On these two… hang all The Law and The Profits*

It seems appropriate to show you the Monet:
The Houses of Parliament, sunset

Lent is a time of austerity – self imposed.

For disadvantaged people in the UK it has proved to be a season full of fear, the imposition of austerity and the threat of more of it. This has been felt particularly by people with significant impairments, and principally imposed by those who have a duty of care for us, and the political power, but not the will to carry out that duty.

Part of the difficulty, it seems to me, is that disabled people are seen as 'other', 'different', 'beyond the pale' – even 'special' – leading people, consciously or not, to make them scapegoats, for everything from being a burden on friends and families to a financial millstone round the treasury's neck.  

Impairment is part of life; where society fails to accommodate impairment, justice is not served by blaming the person with the impairment and causing them hardship, financial or otherwise.

Nobody expects sackcloth and ashes from the world of politics, even when forced into a climb down on cuts to disability benefit. It seemed unclear whether this was actually a retraction or just a postponement, though at first there was an attempt to brush the matter aside as merely an error in presentation. Either way, on Maundy Thursday the spirit of metanoia was predictably but disappointingly absent on the government front bench in the House of Commons.





In the House of Lords, this week has seen the launch of a committee report examining the impact of the Equality Act 2010, which brought together reforms over the last 40 years and applies in England, Wales and Scotland. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 still applies in Northern Ireland but has been updated.

The BBC's coverage reads:
Baroness Deech, who chaired the Lords committee said:

"We have been struck by how disabled people are let down across the whole spectrum of life. […] Access to public buildings remains an unnecessary challenge. Public authorities can easily side-step their legal obligations to disabled people, and recent changes in the courts have led to disabled people finding it harder to fight discrimination."

It continues:
Tom Coleridge was shot and paralysed in Afghanistan six years ago. Now, even going to his local restaurant can prove difficult.

"I only want to take my girlfriend out for dinner," he said. "But it can often be a problem. Sometimes I am told to go round the back and fight my way through bins of rotting food and through the kitchen which feels really embarrassing.
"Some places just say no, sorry mate, you'll have to get out of your wheelchair if you want to come in. How am I supposed to do that?"

There is much talk by people with power and influence of the valuable work done by volunteers and charities to 'encourage', 'help' and 'support' disabled people etcetera, etcetera. Most of these legions of charities and organisations were set up by disabled people themselves or by their families and carers in order to try to compensate for the failings in the way society has come to be organised.

This takes enormous amounts of energy, money and time which could be much better spent. 

Thanks to generations of committed and persistent campaigners, the equality legislation is in place in the UK, and has been for four decades.

Picture it: with the legislation properly implemented and enforced, think of the energy that would be freed up to add imagination, compassion, problem solving, ingenuity and tenacity to a British society that actively welcomed people with impairments as colleagues, employees, customers, teachers, performers and members of parliament!

There is no getting away from it. On these two houses of parliament really do hang all the law and the profits.

*Of course I was deliberately misquoting the New Testament.

"…This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

You may be hearing a voice asking, "And who is my neighbour?"
You'll find the answer in this discussion of the parable of the good Samaritan.