“Welsh” Labour Disabled People
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Cardiff & Vale Coalition of Disabled People Coalition News June - July 2006 www.cvcdp.org [email protected] Disabled People Betrayed Andrew Davies Sue Essex Brian Gibbons Jane Hutt Rhodri Morgan by Carwyn Jones Edwina Hart Alun Pugh Jane Davidson “Welsh” Labour See Pages 3 & 4 Also in this addition....... Transport Direct Payments Youth Forum Race and Disability Stonewall Conference Competition Who We are Editorial Team Contents Jon Luxton Gerri Allen-Manson Editorial - Jon Luxton P3 Yvonne Farmer Charging, Labour’s Betrayed P4 Charles Willie Jon Luxton Annie Hall 60 second interview P5 How to contact us Charles Willie (Registered office) Cowbridge Court Stonewall Cymru P6 60 Cowbridge Road West Gerri Allen-Manson Ely Cardiff CF5 5BS Definitions of Disability P7 Tel/minicom: 029 20 255 611 Yvonne Farmer Fax: 029 20 255621 Development Team Reports email: [email protected] P8 Direct Payments - Annie Hall P10 How we funded The Coalition acknowledges the Go Green P12 financial support received from Cardiff Gerri Allen-Manson County Council and The Vale of Glamorgan Council On the Buses P13 Steve Sweetman What we do The organisations aims are to: A Real Life Story P14 1. Challenge discrimination in all its What’s On P15 forms. 2. Work to establish the equal Computer Help Doctor P16 rights of disabled people. 3. Campaign for the full participation Letters P16 and inclusion of disabled people within society. Consultancy & Training P17 4. Promote the independent lifestyle Services of disabled people and secure the necessary resources to achieve it. Crossword P18 Membership Form Cardiff and Vale Coalition is a P19 company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 3167723. Formats Copies of this Newsletter are The views expressed in this available on Disk, Tape, and in Newsletter are not necessarily those of Cardiff and Vale Braille. Please contact the office Coalition of Disabled People. to request your preferred format. Editorial Jon Luxton The disabled people’s movement has for far too long been content to be right, with winning the arguments. We have become too comfortable, too satisfied and smug in the correctness of our polemic. Our leaders and organisations have been drawn closer and closer to the intoxicating flame that is the political process and some have been burnt. Our leaders have become too The front cover of this issue comfortable, lost their passion contains the names and pictures and have forgotten the real daily of the Labour Cabinet who are experiences of most disabled responsible for the decision people. We need to reconnect with to renege on their pledge. We the life of the people we claim to know that several of them represent. We are in the business were opposed to this decision. of commitment politics. Not many We know that several were of us will get famous or wield real embarrassed by it, but we also power. As committed people, we know that none had the political can make a difference, but we courage to stand publicly against need to get angry. We need to feel it. outrage when faced with disabled We long ago moved away people’s poverty and feel repulsion from the politics of principle. when politicians lie to us and Many politicians hide behind renege on their promises. notions that politics is the “art So why did Labour break their of the possible”, or hide behind manifesto pledge? They did “collective responsibility”, it because they could. When and some see principles as calculating public reaction, they useless baggage of a long gone assumed there would be a few era. Welsh Labour has tried to “bad news days” and then it separate itself from New Labour. would be forgotten by all but a It has seen the mistakes of the few political disabled people who UK Government, and has tried to would complain but, ultimately, distance itself from a party whose would return to their former status political pillars appear to be made quo with the Assembly. The money of sand. Welsh Labour’s decision saved could then be spent where to break their pledge would bring the political pressures are greater. a blush, even to New Labour. There is an old political saying: “you get the leaders you deserve”. Well, disabled people deserve more, much more, both from their leaders and Welsh Labour. Mistakes must be corrected. The disabled people’s movement must re-connect with the grass roots and be driven by their needs. At the same time we must offer real leadership, educating disabled people to find their own voice. Welsh Labour must recognise its mistake and properly engage with the barriers that disabled people face. It must remove them, becoming part of the eradication of disability, and not of its perpetuation. 3 Welsh Labour’s Broken Promises Disabled people’s broken dreams The above headline looks a bit cheesy, a bit over the top, but the reality of charging for care is that many people cannot have the support necessary to live with dignity. Independence is just a dream, a hope, something that is unobtainable, simply because it has a price, a price they cannot afford. On the 15th of February this year, Brian Gibbons, the Labour Minister for Health and Social Services, announced the reversal of their policy to scrap Home Care charges for disabled people in Wales. This decision betrays the promises made both in their 2003 Assembly Election Manifesto, as well as their Welsh Labour’s 2005 General Election Manifesto. CVCDP will continue to campaign for the scrapping of this charge. Check out our web site for the latest news. Welsh Labour 2003 Manifesto In their 2003 manifesto, Welsh Labour highlighted their commitment to scrap the home care charges not once but 4 times in just 22 pages, placing this commitment squarely at the top of their agenda, clearly understanding its vote winning potential. Welsh Labour 2005 General Election Manifesto In their general election manifesto, released in April 2005, Welsh Labour highlighted their commitment to scrap the home care charges and even gave us a date, September 2005. In March 2005 Brian Gibbons commissioned David Bell from Stirling University to evaluate this pledge, to see if it was attainable within the priorities of Welsh Labour. So then, we have a very specific dated commitment which, in reality, is not a commitment at all, for prior to the Manifesto’s publication, the Minister had commissioned a report which may have produced “evidence” leading them to scrap their pledge. The promise in the manifesto was at best a mistake, while many people feel Labour were being disingenuous. 4 60ish second interview Charles Willie Chief Executive of CVCDP Tell me a little about yourself I was born in the lovely island of St. Lucia in the West Indies, grew up in London but have lived for the past 21 years in Cardiff with my wife, Geraldine, and twin daughters, Tamla and Tara, who have just had their 21st birthday. What are your passions? I love sports, any kind of sport; both watching and playing, although these days it is much more watching than playing. I am totally committed to equality, and as part of that, the rights of individuals. I am passionate about this and believe that as part of these rights, everyone should have equality of opportunity and a right to be treated with respect, free from bullying, harassment, or, as is close to my “heart”, free from the abuse of power by those in authority. Tell me about your time at CVCDP I joined in January 2006, having had a very productive spell as a self-employed freelance equality consultant, following 4 years as the Equality Advisor to the National Assembly for Wales. As most people who I spoke to before taking the job had suggested, it would be, the past 4 months has been a challenge, but I must say, in the main, an enjoyable one. CVCDP having been without a Chief Executive for some three years, there was obviously a lot to do, and indeed, there is still a lot to do, but things are very much moving positively forward. The speed of progress was helped immensely by the work done by the CVCDP Board of Directors and Richard Wood, the consultant, in holding things together, whilst there was not a Chief Executive in place. This has continued, and with the help of the Board and Staff members in the past 4 months, there are a number of important and significant initiatives that have been put in place, or are in the process of being put in place, this new revamped bi- monthly newsletter being one of them! What about the Future? There’s much I could say about the future and the plans we have but a few highlights are: • A new Website (to be launched on 1 June 2006) • The establishment of a Training and Consultancy arm • The in-depth research work on race and disability that has started • The taking forward of the work on youth and disability that has started • The active promotion and participation in a new disability forum established to ensure that the DED is properly implemented in Wales • Developing the work of CVCDP beyond Cardiff and the Vale Taking note of the above, I do firmly believe that, with the clear vision set out in our Development Plan, based on the ethos that CVCDP was founded upon (active campaigning for civil rights and support for disabled people in Cardiff and the Vale), a strong active board, a professional approach to our work from staff and above all a renewed willingness to do – as with the ORANGE saying, I believe that the future is bright the future is CVCDP! 5 Annual Conference Gerri Allen-Manson Stonewall works for equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people (LGB).