Do governments routinely cost the lives of their citizens? If so, how many lives are acceptable?
For the first question, do you ever think it's acceptable that government policy should cause any deaths at all? I image most will answer a fast and emphatic "no"
But think for a moment. It almost certainly happens all the time, all around us. Think of a short staffed hospital struggling under impossible cuts, with higher death rates than they should have. Did the government directly cause any of the deaths that may have resulted?
If homelessness rises, due to a failure of housing policy, leading to a higher than expected death rate on our streets, did the government cause them to die?
If pensioners struggling with rising bills and inadequate pensions can't heat their homes properly, and hypothermia cases soar one year, is it the government's fault?
We usually would blame the government. though coyly, we like to blame the policies, not those responsible for them. If we think of Mid Staffordshire Hospital or Winterbourne View, then government certainly took their share of the blame.
If hundreds of children started dying, there would be a national outrage, but would the public rally in the same way for homeless people? Or addicts? Is there a hierarchy within collateral damage that most of us subconsciously support?
Every day now, someone sends me a link to their local paper detailing that yet another sick or disabled person has died as a direct result of policy changes made by this government. Not as a contributing factor, as a direct result. Coroners reports regularly cite "changes to support and benefits" as contributing to or even causing deaths. It's not at all difficult to confirm what I say with a quick google search - there are hundreds of stories online, pages and pages of people claiming that changes to the social security system led to the deaths of their loved ones.
Yet here in the UK, in 2014, we're OK with at the very least hundreds of disabled people dying as a direct result of government action or inaction. Every day I read a new story, I get a little more frightened. Every new name that fades away, unnoticed by us, the public or by those who have a duty to tell their story honestly, makes me ask myself all over again "How many will be enough?"
Today, the name I will remember is Thomas O'Donnell you can read his story here http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/disabled-man-left-malnutrition-after-3795893
RIP Karen Sherlock
To be honest I am petrified of this Govt! Petrified of their lack of care and humanity -Petrified that one day MY time will come and petrified of what that will send my way. But praying that they somehow just forget me and I am forgotten and they get some humanity in to their hearts and STOP killing the disabled people - This is NOT the life I chose! I had so many plans of things to do - Then I get hit with MS. This is NOT the future I had mapped out for myself!
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Delete[QUOTE]Anonymous2 October 2014 10:18
To be honest I am petrified of this Govt! Petrified of their lack of care and humanity -Petrified that one day MY time will come and petrified of what that will send my way. But praying that they somehow just forget me and I am forgotten and they get some humanity in to their hearts and STOP killing the disabled people - This is NOT the life I chose! I had so many plans of things to do - Then I get hit with MS. This is NOT the future I had mapped out for myself![/QUOTE]
absolutely word perfect you speak for everyone in the UK I'm sure
I am simply grateful for my family and that I am (currently) not dependent on this government (or any other) for my financial well-being - medical well-being is an entirely different matter, of course :( But I know precisely how easy and quickly my situation could change and throw me into the DWP claims nightmare. So I do what I can to highlight what is happening to my growing band of blog readers & twitter followers; set out the facts in response to commenters on places like CiF etc; and talk to local people & members of my Fibro Support Group to make sure they aren't accepting the Daily Fail as the font of all wisdom & knowledge! I wish I could do more. I am amazed by how much you, Kaliya & others manage. You humble me with your fortitude and determination. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI have been aware of many deaths due to government and judicial inaction. All those children who were abused whilst in the care of the state who no-one listened to or would have listened to who as adults took their own lives because they could not live with what had been done to them. I knew some of them.
ReplyDeleteThe death toll from such inactions go back many decades - to the 60s to my own knowledge.
Then there are those who have died through negligence at best and inhumane treatment at worse who are in our medical and caring establishments, whose crimes are swept under the carpet or covered up. And still nothing is done - many mealy mouthed words but no real action. All condoned by those in "power" not just MPs but the vast array of civil servants and administrators whose only remit in life is to protect reputations.
Yes this country and its administrators scares the living daylights out of me - what do we all have to look forward to when we are ill, disabled, disadvantaged?
Yes, all of this.
DeleteWhat I think is interesting when I read what you say, Sue, about outcry over children dying, is that *so* many people with health problems as adults have them because of mistreatment in childhood. So the children *are* dying, there's just a delay. Frankly many of them deserve medals for making it to the age they do, instead they get a kicking from the Government, from the media, arguably from society as a whole. How anyone could participate in that and then still claim to care about children being abused/neglected is beyond me.
the government of the day will always try to undermine the weakest in society if they have no one and live alone
ReplyDeleteif the weakest can put up a fight however with a lawyer acting on their behalf the government will leave you alone why?
The reason why is that as a rule the government breaks the EU guidelines on European Convention on Human Rights, of which only a lawyer can intervene and correct
the reason why so many sick and disabled die going through welfare reform is because they have failed in the correct procedures of gaining what is rightfully theirs is because of lack of knowledge in filling out their forms correctly or missing deadlines for response
however anyone who claims a benefit can be a target to have their benefits removed resulting in their death so the sick and disabled need to be on their guard at all times
the reason the government wants to get rid of the human rights act is so that like in china to silence you so that your death will go unnoticed and with no legal redress your death will go unnoticed and theirs nothing you will be able to do about it and that's a fact
should the conservatives win the next election the death of the sick and disabled will go much higher then we have seen over the past few years leaving alive only the very fittest in society and a living hell for everyone else
Dear Sue I have been cleaning my inbox a bit too vigorously...that is why I am using your comments section today as I have no more your email address...here below is sadly an explanation of your above concern. Frankie (ex bed 24...)
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