It's Labour's Move...

I totally agree that Cameron's government has a terrible record on pretty much every aspect of life. None more so than his record on disability issues. It is safe to say he has made life hell for a substantial portion of disabled people in the UK; and for those he hasn't managed to attack, he's coming for them if he regains power.

Now we, disabled people know this; our comrades who support us in our struggle also know this; even organisations such as Disability Rights UK, who sold their soul to this junta for a few measly grants, know this.

This being so, why hasn't Labour grasped the fact that sticking to Tory policies around disability issues is not a clever tactic? There are millions of disabled voters who on polling day most certainly will not vote Tory; as for the LibDems, the less said the better.

Many of this group are 'natural' Labour voters. However, Labour is not being seen as the party that will support disabled people. This is a massive error on the part of Labour. It would not take a seismic shift in policy for Labour to attract a lot of the disabled vote. A few changes in policy would suffice. For instance:

·       scrapping the Work Capability Assessment in favour of a fair and transparent test

·       ending the necessity to re-assess all DLA recipients on indefinite awards

·       making the PIP tests fairer

·       lifting the closure of ILF

·       making Access to Work easier to access and opening it out to more disabled people

Obviously those policy changes alone wouldn’t compel every disabled voter to place an ‘X’ in the Labour box. However, it would secure masses of votes that will instead go to the Greens, the SNP, or sadly not cast.

Come on Labour. It’s not too late to move to the Left.