A Message to Mr Brown

Dear Gordon,

Well you have finally made head boy so when are you going to rein in the excesses of the brutal 'Wide Boy' Britain Tony Blair has encouraged over the last decade? Excesses that allowed people like Surrey & Borders NHS Partnership Trust Chief Executive Fiona Edwards and her Board to vote to cut her disabled garden centre workers pitiful £3 a day payments.

Apparently they were so full of their political ' Modernisation' dogma at the time to realise that what they were doing was pretty disgusting. They relented and reversed their decision eventually of course but only because there was a huge public outcry. Shamed into doing the right thing.

Thats the way it is today.

Nowadays the corridors of NHS hospitals are full of smug managers and consultants , they almost outnumber the patients and all seem to be able to afford to dress very smartly like you and strut round with latest laptops , PDA's and mobile phones to show how important they are . They certainly dont earn £3 a day that's for sure. In fact the consultants must do pretty well as Fiona Edwards husband Mark does a bit of work for her Trust on the side as well.

Nice work if you can get it huh? She's on over £120,000 a year too.

I guess the Edwards will be voting for you at the next election. New Labour have served them well...

Then there are the Wide Boys in the charity sector, the disability and poverty industries , like those who sat on the boundaryless Remploy Taskforce and made a top down decision to close Remploy factories simply because they are opposed to sheltered employment on the grounds of political correctness. Their own charities also run or fund useless employment and training schemes themselves so there was a bit of self interest at work their too.

'Wide Boys' like Dr Bob Groves , seconded to the DWP, who was involved in making top down decisions about the Surrey and Borders Partnership Trust's service users and Remploy workers and he was probably paid very handsomely for the priviledge.

No one's calling the money Dr Groves and his fellow experts are raking in a state subsidy though are they. Its only the public money thats actually going to disabled people - i.e. very little - that seems to be viewed in a negative light.

I know you recently admitted you had some trouble with math but do you honestly think
Professor Groves , Dr Helen Lockett and the other useless NIMHE bureaucrats are value for money? Someone within Government does as they keep paying these people to trot out the same old catapault them into the mainstream 'Social Inclusion ' crap .

Can you tell me what NIMHE has actaully achieved with the £60 million of public money it has had to date apart from converting it into so much ' Social Inclusionist' hot air.

My friend lost his pension after being tempted out of Remploy into 'mainstream' work. He hasnt worked for years now. The mainstream work lasted until the pension cut off date. The job broker got a nice bonus though.

How did that ' Socially Include' my friend?

How does harrassing people on Incapacity Benefit Socially Include them?

How does talking Lord Layard's daft bollocks about getting all the mentally ill into work and projecting about making £7 billion pounds in savings 'Socially Include ' anyone?

Most of the people with MH issues I know are too unstable to be in a relationship nevermind to hold down a full time job. They struggle to get through life and the patronising politically correct bulshit of people like Dr Bob Groves, NIMHE and DWP Ministers doesnt help them one bit.

It certainly pays Bob anf Helen to keep on at us though. I havent seen much evidence of them finding stable jobs for anyone but I have seen a massive increase in fly by night training and employment schemes that promise to but simply juggle disabled people around between each other to get themselves paid.

Wide Boy Britain.

I'm all for getting disabled people into mainstream jobs if they want and can cope with them but the way the Government and charities , who appear to have boundaryless relationships with Government now, are making top down decisions about disabled people behind closed doors just isnt acceptable.

Equality starts with people being able to speak up and make decisions for themselves as and where they can and want to.

I dont need faceless bureaucrats from charities and Government quangos to speak for me nor do the workers at Remploy. The management of Remploy should have talked to its workforce not a couple of quack academics and some 'worthy' parasites from the major charities they already knew agreed with them.

Thats not consulting anyone nor seeking independent advice. Its fraud.

The Surrey and Borders Trust also spent more time trying to manipulate its service users than consult them over the ' Modernisation' of its Work Services and it had an army of useless flashly dressed managers ready to bully anyone who dared question their approach.

Can you see a pattern emerging here Gordon?

Some of us can and it seems very much like ' Modernisation ' is just a shorthand term for top down decision making and bullying by managers.

When you are calling the shots are you going to let disabled people speak for themselves or are you going to continue to subsidise an affluent professional elite to make their minds up for them.

Regards

Ex Labour voter

Des