Welfare Cuts in the UK

On Wednesday the 11th January the House of Lords was debating the Welfare Reform Bill. They won the vote, by considerable margins, on three major amendments which they had tabled, in an attempt to mitigate some of the severest effects that the cuts will have on sick and disabled people.

Here are two articles appearing afterwards, in two newspapers at the opposite ends of the political scale.

Sonia Poulton in The Daily Mail - 12.01.2012:

We're all desperate for welfare reform, Mr. Cameron, but hiding the truth is not the way to achieve it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2084706/David-Camerons-Welfare-Reform-Bill-Hiding-truth-way-achieve-it.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Polly Toynbee in The Guardian - 13.01.2012:

Cameron's problem is that people are nicer than he thinks. When these welfare changes come into force, their savage effect will be seen – and then the public mood will turn.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/12/welfare-cuts-cameron?CMP=EMCSOCEML657

The Spartacus Report on Responsible Reform

This report into Disability Allowance Reform has been written, researched and funded by disabled people, who see their basic but essential support benefits under serious threat by government reforms. I am very concerned by its findings and the misrepresentation of disabled people that it exposes. Here is an extract from the press release that accompanied its publication:

"A report published today (9 January) finds that Government misled MPs and Peers over the hostility to disability benefit reform. It finds that Parliament has been given only a partial view of the overwhelming opposition to the Coalition’s planned reforms of a key disability benefit, Disability Living Allowance (DLA). It finds that this opposition was previously not released to public scrutiny by the Government.

It is based on the responses to the government's own consultation on its planned DLA reforms, which were only made public once disabled people requested them under the Freedom of Information Act. Findings included:

· 98 per cent of respondents objected to the qualifying period for benefits being raised from 3 months to 6 months
· 99 per cent of respondents objected to Disability Living Allowance no longer being used as a qualification for other benefits
· 92% opposed removing the lowest rate of support for disabled people. "

The report has already been backed by organisations and disability experts including:
Disability Alliance, Mind, Papworth Trust, Scope, Bert Massie CBE & Ekklesia.

I am backing it too.

Oh yes, and just in case you wondered: The fraud rate for disability benefits is less than 0.5%, but the Government wants to reduce recipients by 20%!

[Illustration by Andrzej Krauze, first published in the Guardian on 8th January.]

Surviving Winter Appeal

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I am lucky enough to receive the Winter Fuel Payment, which I do not actually need. There is stuff in my life that I could easily do without, before I would have to think of doing without heat. But the numbers we read of old people like myself, who die each winter of cold, are dreadful - and it seems that they are likely to be worse this winter than ever before.

So I am donating my Winter Fuel Payment to the 'Surviving Winter Campaign', which is being organised around the country through local community foundations. Donations are channelled directly to local people who will benefit from them , and if you gift-aid your donation, admin costs will be taken out of the amount claimed back, and not out of your donation. If you want to donate, go to the Community Foundation Network website where you can find the foundation nearest to you, and look for a link to the appeal.

Help to keep someone else warm this winter!

Shalala It's Christmas

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This is my seasonal greeting to all my blog friends, just to show that I am still here and, incidentally, turning 84 today.

I think this is a lovely song, and the children perform it beautifully and with such confidence. (That must be some music teacher they have in St Saviour's!) I shall probably listen to it every morning till Christmas, as it really brightens my day.

A pacemaker implant in June has done wonders for my wellbeing, as this rather misty picture taken soon after attests. And I am still busy, busy, busy, albeit at a slower pace than when I started this blog six years ago.

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Yellow Bird

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Read

Yellow Bird Lyrics

here.

Teddy bear concert

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Another granny and I took our teddies to a concert today. It was rather sad really, because I had invited two grandchildren and their parents to come with me, as it was a special children's concert. But then they realised that my granddaughter's school concert was the same day, and as she had a part to play, she needed her family there to support her, obviously. So I set about trying to find some other children to take, but no luck, so a friend and I decided we would go anyway - AND take our teddies!


These Teddy concerts are given once a year where I live by the Kings Chamber Orchestra. They do a winter tour, and at each stop they give a children's concert in the afternoon, and an adults concert in the evening. I had only been to the evening concerts before and was keen to see what the Teddy Concert was like.


Well, we trod a roughish path to get there: severe weather made us wonder during the week if roads would be passable anyway, but by this morning a thaw was well under way, so driving was OK. We decided to have lunch first at the cafe next to the chapel where the concert was being held, but had been misinformed, and found it closed. Off in the car again to a nearby pub, The Red Cow, only to find a notice: SORRY, OUR KITCHEN IS CLOSED TODAY! Off again to a small shopping complex where we found fish and chips which we ate in the car, followed by takeaway coffees from the Tesco Express across the road. We took our coffees back with us to the chapel, and were in comfortable time to get good seats for the concert, where we surreptitiously sipped our drinks while waiting for the concert to begin, pretending that they were just shopping in plastic bags.



The chapel was soon full of children with their parents and their teddies, and the excitement in their faces was a joy. MY teddy by the way is called Ton-Ton Georges. Ton-ton is French baby-talk for Uncle, and Georges stands for Georges Brassens, the great and unique French singer songwriter. I bought my Georges at a concert given by an English group who give concerts of his songs, and was told that the mother of one of the performers knitted the teddies to raise funds for the group. He has a real take-off jumper and trousers, although his beret is fixed. I gave him his Christmas bell to wear.






Well, the performance was not so much a concert as a musical party. Every piece of music played involved the children and their teddies in some way: actions both strenuous and gentle, singing, shouting, and throwing our teddies in the air. Oh yes, Granny Rosemary and Granny Judith were going it with the best of them, though our gestures were somewhat more muted than those of the children.The orchestra even tried to lull us all to sleep at one point, and gave prizes for those who came nearest to it.




One highlight of the event was when the orchestra leader announced that he was going to show us how to make a cheap musical instrument at home - although mummies and daddies would have to do it of course, as it involved using a knife and a drill. Here is the recipe:

• Take one large carrot and trim off the ends with a sharp knife.
• Using a power drill, drill carefully into each end of the carrot, ensuring that the two drillings meet in the middle of the carrot.
• Then drill eight holes in the sides of the carrot for seven fingers and a thumb.
• Finally, take a bassoon reed, previously soaked in water, and insert it into one end of the carrot, which is now ready to play.

I kid you not: this talented cellist proceeded to play for us a "Concerto for carrot and orchestra" by Broccolini......! (I know, I was suspicious of that name when I saw it on the programme, although I didn't know then that it was a vegetable.) Now I couldn't swear to whether this was really happening. Maybe he was singing into the darned thing, but it certainly sounded like he got a tune out of it.

The story of the pictures, by the way, is of a little bag made in Ecuador which I bought from a stall on the way out, and of how much Georges liked it, so much so that he eventually insisted on being carried home in it. Maybe I shan't give it away as a Christmas present after all.