Conference Agenda

Reflecting on the Party Conference season, this month we have three different reflections from each of the three main parties

Miliband versus Benefit Scrounging Scum

With Labour in Liverpool, we watched amazed as Labour leader Ed Miliband unwittingly found himself going head to head with a real live disabled activist.

The highlight of Labour’s conference in Liverpool in terms of disability was the activist Kaliya Franklin – who blogs under the name Benefit Scrounging Scum – attacking Ed Miliband for his failure to speak out on behalf of disabled people against the unjust welfare reforms being pushed through by the Government and for re-enforcing Government rhetoric about disability benefit claimants being scroungers.

Clearly rattled and against a backdrop of enthusiastic applause in the question and answer session, Ed Miliband accepted that he should have used his conference speech to speak out against Government attacks on disabled people.

But speaking to Disability Now, Kaliya, who does not belong to any political party, said that there was a disconnect between grassroots party members and senior politicians.

“I didn’t realize that he’d be as rattled as he appeared to be. I think that probably reflects his level of personal discomfort with this issue because we all know that this is a political trick. When we look at the DWP figures, no one can find these millions of scroungers. Fraudsters are a tiny proportion.”

She added: “At senior level politicians are very well aware that the fraud problem is not a reflection of the way they present it. But it’s so politically convenient to have a group of people to demonise and blame for the situation that none of them are willing to let facts get in the way of rhetoric.”

Kaliya says she was pursued from the session by film crews who interviewed her at length. But to her disappointment her exchange with Ed Miliband received sparse coverage in the mainstream media. To his credit, Ed Miliband agreed to a further conversation with her and she hopes that she can persuade him that Labour needs to engage more with disabled people.

Nevertheless, it could still take a couple of years, according to Kaliya, to win the public over and make real headway in shifting the rhetoric away from one of weeding out fraudsters to one of supporting disabled people.

“I hope that we have brought the challenges that sick and disabled people are facing to a wider public platform. I hope that this is taking it out to another level where the wider public who aren’t very interested in politics and whose aunt has Alzheimer’s and whose son has autism are going to realize that these cuts are affecting them. It’s not about tackling fraud, it’s a stated aim to reduce eligibility to people who are genuinely sick or disabled.”

• See Kaliya’s encounter at http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/2011/09/harriet-1-ed-miliband-0-q-at-lab11.html


Welfare reform revs up in Brum

Greg Judge is an executive member of the Liberal Democrat Disability Association and has recently been enrolled onto the party’s new Leadership Programme. Here is his overview of conference proceedings in Birmingham.

Conference kicked off with a motion on Employment and Support Allowance and Work Capability Assessments that highlighted the high percentage of successful appeals and the need for assessment reform that recognises an individual’s own experience of disability is likely to be different to someone else’s. Members overwhelmingly passed this motion which called for the Government to oppose an arbitrary time limit on how long claimants can claim contributory Employment and Support Allowance along with a need for a less stressful assessment process.

Reassured by this progress, Conference went on to pass a motion on adult social care which presses the Government to ensure tougher action against abuse, improved inspection of care homes, more protection of service user rights to complain and be listened to and that users are protected from the high costs of their social care.

Away from the lively debates of the conference hall, several fringe events discussed important issues for disabled people. The party’s Lawyers’ Association met to discuss the troubling proposals for cutting legal aid which many people rely on for advice and representation on benefits, housing and personal injury and medical negligence claims. Many advocates put forward their views on maintaining people’s rights to such support and how the Liberal Democrats in government should work to protect legal aid for vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens.

Another important fringe discussion was on welfare reform. It involved a series of focus groups where we heard first-hand experiences and people’s concerns about Employment and Support Allowance, the new Personal Independence Payment and the Universal Credit; people are worried.

In another prominent fringe on special educational needs, Sarah Teather MP, Minister for Children and Families, participated in a discussion on the Green Paper she is leading on in which reform on improved early year’s identification, a new single assessment process and greater choice and influence for children and their families will deliver better life outcomes for young people.

As Conference came to a close, the party looked forward to the plans we have to better represent people with disabilities, both within the party and the public. Our Disability Association launched its new Action Plan in which it aims to better scrutinise party and government policy through listening to our members and disabled organisations. Equally, our work on promoting access to elected office for disabled people was rubber-stamped by Nick Clegg who launched the party’s Candidate Leadership Programme. The programme aims to identify, develop and support candidates from minority groups, in order for us to represent the public better at future conferences, in town halls and at Westminster.


Telling stories in Manchester

Adrian Berrill-Cox stood for the Conservatives in the seat of Islington North in the 2010 general election. His conference diary has an air of weary yet cynical realism.

The conference hotel was heaving with special advisers and PR types (apparently out of the 11,000 people only 4,000 were Tory members – the rest were corporates, lobbyists, entourages).

I show my face at the Candidates stall, then it’s on to the “Back Boris” stand where they have some imaginative plans (rather than the usual leafleting – not good for wheelchair-users) as to how I can help the campaign. Then a bit of shopping and on to the Social Action stand – unlike last year (cleaning up school playgrounds) they’ve got a job I can do and they bend over backwards to help me read an audio short story of St George and the Dragon for blind children – really enjoyed that and I hope they do.

I’m called “Tory scum” by a local on the way back from a fringe on civil liberties and smoking.  Then to the “Social Care – Decision Time” fringe.  This seems to be run by all the major disability charities and lobby groups (and attended by nobody else – the sector looks a bit self- referential to me) and concerns legitimate fears about care funding – interesting fact is that three quarters of carers aren’t paid or adequately supported, sad reality is there’s no money left so it’s going to get worse not better.  

Then to the Freedom Association dinner where Robert Halfon – MP for Harlow after three attempts beating down a huge Labour majority – stands up on crutches to speak and proves it’s the man and his beliefs and not the disability that matters.

After peeking around the door of another disability event where Iain Duncan Smith is due to speak I see he has gone elsewhere and follow him. In IDS’s absence are breakout groups sitting around in circles which is not my cup of tea.

When I catch up with IDS at a welfare event he tells us that work is the answer and we’ll work harder to get the most challenged into employment. He’s right; I wish him luck.