Now you see him, now you don't ... The CONDEM Coalition has replaced the disabled director of its Office for Disability Issues (ODI), Tim Cooper, with a non-disabled civil servant.  Rumour has it that the switch, which wasn't even advertised, was due to problems around Cooper being forced to give a public defence of the government’s record after disabled activists criticised its programme of spending cuts and attitude to human rights. Cooper, who has refused to discuss the...

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Not wanting to be accused of venturing into Medical Model territory too much, I've hung back from providing too much detail about the various health issues that I've been experiencing lately! However, as one of the issues impacts upon my art in a more direct way than the other stuff, I thought that I'd share some of my experiences regarding the deterioration of my eye sight with you. My sight has been deteriorating for quite a while now and I'd put it down to the aging process....

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A non-disabled friend of mine expressed suprise that not only was I unwilling to help him ensure that assisted suicide would be made fully accessible to disabled people, but that I was also very much against the idea of assisted suicide being made legal in the first place! Recently retired from a life in the medical profession, John is now serving in a voluntary capacity on a panel set up to  address the issue of making assisted suicide legal. In his - in other areas commendable -...

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A non-disabled heavy metal fan seems to have met his match when stumbling into a debate being currently aired on the Pesky People blog. Having tried to establish just what arrangements had been made for access to the 13 venues that would be hosting a tribute to Heavy Metal music, our disabled sister Alison ran into a brick wall. Not literally, you understand, but an equally effective wall of silence from the organisors. In the end, the only response that she did get was that she should check...

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It strikes me as strange that this government haven't safe-guarded themselves by keeping the police forces around the country happy. As more and more people take to the streets in protest against the ConDem's slash and burn tactics, I would have thought that they are going to need the boys and girls in blue to maintain public order and keep party members safe. But with the various police forces up and down the country being faced with their own cuts, there's now a strong possiblity...

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It was a tough decision for those disabled people who went on the anti-cuts march on Wednesday 11th May. Do they march and appear to be supporting the non-user led charities and organisations that organised the event, or stay away in protest that the charity Leonard Cheshire was one of the lead organisations? Some people found a compromise and went there with the specific purpose of meeting those crips that weren’t usually involved in public protest, and weren’t aware that there...

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The Big Society Sucks! - a poem by Ann Young  I will not go quietly Or rebuild bridges burnt I'll make my own way now With many lessons learnt Hard work needs reward It's the only way A good day's work For a decent pay! We fought so hard For our equality Don't throw all that away By wanting work for free I'll not work for nothing It seems so wrong to ask I'm a disabled woman Reclaiming my working class   I was offered voluntary work but rejected it. I have...

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Following on from previous blogs where I've written about the funding cuts that are slowly but surely decimating our culture, two more disabled people led organisations fall to the axe this week. Mark Bagley of Choices and Rights has emailed to tell me that their Disability Housing Service has had to close down. I know that this service has helped lots of disabled people sort out their housing problems and will be sorely missed. Although no longer able to help out with housing advise, Mark...

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As many of us will know, being a disabled artist and not allied to any group or organisation, it has always been extremely difficult to obtain funding. And those of us who produce work that has an overt political edge are even more handicapped (sic) by the funding system. That's not to say that groups and organisations of disabled people who have applied for funding have had it any easier. For example I'm aware that our esteemed Editor Colin Hambrooke spends a large amount of his time...

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More and more disabled people are turning out for the various anti-cuts demonstrations that are taking place across the length and breadth of England and making their voices heard. And it looks as though the big rally planned by the TUC in London on 26th March will include members from all of the anti cuts groups run and controlled by us crips; in effect the largest turn out of disabled protesters that this country has ever seen. Even those of us who can’t be there physically are being...

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As many of you will be aware I've been experiencing malicious attacks on my FaceBook accounts over the past six months or so, which, by a strange co-incidence, is also the same amount of time I've been creating cartoons about the Coalition government and their horrendous attacks on disabled people. I've also set up another blog in order to take any heat away from this DAO one, which, thanks to the expert care of my web manager Ken, who also runs my web sites, continues to go from...

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I was recently privileged to see Liz Carr make a brilliant, gutsy speech at the People's Convention on 12th February 2011. She spoke from the heart on behalf of every disabled person facing the uncaring attitude of this government. I'd like to share it with you... "Thank you … I can only dream of being on the platform. One day … One day we’ll make it" (this was due to the fact that Liz was relegated as a disabled speaker to the area in front of the stage -...

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Due to ill health Crippen has had to cut down his workload for the moment, including his regular postings on this blog. He's hoping to be back soon however and is looking forward to continuing the arts protest debate that was started on an earlier posting.

In the meantime you can visit his alternative political blog by clicking here and leave your comments as usual.

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Hi folks, here's hoping that you had a great holiday and are all fighting fit for 2011?! I'm just getting over man flu (second dose) so have been a bit lax with regard to posting here for a couple of weeks. I am, however putting the final stages to the follow-on from my last blog where lots of you mailed and messaged me with ideas and suggestion about involving the disability arts movement with the current anti-cuts protests throughout the UK. I hope to have this up within the next...

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A little while ago I did a round robin email to specific folks that I know who are concerned or who are involved in the cuts protests going on around the country. It seemed to me that we needed to think of a way that we can protest without switching people off and being associated with violent confrontation, whilst at the same time getting in people's faces and making an impact. In effect cutting through the stereotypical perception that the general public have of us crips and putting an...

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Do government ministers need disability equality training? "Do government ministers need disability equality training?" That was the question asked by a member of the public at an all party parliamentary group on disability earlier this week. It's surely a sign of how disabled people's trust in the government agenda around this issue has broken down that someone even felt it appropriate to ask this question - even if it was slightly facetious! Lord Freud, minister for state...

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The following letter was received by Caroline Lucas MP (Green Partry - Brighton Pavilion) when she wrote to the Minister of Disabled People on behalf of one of her disabled constituents.   From Maria Miller MP "Thank you for your letter of 19 November to the Secretary of State on behalf of a number of your constituents about the effects of the Comprehensive Spending Review on disabled people. I am replying as the Minister for Disabled People. As you know, the Coalition Government is...

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A Day of Mourning for the Welfare State, Justice and Equality has been arranged to co-incide with the royal wedding on Friday 29th April, 2011 at 1400 hrs. This is just one of the expressions of outrage being expressed by people effected by the cuts to education, housing, public transport, the NHS, the Welfare State and much more. Whilst bankers and speculators celebrate another year of profit and Tory and LibDem politicians congratulate themselves on having continued to fool the vast majority...

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Excuse me for seeming a little confused here, but hasn't the Prime Minister just been telling us how little money we have and that we're all going to have to tighten our belts and that Disabled people have to accept benefit cuts to the tune of 12 billion pounds ...?! So, what's with this sudden appearance of seven billion that is going to be paid into the Irish banks as a token of the "particular economic relationship" that exists? I suppose the key word here is...

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UK citizens who were detained illegally at the US run Guantanamo prison in Cuba are to be paid millions of pounds compensation by the British Government. And quite right to. Innocent people being locked away in an inhospitable place, away from their families and friends and all because they appear different to the rest of society should be compensated. For someone to be denied their place in society and to be incarcerated in a place not of their own choosing must be a terrible experience to...

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People who live in Residential Care Homes are clearly disabled by any definition and even the Sun, despite their current smear campaign aimed at disabled people (see last week’s blog) can’t claim that they are not! However, the ConDem’s have included those of us who live in care homes as part of their attack on the Welfare State. They are going to withdraw the DLA Mobility Component from our benefits. This means that those of us who reside in Care Homes and are buying...

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The Daily Mail, the Express and the Sun seem to have been competing in order to see which of them can persuade the most readers that the majority of Disabled people in the UK are not really disabled at all. In their collective opinion most people claiming disability related benefits are not disabled, they are in fact scroungers and work shy benefit cheats and should be made to work for their money, the same as every other member of society. Somehow, the suggestion that a few non-disabled people...

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Opposition MP’s are using the term ‘slash and burn’ to describe the knee jerk reaction of the Coalition to the financial deficit that they claim to have inherited from Labour. Rampaging through the country in a similar way to the Viking’s when they were first attracted to our shores; the ConDem’s have spared no one in their attack upon our society. Seemingly with no real plan or any indication that rational thought has gone into this process, they appear to have...

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On Tuesday 26th October 2010 at Speakers Corner, Hyde Park at 1300 hours, the campaigning group MAD PRIDE have organised a day of action to oppose welfare benefits cuts for people labelled Mentally Ill. UK mental health service users and survivors will publicly assemble to re-enact the opening chapter of Michel Foucault´s seminal book ‘Discipline and Punishment’. A life-size effigy of a prominent Conservative/ Liberal Democrat merger politician will be publicly executed...

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Leading the recent protest rally against the proposed Government welfare cuts were a large group of Disabled people. Wearing and carrying large black triangles, they were symbolizing the murder of thousands of Disabled people during the Holocaust; their aim being to embarrass Cameron and his government, who have repeatedly insisted that the most vulnerable will be protected from the impact of the cuts. The use of this black triangle seems to have had an impact upon the general public,...

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