Brighton-backed Greens scent Highgate by-election victory
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 2011-09-03 19:37.I joined the Green Party in 2005, disillusioned with Labour and Lib Dem.
With my focus as a disabled person and decades-long jobseeker on national issues, I note that the big three parties have sold out to a neoliberal 'welfare reform' agenda that seeks to destroy the concept of 'social security'. Fuelling that are smear stories, while an American health insurance giant called Unum -- associated with 'disability denial factories' before Atos Healthcare took on that role in the UK -- has been 'advising' UK governments since the early 1990's on 'welfare reform'.
(Incidentally, Labour made an investment banker, David Freud, their adviser on welfare reform before he defected to the Conservatives on the offer of a peerage. So an investment banker is now Welfare Reform Minister, cutting housing benefit for those on low incomes as well as those on out-of-waged work benefits.)
Now, be prepared for a forthcoming media advertising blitz as Unum seeks to capitalise on the UK as a prime market for the insurance products it will have to offer. Is it not time the UK learned from America's mistakes?
Green Party core values indicate that the Green Party is fit for purpose, while a Citizens Advice report on the efficacy of the new Employment & Support Allowance describes that as 'not fit for purpose' and the lead time to an ESA tribunal is now 12 months, according to Disability in Camden 'Discovery' magazine, latest issue.
Alan Wheatley