a murmour about being a scrounger or "shop a cheat" campaigns nor do I recall Labour ministers telling twitter/facebook users if they have a disabled friend who used social networking to shop them as they can work like Tory [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/01/twitter-benefit-cheat-nadine-dorriesNadine Dorries[/url disgustingly did.

And the latest from Porky Pickles?



[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ios-exclusive-problem-families-told--stop-blaming-others-7834235.htmlProblem families told "stop blaming others"[/url



I wonder if he can make a start on some of the problem families closer to his heart, who continue to blame others for their situation? The Osbornes and Camorons spring readily to mind.

They couldn't possibly do that. The entire strategy of this government (that everything that goes wrong is someone else's fault) would be in tatters.

From that report ...







The first three of those criteria plus the last one are usually a direct cause of the other three so in that respect he has got that bit right.



How on earth he is going to "tackle the issue" in an era of high unemployment is beyond me, I'm glad its not me who has to solve the conundrum but the long term unemployed, the mentally ill and the long term disabled are going to be right at the back of the queue in the job centres even when companies start recruiting again, tough words or not.



He freely admits that when he was the leader of Bradford Council he had 1760 "problem families" in the city and presumably there are still 1760 "problem familes" in the city because he didn't have a solution then and frankly he isn't offering one now - what he is doing is waving a flag and beating his 4XL chest for the benefit of "Outraged of Buckinghamshire".

Think Pickles must have picked up Giedeons spin sheet today. Its all the Eurozones fault the state of Britains economy. Makes a refreshing change to hear something other than "the last labour governments fault".

Now Theresa May says that unless you're [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/08/immigration-rules-couples-stark-choiceearning more than £25,700 gross, you're too poor to bring your spouse into the country.[/url



So given this government's joined-up thinking, when can we expect Ian Duncan Smith to announce an increase in the minimum wage to £13.38 to reflect May's definition of poor?

That'll be a bit of a blow to the cleaner who cleans around her desk every morning on £7.85 an hour, whether or not that cleaner has a spouse outside or inside the country, makes you wonder how these London Living Wage employees survive really doesn't it ?