Political Parties’ Policies On Disability
Same Difference recently ran a series of posts outlining each of the main political parties’ policies on the issue that matters most to its readers- disability. The series turned out to be even more popular than expected. The five posts in the series are linked on this page for easy reference.
Conservative Policies On Disability
Liberal Democrat Policies On Disability
Same Difference 
This is a brilliant series! This is something I was planning to research myself and you’ve saved me lots of time – thank you!
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I’m very glad I could help 🙂
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Sarah,
We enjoyed reading your poems.
They touched our hearts and the sentiments conveyed were truly an eye opener about inner feelings.
Thankyou for sharing this with us.
Naseem and Shamoun
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I notice your list does not include UKIP*
I have been looking for their policy online!
but to no avail*
perhaps you will have more,
luck?
Richard*
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Hello Richard,
I did look for UKIP policies when I was first running the series. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything then and given this: https://samedifference1.com/2012/12/18/mencap-expresses-dismay-at-ukip-council-candidates-downs-abortion-comments/ I doubt they have policies, or pleasant ones, at least.
Best wishes
Samedifference1
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Newark city doctors
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I have come across a brand new proper socialist party, that has now had its first national conference.
The Left Unity Party.
http://leftunity.org/
POLICIES AROUND DISABILITY FOUND ON THEIR WEBSITE
Motions passed at conference included:
– abolishing destitution
– repealing the Health and Social Care Act
– campaign to end the hated ‘bedroom tax’.
– removal of housing benefit caps,
– rent controls on private landlords
– level of rents: … should be affordable for all
And:
http://leftunity.org/founding-conference-decisions-1/
2. … Our most urgent task is to defend and reclaim the gains won by the labour movement during more than a century of struggles.
We believe that there is no prospect of the Labour Party today doing that effectively.
Elsewhere in Europe left parties such as Syriza in Greece are winning mass support for resistance to austerity.
5. On Tax and Welfare
We are against cuts in benefits and measures such as the bedroom tax, changes to disability allowance and cuts in legal aid, hurting the poorest.
We are for a tax and welfare system based on the principles of social justice, universal benefits and steeply progressive and effective taxation.
As the disabled women over 60 have lost both benefits and state pension payout and worse to come from 2016 – See if you lose most or all of your state pension:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
This is Left Unity Party’s reply by email to some of my questions (many others still outstanding):
“Left Unity is 100% behind pensioners and defending pension rights. We recognise that the burden of austerity has fallen hard on older people. We would reverse all of the government’s cuts.
We support a massive expansion of purple jobs – jobs in the caring sector to support those elderly people who need care. We would reform pension funds to take them out of the hands of cowboy hedge fund managers gambling with people’s life savings.
We would raise the state pension to the level of median earnings – currently around £26,000 a year – thus going much further to support pensioners than reversing the current government’s reforms would.
We would make it a crime to leave anyone, young or old, destitute.”
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There is the biggest left of centre challenge in 60 years on May 22 council elecitons and yet you make no mention of parties that are best for the disabled as are anti-cuts parties.
See my personal website for the new socialist parties that will stand up against cuts budgets in councils for care of the disabled, elderly and young.
http://www.theswansnewparty.org.uk
TUSC, for example, refuses to implement Bedroom Tax and Protect entitlement to benefits; for living benefits; end child poverty.
Left Unity Party, another socialist party, offers housing for all with affordable rents, against cuts budgets and the bedroom tax.
No2EU is a socialist party for the European Elections, for the working poor.
Even The Greens enacted Austerity Cuts in the one council The Greens rule, Brighton.
Labour sack Labour councillors who vote against council cuts budgets.
So there are alternatives for the poor disabled / chronic sick of all ages to vote for in council elections and the European Elections, that directly affect them.
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i am just trying to research this & this came up! What good is this to me now as the comments appear to be dated 2010….it is now 2015!
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I hope that the pages will still give you some idea of political policies on disability.
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There is a way that the disabled, numbering well over 10 million in the UK, could vote different and utterly change government, with not one major party inside a coalition ruling the nation in 2015, and end all the cruelty of austerity on them.
See how on:
http://www.anastasia-england.me.uk
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Not on the list are:
Class War
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC)
The Left Unity Party
Socialist party of Great Britain
Scottish National Party – SNP
Plaid Cymru
Mebyon Kernow of Cornwall
I put in what The Left Unity Party offer in a comment April 9, 2014, but this party was never linked on the political parties policies on disability.
All these parties would end the cruel benefits system that leaves people to starve by the million each year, including those 60-64 (1 million on some kind of welfare).
Because these parties could win big and form a government without all the so-called big parties governing in Westminster.
This is not about bothering to vote or not.
This is about caring for others you love and for yourself so all are fed, housed, helped.
This is the Vote or Starve election.
see how change can happen from May:
http://www.anastasia-england.me.uk
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DISABILITY POLICIES OF SMALL PARTIES SOLE WAY
TO FORM A MAJORITY UK GOVERNMENT
Labour cannot rule in 2015.
250 odd seats all that Labour got in 2015
326 MP minimum needed to rule UK parliament.
190 odd seats all Labour will get in 2015.
So need to vote different in Tory and Lib Dem MP areas, especially in England.
See on me website, how poor have all the power they need on Thursday 7 May to utterly change UK government.
Have only a week to ensure registered to vote (links on my website).
http://www.anastasia-england.me.uk
SMALL PARTIES SOLE WAY TO GET OVER 100 MPs
GUARANTEED ANTI AUSTERITY
TUSC
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Running over 135 MP candidates nationally
and 1000 councillor candidates
1 in 5 parliamentary seats set to have a TUSC choice on 7 May, but getting nil national media coverage at all, just like all real anti austerity parties.
TUSC is fielding the biggest working class challenge in generations on 7 May
TUSC PARTY POLITICAL BROADCAST FRIDAY APRIL 17TH
Watch out for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition party political broadcast on
Friday April 17th….. BBC2: 5.55pm… ITV: 6.25pm… BBC1: 6.55pm… Channel4: 7.55pm
TUSC POLICIES – STOP THE ATTACKS ON DISABLED PEOPLE
Promote inclusive policies to enable disabled people to participate in, and have equal access to, education, employment, housing, transport and welfare provision.
Support measures to ensure disabled people receive a level of income according to needs.
Equal pay for equal work.
Example:
Noreen explains why she’s standing as an MP for TUSC in the general election in Salford and Eccles on Thursday 7 May.
…”I feel the need to fight the most vulnerable people in Salford because they are getting a rough deal from both the government and council.
I’m standing for TUSC because all through our fight for transport for disabled adults, TUSC supporters were there too. They are genuine. We are genuine.
We need an MP who will fight for the most vulnerable – for the homeless, for the elderly, for those unable to voice their opinions. I don’t want to see the city that has been so good to me dragged to its knees. I want to stand up for the people of Salford”.
Read more:
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/campaign/Disability/Disabled/20371
TUSC want to bring in the Trade Union Congress’s suggested minimum wage of
£10 per hour.
TUSC POLICY – DECENT PENSIONS AND BENEFITS
Abolish the bedroom tax.
Reverse cuts to benefits; for living benefits; end child poverty.
Scrap benefit sanctions.
Restore the pre-Thatcher real value of pensions.
Reverse the increases imposed on the state retirement age, creating jobs for younger people.
OTHER PARTIES ABLE TO ASSIST IN BRINGING IN A MAJORITY UK GOVERNMENT OF A GROUP OF PARTIES – SOLE WAY TO FORM A UK PARLIAMENT EVER AGAIN
CLASS WAR 2015
DOUBLE DOLE AND PENSIONS
DOUBLE ALL OTHER BENEFITS
Fighting alongside protesters for social housing
SOCIALIST GB 2015
Promotes TUSC most of the time, so same policies.
THE LEFT UNITY PARTY 2015
Abolish workfare, sanctions, benefit cuts.
THE LEFT UNITY PARTY MANIFESTO 2015 – DISABLED
The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) has been misused to force disabled people off benefits and has caused distress and poverty.
It is unfit for purpose and must be scrapped.
Disabled people should be supported to work but never penalised by the benefits system.
Other benefit cuts, justified using unfair media attacks on benefit claimants, are having a disproportionate effect on disabled people.
The Independent Living Fund and Disability Living Allowance should be reinstated – these are vital benefits for basic day-to-day life.
As a party Left Unity supports disabled people’s campaigns and aims to be accessible to all.
SNP in SCOTLAND
SNP is paying the poor’s council tax support and Bedroom Tax.
What SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon said on the Leaders’ Debate
http://www.snp.org/media-centre/news/2015/apr/snp-challenge-westminster-disability-benefit-cuts
…”Rolling out Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) to replace Disability Living Allowance will see over 100,000 working age disabled people in Scotland lose some or all of their benefit by 2018 – representing a cut of £300 million a year, with a loss of at least £1,120 a year per person who loses out. Some 47,000 disabled people in Scotland are expected to lose up to £2,964 a year as a consequence of changes in eligibility to the mobility component.
At UK level, the cut in disability benefit represents nearly £3 billion a year by 2017/18, with over a million people losing out.
The SNP propose a modest increase in public spending in real terms in order to stop proposed cuts – and support halting the roll out of Personal Independence Payments to stop the “savage cuts” to disability benefits.” …
“Labour’s track record in Scotland is voting with the Tories and Lib Dems against halting the roll-out of PIPs.” …
PLAID CYMRU
“battle the Westminster parties’ obsession with austerity”.
the big issues facing his constituents are. Housing, disability benefits, and healthcare are the first …
“Generally in Wales, people think Plaid can’t form a government, but it’s different this time,” …. “We’ll almost certainly hold the balance of power…
New polls matter because this election comes down to Tory-Labour marginals
http://may2015.com/featured/arfon-where-plaid-cymru-are-trying-to-keep-welsh-nationalism-alive-and-labour-out/
“Plaid Cymru rejects the marketisation and privatisation of the NHS and will oppose any moves in that direction from governments in Westminster and Wales, particularly if it affects the funding of the NHS in Wales
As well as training and recruiting 1,000 additional doctors, Plaid Cymru wants to “increase the number of district and community nurses to support people outside of hospital”.
Plaid supports a “Medical Accountability Bill, including a duty of candour, so that healthcare professionals are legally bound to tell the truth to the patient and their family.” ”
Voting Plaid Cymru reduces about 8 Tory and 3 Lib Dems from UK government.
By cutting Labour in Wales, it does not stop Labour (still the biggest voter bloc) being inside the UK goverment with Plaid Cymru.
MEBYON KERNOW in Cornwall 2015
Reduces 6 Tory and Lib Dem MPs (No Labour) to UK government, by you voting Mebyon Kernow.
“Mebyon Kernow is committed to a just and fair society. We believe effective public intervention is needed to combat poverty, tackle social deprivation and fight for
the disadvantaged, and to tackle ills in Cornish society, such as social deprivation, unemployment, low wages and poor housing.
MK will fight to protect funding for programmes and initiatives which seek to protect and enhance the living standards for those in need and the less-well-off.”
11 MILLION DISABLED
PLUS FAMILIES AND CARERS
Of all ages, have considerable amount of voting power.
http://www.anastasia-england.me.uk
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