It's a difficult issue, and least-worse is about the best face we can put on it.
I don't want to vote Labour, too much pandering to the Daily Mail vote and I just don't trust them, or Ed himself, on disability issues - they are, after all, the party who voluntarily got into bed with Unum and Atos to create the WCA (knowing exactly what was being said about Unum in the States), and they have pledged to keep it, if (allegedly) somewhat reformed.
Yet the current government has been a nightmare of ever-harsher attitudes towards disabled people, and people are dying regularly because of it - a friend has just suggested we need a Disability Day of Remembrance to focus attention on all those who have died because it is more convenient for society to look the other way. The Tories pledged to protect the most vulnerable, at the same time as explicitly targeting us for the worst of the cuts - one think-tank estimate says on average the most severely disabled people have faced cuts 19 times worse than non-disabled people. They even cut Access to Work, which actually made a 41% profit on every pound spent. The Tories are now floating the idea within DWP of cutting ESA (the benefit for disabled people who can't work)to 50p/wk more than JSA - £72/wk, about a £30/wk cut, for people with significantly higher living costs and mostly with no long term prospect of returning to the workforce. And the Lib Dems have happily held their coat while they did this, in stark counterpoint to everything they ever claimed to stand for, so there's no way I'm ever going to vote Lib Dem.
UKIP are worse, they seriously contemplated cutting all disability benefits to be equal to basic under-25 JSA (£57/wk), indeed their policies are so murky that may well still be their intention. Meanwhile their disability spokeswoman (who is at least disabled herself - not true in most parties) resigned from the Tories shortly ahead of her expulsion for campaigning that golliwogs aren't racist, and has told me on Twitter that Brussels was to blame for disability policies I know for a fact were decided on in Westminster deliberately to hamstring implementation of the actual EU policies. And on must stuff they're even worse!
There's an attraction to voting Green, but I only agree with limited parts of their policy base (as a defence professional I find their claim there is no viable threat to the UK ludicrous at best - which part of maritime nation don't they understand? - and they seem not to understand the time needed to rebuild lost capabilities in the face of resurgent threats). And there's little likelihood of them taking the local seat, so, regrettably, they're out unless I go for a pure protest vote.
What I need is a party that's economically and socially somewhere significantly to the left of Labour, while still retaining a defence and foreign policy I don't feel threatens the country - so essentially what I actually want is the Labour Party I grew up with, not the one we have now!
I'll almost certainly end up voting Labour, but not because of any actual desire to do so, purely because it's the choice that does the least harm.
And I do expect there to be harm :(
(ETA: I'm in Chatham and Aylesford, so with a Tory to unseat - Tracey Crouch had a 6,000 majority last time).
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2014-11-24 07:27 pm (UTC)I don't want to vote Labour, too much pandering to the Daily Mail vote and I just don't trust them, or Ed himself, on disability issues - they are, after all, the party who voluntarily got into bed with Unum and Atos to create the WCA (knowing exactly what was being said about Unum in the States), and they have pledged to keep it, if (allegedly) somewhat reformed.
Yet the current government has been a nightmare of ever-harsher attitudes towards disabled people, and people are dying regularly because of it - a friend has just suggested we need a Disability Day of Remembrance to focus attention on all those who have died because it is more convenient for society to look the other way. The Tories pledged to protect the most vulnerable, at the same time as explicitly targeting us for the worst of the cuts - one think-tank estimate says on average the most severely disabled people have faced cuts 19 times worse than non-disabled people. They even cut Access to Work, which actually made a 41% profit on every pound spent. The Tories are now floating the idea within DWP of cutting ESA (the benefit for disabled people who can't work)to 50p/wk more than JSA - £72/wk, about a £30/wk cut, for people with significantly higher living costs and mostly with no long term prospect of returning to the workforce. And the Lib Dems have happily held their coat while they did this, in stark counterpoint to everything they ever claimed to stand for, so there's no way I'm ever going to vote Lib Dem.
UKIP are worse, they seriously contemplated cutting all disability benefits to be equal to basic under-25 JSA (£57/wk), indeed their policies are so murky that may well still be their intention. Meanwhile their disability spokeswoman (who is at least disabled herself - not true in most parties) resigned from the Tories shortly ahead of her expulsion for campaigning that golliwogs aren't racist, and has told me on Twitter that Brussels was to blame for disability policies I know for a fact were decided on in Westminster deliberately to hamstring implementation of the actual EU policies. And on must stuff they're even worse!
There's an attraction to voting Green, but I only agree with limited parts of their policy base (as a defence professional I find their claim there is no viable threat to the UK ludicrous at best - which part of maritime nation don't they understand? - and they seem not to understand the time needed to rebuild lost capabilities in the face of resurgent threats). And there's little likelihood of them taking the local seat, so, regrettably, they're out unless I go for a pure protest vote.
What I need is a party that's economically and socially somewhere significantly to the left of Labour, while still retaining a defence and foreign policy I don't feel threatens the country - so essentially what I actually want is the Labour Party I grew up with, not the one we have now!
I'll almost certainly end up voting Labour, but not because of any actual desire to do so, purely because it's the choice that does the least harm.
And I do expect there to be harm :(
(ETA: I'm in Chatham and Aylesford, so with a Tory to unseat - Tracey Crouch had a 6,000 majority last time).