My label.

Disabled! What an awful label, I wish I could get away from it. 

I have lost the ability to stand for long periods, I have lost the ability to get items from the top shelf in the supermarket (if I can get there), I have lost the ability to walk long distances.  I am disabled, but I don't want to be called that!


Thesaurus.com has this to say on the matter of being disabled:

Main Entry:	disabled [dis-ey-buhld]  /dɪsˈeɪbəld/ Show Spelled
Part of Speech:	adjective
Definition:	incapacitated
Synonyms:	broken-down, confined, decrepit, disarmed, hamstrung, handicapped, helpless, hurt, incapable, infirm, laid-up, lame, maimed, out-of-action, out-of-commission, paralyzed, powerless, run-down, sidelined, stalled, weakened, worn-out, wounded, wrecked
Antonyms:	able, healthy

Let me take the synonyms step-by-step:

broken-down
That makes me sound like I'm an unkempt tramp,

confined
Close, confined to my home by the DWP thanks to them stopping my DLA.

decrepit
Isn't that a building that's falling down?

disarmed
Nope, definitely got two of them, even if the connections are killing me.

hamstrung
Erm, no, I think my strings are still attached to my hams.

handicapped
Only when meeting a lady or entering a bilding, otherwise my cap is on my head.

helpless
I have help in the form of glamorous assistant Sally, who I help in turn.

hurt
YES!!! I'll go for that, I'm definitely hurting especially in my arthritic joints.

incapable
Ah, no, I am capable of many things; I just prefer them not to be negative things.

infirm
Afraid not, just poked my tummy and it's definitely solid and firm.

laid-up
No, I'm sat up at the moment, it's not bed-time yet

lame
ah, hm, close - movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible,

maimed
Nobody did this to me.

out-of-action
If I weren't fighting the symptoms of osteoarthritis, I might go for that.

out-of-commission
Excuse me??? As all Armed Forces NCOs would say I work to survive.

paralyzed
Bah! My limbs move.

powerless
Not until the electricity prepayment meter runs out of cash.

run-down
Never in my knowledge has a car hit me and run over me.

sidelined
Never been a game player, so can't have been sidelined.

stalled
This is a house, not a stable, I'm not a horse even though my wife sometimes nags me (geddit?).

weakened
Yes, true, but so is a tree branch when half cut through.

worn-out
No, I'm not a piece of clothing.

wounded
No holes in me that shouldn't be there.

wrecked
Not sunken, not crashed, not wrecked.

 
So it looks like I can't rely on a "proper" old-fashioned word, it'll have to be more modern, more street-speak.  The problem is I don't do street-speak!

The lies that men tell live on in infamy!

The Second of May 2010 a day that should live in infamy alongside the Attack on Pearl Harbor (7 dec 1941).  A day when a prospective Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland appeared on British National Television and promised within the space of seven sentences 

" I don't want to leave anyone behind. The test of a good society is you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society. And that test is even more important in difficult times, when difficult decisions have to be taken, than it is in better times. "

So there you have it David Cameron promising the nation that he would protect those at the bottom of the social heap.
 

 
Now, three years later we have
 

• Disabled people are dying because they have been told they are "Fit For Work" while they have serious heart defects or disabilities.   Is this something to be concerned about?
• The attack on the Disabled was started to reduce fraudulent claims, even when the DWP admit only 0.7% of claims were fraudulent.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• Disabled and Unemployed have had their basic benefit capped at a 1% per year rise with inflation running at over 2.5% this is a 1.5% per year reduction.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• Mobility assessments are being slashed to keep disabled people within their homes as they won't get enough to run a car, use taxis, busses or trains.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The complex quantity of benefits that are being changed, combined, renamed or scrapped is so confusing that it takes a battery of people to explain them.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The poor, vulnerable and frail of our society have had their right to legal representation for many actions removed from them.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The number of disability fora and marches opposing the cuts and changes are rising.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The changes in disability calculation and benefits are being challenged in some of the highest courts of law in the country.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The unemployed and disabled have been branded as scroungers, it's no good retracting the statement, it's still in the general psyche.  Is this something to be concerned about?

And now, as part of a stealth attack, the government, formerly a supporter of the NHS are trying to privatise it, at the same time the previously privatised railways and steel works are failing.
 

 

 
To protest the cuts to the NHS, there's even a protestor pushing a toy pig through the streets of London using his nose.  A bit pointless, any Conservative worth their membership is too dense to understanding the symbolism.

And all along, government ministers have been misrepresenting, manipulating and massaging the truth with the use of percentages rather than numbers. 

The thing that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition is that they have forgotten the power of the people, and the internet that they are insisting the unemployed, handicapped and elderly should all have.  Or, did they underestimate this power and this record that is the internet?

Every word that people in (or soon to be in) power is recorded, written down and saved, the interview on the 2nd of May 2010, given to Andrew Marr on the BBC is transcribed, you can find it by following this link. Photographs of posters that parties use are saved on the net and the people who are being hurt by these draconian cuts are saving them on their computers.

So,

How many more lies do we have to put up with?

How many more U-turns?

How many more people dying on our shores when we send billions abroad in Foreign Aid?

Oh, and the one thing that he could have done, had he had an economist in the Treasury instead of his Bullingdon club pal History student, keep the higher rate of tax where it was.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have a shortage of money, why take a pay cut at the same time you cut your expenses?  Or in plain English, tax the rich and cut benefits.