My grandmother had a favourite expression which fits the way the current government goes about dealing with policy – arse backwards, meaning haphazardly, without any logical progression. Often the subject of jokes.
In terms of funding the changes the government believes it needs to make, it would make more logical sense to take money from those who have vastly more than they need. There are even some millionaires who believe that is the right thing to do. Taking money from disabled people, who as a group have less than average income and greater than average need. is a kind of arsebackwardism that is obviously far from being a joke. It is deliberate, calculated and downright nasty.
They’re not daft but they think they can get away with it in a society that regards disabled people as “other”,, lesser, in many respects not fully human. There are still traces of eugenicist thinking around and attacks on idle disabled scroungers have worked well for both Labour and Tory governments in the past. Arse backwards thinking has often led people to believe that disabled people are idle scroungers. They make use of such beliefs by repeating them publicly in phrases such as “taking the mickey”.
But the myths about disabled people have begun to lose their usefulness. For some time there have been discussions about the need for disabled people’s organisations to be more politically active, and in some areas this is developing with organisations working together at grassroots level building towards greater resistance. For example in Leeds Crips Against Cuts, Queers Against Fascism, Disabled Students, Leeds Palestine Solidarity Access and Inclusion collective have joined together with DPAC to campaign intersectionally and as such have very quickly become a force to be reckoned with. It’s not just major cities either: smaller towns also have groups campaigning against cuts.
In response to this the government made another arse backwards decision to get the bill through parliament as speedily as possible without real scrutiny, with a consultation exercise that offered no chance of anyone listening which quickly became known as consulta-sham. And while Liz Kendall and Stephen Phipps continued to make promises about getting people really good jobs, when the bill was finally published it contained nothing about work: it was purely about money as we had expected all along.
Not only that: it was presented as a money bill so it could move more quickly through the various stages and be passed before the end of the current session. Second reading one week, committee stage (in the Commons with no expert opinion) possibly followed by third reading on the same day and – significantly – not subject to scrutiny by the House of Lords. The less scrutiny the better.
The only chance for disabled people was to persuade MPs to vote against, with the Campaign Group taking a lead on this. Forty-two MPs agreed. Others wavered. The whips worked overtime offering promises and issuing threats. MPs were torn between the possibility of losing seats to Reform and facing the dangers of being compulsorily deselected at a future date.
There were also a number who listened to their consciences and tied themselves in knots whilst trying to stay safe.
It began to become evident that the arse backward approach might no longer be working when over 120 MPs signed up to support Meg Hillier’s Reasoned Amendment aimed at blocking the bill and allowing time to develop better policy. Suddenly it looked as if there might be a chance that enough MPs had found their consciences to be able to resist the bill.
But then everything went arse backwards again when Meg Hillier caved in and agreed to concessions not worth the back of the envelope they were written on. Current recipients of PIP would be saved whilst future ones would be chucked under the bus.
I’m not sure whether I’m looking forward to the next episode!
NB: Featured image : Disabled people with various handmade signs and large red banner saying Solidarity from Leeds Trade Union Council Photo: Neil Terry