...“It just so outrageous, really, that they choose to persecute a frail, sick old woman for what to them is a relatively small amount – for something that she was not capable of managing,” said Chitseko. “When the super-rich get away with millions, it’s the injustice of it, the unfairness of it. It’s just really upsetting and frustrating”.

...The case, one of dozens involving the families of unpaid carers who have spoken to the Guardian, is another example of Britain’s chronically disconnected welfare system.

The DWP would have known that Chitseko’s mother was no longer eligible for the severe disability premium because her daughter had given the department her mother’s national insurance number and other details when applying for a carer’s allowance.

The department could, in theory, have stopped the payments itself. Instead, it placed the burden on the recipient: in this case an elderly vulnerable woman with early stage dementia.

And when the DWP realised three years later that she had been overpaid a severe disability benefit, instead of asking whether the department was at fault or whether she ought to have known the rules given her age and illness, it sought immediately to claw back the money.

The DWP needs to be demolished and a humane benefits system built its place. No chance of that with the Tories or Labour, though. Both the Tory 'Government' (which isn't fit nor competent to govern) and the Labour 'Opposition' (which opposes nothing the Tories do but simply claims it could do those things better) have indicated further clampdowns on benefits claimants after the next election.

Fuck this bullying, ableist, ageist, mean-spirited shithole of a country.

please please UK people remember to call and email your MPs, put pressure on them to convey that you DO NOT SUPPORT the genocide

push them to talk to the government about it

my MP is a piece of shit, so it won't move the needle much but at least he can't claim his constituents support this fucking genocide. express your disgust at the defunding of UNWRA. at the sending of weapons. Please, please, do what you can. If anyone has links to templates, please post them below but remember to tweak them slightly so that they don't get filtered out

complain to Keir Starmer if you're a labour party member. Complain if you're leaving because of this. Keep being vocal.

The Labour party have blood on their hands.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak jabs at Labour for “not being able to define a woman” as the mother of Brianna Ghey, a murdered trans teenager, sits in the room with them in the gallery. His party then cries “OOOH!” like children in the classroom.

Not that Kid Starver is much better seeing as his party wants to segregate trans people in hospitals, but at least someone called out this cunt for everyone to hear.

In case the widespread adoption of the godawful, unscientific, exceedingly academically dubious Cass Review wasn't enough, the Prime Minister today announced that if his party remains in power they'll be forcing disabled people back into work by removing the ability for GPs to issue 'fit notes'.

'Ah,' says people who haven't been following British politics, 'so there's hope that this won't happen if the Labour Party gets in!'

Nope. Labour has been vocal about their promises to 'tackle the number of people off work due to long-term illness' - something I'm sure the Tories were glad to see as it made today's announcement politically acceptable.

This is perverse. There's a pretty big reason that there's been such an increase in the number of people with chronic illness - the ongoing pandemic of a disease with a high chance of causing disabling damage to the body. The pandemic that the Tory government let rip through the country, that both the government and Labour are pretending doesn't exist any more and wasn't that bad anyway.

Another big reason is that work has become increasingly toxic and overwhelming to the point people aren't able to cope any more. Quotas keep rising, everybody's expected to work faster, the brief respite that was working from home was extinguished by property owners, people's jobs are constantly at risk and they're taking on more work as their colleagues are fired, and all the while the cost of living is skyrocketing and wages are stagnant. Is it any wonder that people are developing crippling anxiety and depression? That they're making themselves sick through overwork?

Where are they expecting the jobs to come from? Most of the unemployed disabled people I know (me included) are looking for work despite being signed off, and it's impossible. Employers that adequately accommodate disabled workers are extremely rare. Usually you get the most perfunctory of 'support' offered, and get penalised when your disability affects your productivity (but not in those words - they know how to structure things to avoid discrimination lawsuits).

If they had any interest in actually improving work access then they'd institute a mass reform of employment law and culture. That's not what they're suggesting. This isn't about that. It's about dismantling disability welfare.

Starmer’s Labour Is Not A Force For Good

For anyone who thinks that the uk government's reaction to the pro-palestine protests are in any way justified: first of all, fuck you, second of all, go read up on The Six Acts. *This isn't the first time* the British government has responded to the people's pleas in such a predatory way, *and it certainly won't be the last*.

It isn't even the first time in recent memory, but I wanted to just share a story from 1819 to show just how deeply rooted this is. I'm going to summarise the Peterloo Massacre, a horrific case of anti-worker action, which led to a piece of legislation called the Six Acts.

For those of you who don't know, the Peterloo Massacre was a violent, brutal response to a peaceful protest in Manchester. An MP popular with the working class called Henry Hunt was due to do a talk at the protest about worker's rights.

To give you an idea about Henry Hunt, he believed in workers rights, and the right for women's suffrage at a time when the right to vote was even restricted among men. He's a legend in his own right but he pissed off a lot of the local businessmen who relied on the slave labour of the working class in their mills.

Will Hulton was such a businessman, and he ordered Joe Nadin (a very dodgy bounty hunter) to arrest Henry Hunt. Joe said "wtf there's a whole protest I can't do that alone" so Will decided to call on the Cavalry to help. The Cavalry in question was a new division created a couple years prior specifically to quell working class unrest in Northern England.

So they went to this peaceful protest at St Peter's Square, Manchester, and charged into a crowd of 10,000 people. A dozen or so were killed and hundreds were reported as injured.

The government's response? The Six Acts. Rules which restricted any talk at all of reform.

There's a good song about the massacre called "With Henry Hunt We'll Go". You can find a performance of it by Harry Boardman that's proper grand. The Oldham Tinkers also perform a song called "Peterloo". *Never forget Peterloo*.

Wondering why Starmer ever became a human rights lawyer in the first place.  Because human rights seem to be the last thing that pitiful excuse for a Labour leader believes in.

Man politics right now really is 'which evil genocide-supporting fuckers should I cast my vote for this year???'

A reminder that Westminster used public money to bail out irresponsible banks, but won't bail out councils providing vital services to vulnerable people.

Trigger warning for reporting of gaslighting and ableism from media and politicians in the article.

In case anyone was wondering, I'm incandescently angry that the UK government would provoke a constitutional crisis over a piece of legislation passed in the Scottish Parliament that is essentially merely a streamlining of administrative processes to make the lives of trans people a little easier. A piece of legislation that has next to no effect on the day to day lives of anyone who lives here; that mirrors that in 33 other countries, notably Argentina; that has been debated and amended over the 6 years it made it's way through Parliament; that has been subject to multiple public consultations; that every serious feminist and women's rights organisation in Scotland supports; and that is a matter fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament and has fuck all to do with them.

This is being done because an unelected Prime Minister sees Conservative support melting away after 12 years of governance-by-asset-stripping. He realises he can maybe shear off some support for the SNP by attacking the most stigmatised and demonised people in our society because Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland stands for trans rights.

The Tories have focus grouped this. They've strategised their culture war attacks and fascism. The Tory minister who blocked the legislation doesn't know what a Gender Recognition Certificate does, but he does know that they are protecting women and children. They will stand for the rights of women and children as long as they don't arrive on a beach here by getting off a boat from France. As long as they aren't poor, reliant on food banks and free school meals. As long as they aren't victims of the Metropolitan Police's endless lineup of sex offenders. As long as they aren't trans.

And Keir Starmer, leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, will stand with Sunak because he's a milquetoast fuck who'll throw the Labour Party In Scotland (who campaigned for GRA reform in their last manifesto!) under a bus for fear of upsetting the Daily 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' Mail.

Fuck Sunak, fuck Starmer, fuck their supporters, and fuck their patriarchal fuckery. A plague on both their houses.

I don't support independence because it'll bring us riches. Chances are it'd be a economic supernova far, far worse than Brexit. I support it because it's the only chance I see of making in this country a progressive, equal society, away from the incessant othering and demonisation of anyone the tabloids take a disliking to, be it trans people, refugees, or whoever the next in line is. The truth is that no elected government in London will work for that. So independence is the only option. I'll welcome anyone from anywhere who wants the same thing for Scotland and oppose anyone who wants a Scotland that doesn't work for it's most vulnerable citizens.

I gotta say, I am seriously fucking concerned with the amount of people here who seem to wholeheartedly believe that the correct answer to the genocide against Palestine is ANOTHER genocide except the other way around. Please stand back for 2 minutes and seriously think about whether you think it’s ever a helpful or just cause to advocate for the deaths of millions of people, especially when plenty of said people are Jews whose families fled there after barely surviving the Holocaust because hardly anywhere else would treat them like human beings or accept them at all since the antisemitism that allowed the Holocaust to happen was not solely in Germany and didn’t magically disappear after the war ended.

Look. The situation is simple when you boil it down to this: Israel is bombing and starving Palestinians like fish in a barrel and doesn’t want to allow aid to Gaza, which consists of a population of over 50% children. Israel allowed the Nakba and displacement of Palestinians for decades and tries to hide it from public view. This is genocide. The Israeli government is at fault for this. Israel holds the power here because they have the power to bomb and starve millions of people and force them out of their homes, and Palestine certainly does not. It’s an utterly horrific, inhumane thing to do with no excuses for it and it needs to stop. This is the simple part that is glaringly obvious for everyone to see and it’s almost laughable for anyone to deny it.

Okay. You’ve successfully identified the main problem and the “bad guy,” if you want to put it in childish simplistic terms. So the question now is: what next? Say Israel agrees to an immediate ceasefire. What do you, impassioned activist on the internet, propose should be done to solve this situation after that? What should be done to free the Israeli hostages? Do you think the UK and the US, two of the most powerful countries in the world who actively help Israel commit its atrocities against Palestine, will ever do anything to help the Palestinians once Israel loses its power, even if better governments are eventually elected? How should the Palestinian land be claimed back? Where should all the Israeli citizens go? Should they all be forced out to Europe and America, even if that isn’t where they originate from, where the already-rife antisemitism has spiked even further since October 7th and Jews who live thousands of miles from Israel and have nothing to do with Israel’s actions face horrific hate crimes every day? Do Israeli children deserve that? Who’s going to pay for their travel and accommodation? Or, should they all be allowed to stay there and live side by side with the Palestinians? Do you think most Palestinians would be happy to remain neighbours with the citizens of the country that has oppressed them so fiercely for over 75 years, even if said citizens didn’t partake in it or in fact opposed it? What about the 20% of Israeli citizens who are Arab or Palestinian? Do you hold the same opinion of foreign settlers in Israel as you do its citizens whom have made a home there for many generations? How do you discern between settlers and “real” Israelis? Do you see any difference between them at all? Why? And what should be done about Hamas, the group that openly calls for the genocide of all Jews around the world and commits war crimes against Israeli citizens? How much of the history behind Israel’s occupation of Palestine are you aware of? Do you think the British government should be held accountable for splitting Palestine in the first place? How would you go about that? Would it be fair to punish the British people for their government’s actions when British citizens didn’t vote for it? How does that compare to your view of Israel and its citizens, and why?

I am absolutely NOT asking trick questions here or trying to “gotcha!” anyone. I am asking these questions precisely BECAUSE they are extremely difficult to answer, with several of them contradicting each other, and they are meant to get an emotional reaction out of you. I certainly don’t know what the “correct” answers to most of those questions are, and that’s exactly my point: there is no simple answer to a problem that has been going on for decades with such a wide, complex history. Historians and political experts who know all the facts and have studied this shit for years don’t know the answer and it’s honestly insulting to all the people suffering to log on every day and see so many people go “actually 😌 I, a random 20-30 something year old on the internet who isn’t even touched by what’s happening in Palestine, have figured it out before everyone else! Just delete an entire country and all its citizens off the map 😊 This is a moral thing to suggest! And if you disagree with me you’re promoting Zionism/terrorism 😘” There are no simple answers and if you think there is one — and especially if you think that answer is to kick citizens out of the country their family has lived in for generations — then you are both wilfully ignorant and evidently fuelled more by hatred than an actual desire for peace and an end to death and oppression and I don’t believe there is a crumb of sincerity in your activism.

Am I naive enough to think that fighting against oppression and occupation is always going to be peaceful? Obviously not. But you’ve got to think about where and when said violence is actually going to be beneficial, and where and when it’s violence purely for the sake of violence, which is NEVER justified. You can’t advocate for human rights and then turn around and say “oh, but not for you.” EVERYONE deserves food and water. EVERYONE deserves shelter. EVERYONE deserves to receive treatment for sickness or injury. NOBODY deserves cruel and unusual punishment or torture. And EVERYONE deserves to be alive. Those are essential human rights that should never, ever be denied wherever it is possible to give them, and disagreeing with that reflects extremely poorly on you and your principles. Think about what narrative you are pushing when you claim an entire people “deserves” bad things. The constant dehumanisation I see happening in online activism (and far too often in real life too) is actually terrifying and if you want to do some real good in the world, I need everyone reading this to examine their potential internal prejudices, even the ones you don’t think you have, and think about who exactly you’re helping when you express thoughts that perpetuate them, and who you may be harming in the process.

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

Here are some useful resources if you want to make a difference and help people:

Standing Together (an Israeli movement advocating for ceasefire and peace between Israelis and Palestinians)

Zochrot (an Instagram page that seeks to educate the public about the Nakba)

Parents’ Circle (an organisation run by relatives of Israelis and Palestinians killed in the conflict who advocate for peace)

Operation Olive Branch (a Google Doc of Palestinian families seeking evacuation)

Mesarvot Network (an Instagram page run by young Israelis seeking to refuse the IDF draft and end military violence committed by both Hamas and the IDF)

Other Gaza aid organisations to donate to

gonna be real, i literally don't give a shit whether charlie dies or not. he's only going to be replaced by his bald son and the monarchy will continue as it always has.

what i do care about is how this is going to be all over the news for the foreseeable even though tens of thousands of people are dying in a genocide our government is helping to fund, how people in our own country are suffering because of the cost of living crisis and the tories practically trying to tear the nhs (and many other public services) down.

and if he does die? we'll have to watch as this 'no money for the nhs' is funnelled into another state funeral and coronation. forgive me if i don't participate in the celebrations

Labour having a normal one this morning