Same Difference

My Experience In The #uksnow #disabilitysnow

samedifference1 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:34:37 +0000

I have just had the most interesting, unusual night. We got all dressed up to do the Saturday supermarket shop, but when we stepped outside we were greeted by slushy, snowy, watery stuff. If you’ve been watching the weather forecast this weekend, you’ll know this was not unexpected altogether- it just reached London a little earlier than we expected.

So, we made it to the supermarket, made a few other stops, and all was going well until we got about halfway home. That was when we got stuck in the white stuff. We had to go back where we came from, park at a safe spot and get a lift.

Luckily we made it safely home about 6 hours after leaving, but one thing I’m very sure of. It’s no fun being out in heavy snow, especially when you’re DisAbled.

So, if you must go out in it, please don’t go out in it alone.

Please leave your thoughts, tips and snowy experiences in the comments below. And stay safe, readers.

ASA Bans Christian Group’s ‘God Can Heal’ Adverts

samedifference1 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 13:55:55 +0000

I, for one, am glad these adverts were banned. They were insensitive.

A Christian group has been banned from claiming that God can heal illnesses on its website and in leaflets.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it had concluded that the adverts by Healing on the Streets (HOTS) – Bath, were misleading.

It said a leaflet available to download from the group’s website said: “Need Healing? God can heal today!”

The group, based in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, said it was disappointed with the decision and would appeal.

HOTS Bath said its vision was to promote Christian healing “as a daily lifestyle for every believer”.

‘False hope’

The ASA said the leaflet read: “Need Healing? God can heal today! Do you suffer from Back Pain, Arthritis, MS, Addiction … Ulcers, Depression, Allergies, Fibromyalgia, Asthma, Paralysis, Crippling Disease, Phobias, Sleeping disorders or any other sickness?

“We’d love to pray for your healing right now!

“We’re Christian from churches in Bath and we pray in the name of Jesus. We believe that God loves you and can heal you from any sickness.”

The ASA said it had been alerted to the adverts by a complainant, and concluded that they could encourage false hope and were irresponsible.

HOTS Bath said: “It seems very odd to us that the ASA wants to prevent us from stating on our website the basic Christian belief that God can heal illness.

“All over the world as part of their normal Christian life, Christians believe in, pray for and experience God’s healing; our ministry, in common with many churches, has been active in praying for God’s healing (of Christians and non Christians) for many years.”

The group said it had tried to reach a compromise, “but there are certain things that we cannot agree to – including a ban on expressing our beliefs”.

The Healing On The Streets ministry was started by Causeway Coast Vineyard church in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, in 2005 and has been taken up by dozens of churches across the UK.

David Peaston Dies

samedifference1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:12:28 +0000

R&B and gospel singer David Peaston, best known for the tracks Two Wrongs (Don’t Make it Right) and Can I?, has died aged 54.

His niece Neuka Mitchell, said the star passed away on Wednesday from complications of diabetes.

The musician, who had a string of hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, came from a family of successful singers.

His mother Martha Bass sang with the Clara Ward Singers and sister Fontella Bass had a top-10 song in 1965.

Peaston kick started his career after winning several competitions on the Showtime at the Apollo TV show in the 80s.

Two Wrongs was his highest charting single, reaching number three in 1989.

In 1990, Peaston beat off competition from the likes of Soul II Soul to win a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist.

In 2006, after a period of ill health caused by his illness – which led to both his legs being amputated, he returned to music with the album, Song Book: Songs of Soul & Inspiration.

Peaston is survived by his wife and two sons.

Deaf Teens: Hearing World

samedifference1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:58:39 +0000

Insightful documentary by director Claire Braden about five deaf teenagers as they take their first steps into the hearing world. It follows some extraordinary young people who have some extreme and surprising attitudes towards their deafness. It highlights how not all deaf teens want to be able to hear and are often defiant against being part of the hearing world, but also the lengths some deaf teenagers will go to to improve their hearing.

Sara and Asher wouldn’t choose to hear even if they had that option; they are fully deaf and proud of their deaf culture. Not only do they not hear, but they also don’t speak. This makes Sara’s first days at university a real challenge, as she feels isolated and worries that her two support workers make her look like she has ‘special needs’. 19-year-old Meghan feels she has hit a brick wall in terms of her deafness and desperately wants to hear more. We are there as she undergoes a life-changing operation to have a cochlear implant fitted which should radically improve her hearing. But the operation doesn’t come without its risks and falls the week before she starts at university – a fully-hearing environment. Jake and Adam are identical twins, with one difference setting them apart – Adam is hearing but Jake is profoundly deaf. Adam and Jake have their own one-handed form of sign language and Adam isn’t afraid to ask Jake the tough questions over whether deaf couples should have deaf children or what jobs deaf people should be allowed to do. Christianah is entering her final year at her specialist deaf school where she and her friends have a very sassy attitude to their deafness, being quick to deride anyone who won’t take them seriously. It is their last year of living in a safe, deaf environment and the nerves are beginning to set in.

The film highlights the difficulties deaf teenagers face when they enter the big, wide hearing world for the first time – providing a fully-immersive experience which illustrates what it’s like to go to a music festival and not hear the music, how hard it can be to keep up with conversations and make friends, but also the joy of silence.

The King’s Speech Takes To The Stage

samedifference1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:44:47 +0000

Almost a year after the film reigned supreme at the Oscars, The King’s Speech has finally made it to the stage.

A packed house at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford, Surrey, gave the play a rousing reception at its world premiere on Thursday night.

Playwright David Seidler called it “the fulfilment of a very long dream”.

Seidler originally wrote his story about King George VI for the stage before he developed the screenplay.

Seidler went on to win an Oscar and Bafta for best screenplay for The King’s Speech in 2011.

But the play has never actually been performed until now.

The film starred Colin Firth as Bertie, the king who conquered his debilitating stammer with the help of maverick Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).

In this stage version, the lead role is taken by Charles Edwards, with Australian-born Jonathan Hyde as Logue, and Emma Fielding as Queen Elizabeth.

Joss Ackland plays King George V and Ian McNeice is Winston Churchill. The play is directed by former RSC artistic director Adrian Noble.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC after the premiere, Seidler – who himself had a childhood stammer – said it had been a “very emotional night”.

“When I was a very young boy in the late 40s, my grandfather would take me to the Golders Green Hippodrome to see these wonderful creaky old British plays in which the diva and the leading man would swoop on stage and stand in the spotlight.

“To me, as a little boy of eight or nine years old, it was absolute magic and I thought, ‘I really want to be part of that world’ – which was a strange ambition for a boy who stuttered and couldn’t talk.

“Well, that little boy got a big thrill tonight.”

Plans to bring the play to the stage were in place before the film became a huge international hit, making $414m (£261m) at the global box office.

Seidler said he had no second thoughts about staging the production so soon after the film’s success.

“This is what I’ve always wanted,” he said. “I had always envisaged the film as being something that would give me a little bit of money so I could help get this on the boards.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, and I’m not, I’m so very pleased and happy the film did as well as it did. Winning an Oscar is just a wonderful thing to happen – certainly at my age – but this is what I wanted. This to me is more fulfilling than all the movies in the world.”

The stage version of The King’s Speech allows Seidler to explore characters and themes more deeply than Tom Hooper’s film.

“There is now a fully fleshed out relationship between Lionel and his wife Myrtle that didn’t exist in the film,” he said. “The stage version has a great deal more of the politics and I think a great deal more humour – it’s a richer canvas.”

Seidler began researching his storyline for The King’s Speech throughout the 1970s and 80s but abandoned it after the Queen Mother asked him not to pursue the project during her lifetime.

After the Queen Mother died in 2002, Seidler returned to writing the play. It was in 2005, at a script reading in London, that director Tom Hooper’s mother spotted its movie potential and told him she’d found his next film.

With unconfirmed reports that the Queen had seen and enjoyed the film version of The King’s Speech, would Seidler invite her to see the play?

“Any time Her Majesty would like a house seat, let me know and I will arrange it. I think it’s unlikely, but I would love her to see it – it would be a great honour.”

The King’s Speech is at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford until 11 February. It will then tour to Nottingham, Bath, Brighton, Richmond and Newcastle.

Saddles Stolen From Riding For The Disabled

samedifference1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:23:18 +0000

A charity that helps people with disabilities to enjoy horse riding has been targeted by thieves in Dorset.

Three £400 saddles were stolen from the Riding for the Disabled Association stables on Ringwood Road, Ferndown on Tuesday night.

Police said the theft of the specially-adapted saddles will have a “detrimental impact” on the charity’s programme.

They appealed for horse owners to check the security of their equipment.

Blind Man, 52, Registered Blind For 36 Years, Found Fit For Work

samedifference1 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:39:47 +0000

This is crazy.

As the UK government continues to reform the welfare system, a 52-year-old man registered blind since he was 16 has been telling BBC Wales how he has lost benefits after being assessed as being fit for work.

With incapacity benefit being scrapped, Tony Harris attended a work capability assessment last September to see if he was eligible for its replacement, employment support allowance.

He says he was shocked to be told by letter in December that he was fit for work and not eligible for the allowance.

Mr Harris says he can barely see and can hardly use his hands due to rheumatoid arthritis,

He told BBC Wales political reporter Mark Hannaby he has lost £38 a week and is worried about going into debt and losing his home.

BREAKING NEWS: Guardian Makes Typo, Says Maria Miller Is Employment Minister

samedifference1 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:33:57 +0000

Read this if you can’t believe your eyes. I couldn’t believe mine either. So, can someone please tell me who the Minister For Disabled People is now then? I hope it’s not Chris Grayling!

I’m going to paste the text below in case the Guardian later corrects the typo:

The coalition has raised the stakes over its welfare bill by overturning seven key Lords amendments passed to soften the reforms, and taken the rare step to direct peers they have no constitutional right to challenge the Commons’ decisions further.

On most bills, the Lords can send amendments back and forth in what is known as parliamentary ping pong. The coalition, deploying a rarely used parliamentary device, claimed “financial privilege” asserting that only the Commons had the right to make decisions on bills that have large financial implications.

It argued that the Lords amendments collectively cut billions of planned savings. A similar tactic could also be used to throw out likely Lords amendments to the legal aid and health bills.

It is for the Speaker on the advice of clerks and the coalition to decide if financial privilege should be applied.

MPs backed the government’s plans for a £26,000 annual cap on overall household benefits including child benefit, overturning a defeat in the Lords. The Lords amendment, which was led by Church of England bishops, was overturned by 334 votes to 251.

The shadow work and pensions secretary, Liam Byrne, said he favoured a regionally based cap, reflecting different housing costs. He refused to say if this would mean the cap would be lower than £26,000 in the north of England.

Labour peers and some crossbenchers argued that the understood convention was that financial privilege only applied to money bills, such as the bill implementing the budget, adding that almost all Lords amendments have some financial consequence for the government.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, the deputy leader of Labour peers, said ministers were “hiding behind parliamentary procedure to curtail consideration of the amendments that we passed. If the government continues to do this on these bills, our role as a revising chamber is effectively undermined”.

The former lord chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who led the Lords rebellion against charging single parents for using the Child Support Agency, said it was a “waste of taxpayers’ money at a time of considerable austerity” for peers to pass amendments that were subsequently rejected out of hand.

Lord Strathclyde, the leader of the Lords, said the procedure of invoking financial privilege was “well precedented” and “nothing unusual”.

He said: “The matters of privilege are not a matter for the government but a matter for the House of Commons – the Speaker of the House of Commons on advice from his clerks. The position of privilege has been jealously guarded by the House of Commons since 1671.”

He added: “I do not think we waste our time in debating these issues. We do not insist on all the amendments we pass in this House. We send them back to the House of Commons to get the government and the House of Commons to think again. If they have thought again and invoked financial privilege I think we should let the matter rest.”

In the Commons, Menzies Campbell, the former Liberal Democrat leader, was one of four of his party to rebel over imposing a one year limit on means-tested employment support allowance.

His party conference had voted against an arbitrary time limit in the autumn, but Jenny Willott, the party’s social security spokeswoman, voted for the one year limit, arguing that the Lords amendment of two years was also arbitrary. She said evidence showed the work capability assessment, the test used to determine if a claimant qualified for ESA, was improving.

Of the Liberal Democrat peers 12 rebelled on the so-called bedroom tax, for cutting benefit over “under-occupied” housing.

However, a nine-month grace period was announced before the £26,000 cap is imposed for someone made unemployed through no fault of their own, and who was in work for the previous 12 months; and a discretionary £80m fund in 2013/14.

Grayling said: “There is agreement that it is wrong to pay people who do not work more in benefits than people earn on average when they work. The cap sets a firm upper limit to total benefit entitlement which, for families and lone parents, will be equivalent to the average wage for working households”.

At Prime Minister’s Question Time David Cameron repeatedly challenged Labour to support the threshold, saying: “The cap is right and the cap is fair.”

Grayling said the public “overwhelmingly” supported the Government’s stance and accused Labour of being guilty of “flip-flopping” on the issue, initially supporting a benefits ceiling before the party’s peers supported an amendment in the Lords to exclude child benefit from any cap.

The Government also said it would not make any changes to its proposals to force those living in council houses that were bigger than they needed, to move.

The Lords had proposed social landlords could only force a tenant to move to a smaller home if a social landlord could offer alternative accommodation, which was supported in the Commons by Lib Dem deputy party leader Simon Hughes.

But the employment minister Maria Miller said the changes were needed to relieve the pressure on social housing and free up one million empty free rooms to help families in over-crowded accommodation. She said the average cost of the measure would be £14 a week.

In other reforms reimposed by MPs in six hours of debate: people who are recovering from an illness or injury will get contributory Employment and Support Allowance for one year, half the period that the Lords decided.

The limit would also apply to some cancer patients, despite moves by peers to exempt sufferers from the time limit.

Commons Votes Overturn Lords #WRB Amendments

samedifference1 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:20 +0000

My dear friends, we have some very scary people running our country. All I can say is that David Cameron is very, very good at keeping his personal and professional lives separate, because even Ivan would not have escaped this lot.

Welfare Reform: The Dread Of Things To Come

samedifference1 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:10:42 +0000

Just a quick plug for this new e-book from Soundings:

Welfare Reform The dread of things to come
The contributions to this short ebook have been written in the moment of political campaigning. They bear witness, employ argument and offer statistical evidence to challenge the way both Labour and the Coalition governments have designed and implemented welfare reforms.

Contributors: Peter Beresford, Declan Gaffney, Kaliya Franklin, Steve Griffiths Sue Marsh, Jonathan Rutherford

It is free to view online.