By John McArdle Black Triangle Campaign
Sunday 19th May 2013
As our members and supporters know, Black Triangle has been at the forefront of lobbying members of the medical profession to help us bring an end to the DWP-Atos Work Capability Assessment régime at the earliest possible time.
We began locally when our campaign member and Medical Adviser Dr Stephen Carty submitted a motion through the Lothian Local Medical Committee (LMC) to the Scottish Conference of LMCs (Scottish GPs associations) at Clydebank last year.
The motion calling for the WCA to end “with immediate effect” was carried almost unanimously. We quickly submitted it to the UK LMCs conference in Liverpool, where it gained the overwhelming support of UK GPs before making its way to the British Medical Association’s Annual Representative Meeting where doctors from every discipline carried it almost unanimously on 24th June.
Sadly, as John Pring of Disability News Service has reported, the BMA’s leadership have so far failed to give any meaningful effect to the motion.
In November we launched our ESA ‘Substantial Risk’ Regulations 29 and 35 Campaign asking GPs to apply the law to discharge their ethical duty of care to act where policies and systems are causing avoidable harm to patients.
Where GPs have done this the campaign has been a great success.
We have distributed the information throughout the NHS locally in Scotland and 26 magnificent doctors from Scotland and the rest of the UK at the coalface of have joined with us in lobbying the BMA leadership to disseminate knowledge of the Regulations to GP practices everywhere.
The Scottish media has done its bit with coverage in The Scotsman, The Herald and the Edinburgh Evening News. We are deeply grateful to them for this act of socially aware and responsible journalism. However, we have been completely stonewalled by the UK London-based national media such as the BBC and sadly, even by ‘friendly’ publications such as The Guardian who, shocklngly (and not for the first time) do not seem to have found our campaign work meritorious enough to warrant a mention in their esteemed title.
As the environmental movement say: ‘Think Globally, Act Locally’.
This has been our tactic from the outset and in that spirit we have arranged to meet with the Convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee, Michael MacMahon MSP, this coming Thursday to present our case to him advocating that the Scottish Parliament now intervene on our behalf in support of our ESA Regulations Campaign.
As Sir Nicky Winton whose 104th birthday it is today has said:
“I think there is nothing that can’t be done if it is fundamentally reasonable.”
We are confident that our ESA Regulations campaign is fundamentally reasonable in every respect.
Further still, we are confident that once it receives the close attention it truly merits, it will prove to be the single most effective weapon we have as a civil and civilised society in fighting back to protect all our sick and/or disabled citizens from the most wicked, unconscionable and ruthless attack on the civil rights of disabled people in living memory.
If we in Scotland are successful in enjoining the support and backing of the Scottish Parliament in ensuring that all Scottish GPs know how to apply the regulations, we are confident that GPs in England and Wales will also rapidly follow suit.
Wish us luck and when we go there, we go there for you.
All of you.
It’s all we can do.
Solidarity!
13 Responses
These politicians of all parties and their controlling media will never be forgiven for these disgusting policies, and heaping the blame and recuperation of their own financial crimes onto the easiest most vulnerable targets! The worst sort of hypocrisy!
We’re not all as thick as shit and manipulated by propaganda.
There should be another campaign to free the BBC from political control, too!
Good luck and my fingers are crossed.
I know a lot of doctors are ‘conservative’ (with a small c) but they must know what is happening to their patients by now, even though the media is mostly, inexplicably, quiet about these crimes against humanity, for that is what they are.
The majority of the media might not be reporting it, but people all over the world are watching what is happening in the UK, these aren’t secret, as much as the perpetrators might want them to be.
The very best of luck for Thursday, and thank you for what you are doing!
Good luck and God bless. If ever we needed the Scottish Parliament and its devolved powers, its now!
We need our MSPs support and we need it so very desperately!
This will not amount to much……especially if Scotland votes to leave the union…..England, Wales and Ireland will vote that Scotland will not get devolve max if the vote is to state in the union and if they vote to leave all the other countries have stated they want a referendum to stop Scotland using the sterling pound as well….they will have to use their own Scottish money.because they will implement everything to the detriment of the other countries in the union that would have to tax everyone to death to cover Scotland’s over spend…but at least they may get some respite when providing passports at the border crossings…that will be difficult if anyone travels to England to work on a daily basis and vice versa….so why is Scotland bothering to discuss this when next year if they leave they don’t have to continue with it….Alex Salmond will have to let in more immigrants ats all because they don’t have enough to provide the tax…….we can send them some….
Thank you and good luck. I truly hope you succeed. The Welsh Goverment may be interested too.
Well done to you all I truly wish you good luck and lets hope this will drive home the reality of this viscous assault and those listening will bring about some much needed reform and changes to what is being carried out by the lib/con so called governement.
Again best wishes and I know thousands will be awaiting your next news letter.
John
I did see a superb interview on BBC 6pm news last week a dr for ATOS spoke out against the cruel assessments and how they were loaded against the would-be claimants. I’m going to complain to the guardian & bbc, they should be reporting something that affects all of us.
Has everyone found wowpetition.com and signed it? The govt is carrying out cruel policies in our name. If we don’t approve we need to say. They need 100,000 people. Make sure one of them is you and then ask your friends. If they are human they will be moved by your appeal. Do it now and make a difference. We need to unite and show the govt we are concerned. Vulnerable people are suffering and losing hope. It could be someone you know, someone you love. I know you care.
Wishing you an overwhelming success and a huge thank you for dealing with the issues that are driving many people to suicide because of the depraved policies of a westminster government.
I agree with David, thanks to all who run this excellent campaign
[…] we are pleased to report that we have also met with the Convenor of the Welfare Reform Committee, Michael McMahon MSP, who has invited us to […]
regarding bedroom tax… surely they could tax THE RICH for having a certain amount of bedrooms…. beginning with old duncan smith..i know very little about polotics… but i think the average disabled person has aqquired a knowledge in the last few years…i shouldnt even know who duncan smith is…if things were fair and correct.