Tags
(not satire – it’s the UK today!)
Austerity kills. It killed Mark Wood and it killed David Clapson. Both starved to death as a direct consequence of the coalition government’s austerity programme. Both were vulnerable adults who starved alone, bewildered at being punished by those they thought were helping them.
The two people closest to these victims will share a platform on 27 November in Witney, David Cameron’s constituency. Cathie Wood, the sister of Mark Wood, and Gill Thompson, the sister of David Clapson, will demand to know why their brothers died at the hands of the state. They are determined that other vulnerable people should not share their brothers’ fate, victims of an inhuman political ideology.
“We are sticking to the task. But that doesn’t just mean making difficult decisions on public spending. It also means something more profound. It means building a leaner, more efficient state. We need to do more with less. Not just now, but permanently.”
David Cameron, Lord Mayor’s banquet, 11 November 2014
Mark Wood lived in Bampton, where he struggled to manage independently. He was a Green Party member and a constituent of our prime minister. Unaccountably, an Atos assessment suddenly declared him fit to work and stripped him of his disability benefit. His doctor was not consulted. Mark considered his remaining weekly allowance of just £40 to be all he deserved. He weighed a little over 5 stone when his body was found. Atos no longer wishes to carry out assessments on behalf of this government.
“My brother Mark was a vulnerable and gentle man with many mental health problems – he starved to death as a direct result of ATOS/DWP declaring him 100% fit to work and stopping his benefits. On appeal after his death, the decision was reversed and admitted to be wrong – too late for Mark. We are still chasing the results of the DWP internal enquiry into the decision – it’s been postponed 3 times. What are they trying to hide? I believe that people like Mark have been sacrificed to benefit cuts. I want to hold the government to account to stop this happening to other vulnerable people.”
Cathie Wood, Mark Wood’s sister
David Clapson had been a soldier and in work nearly all his life. When David missed an appointment with the Department of Work and Pensions, his benefits were abruptly stopped. With electricity cut off, David had no means of keeping the insulin he required as a diabetic. David died with six tea bags, a tin of sardines, a can of tomato soup and £3.44 in the bank. When his body was discovered, his stomach was empty. The DWP declared that correct procedures had been followed. As a result of a campaign by David’s sister, the DWP is conducting an inquiry.
“I don’t want revenge or compensation; I just want lessons to be learned. … There is no humanity and they are getting the little people. Why sanction vulnerable and needy people?… I don’t think anyone should die like that in this country, alone, hungry and penniless.”
Gill Thompson, David Clapson’s sister
In 2013 alone, 871,000 people were sanctioned, losing some or all of their benefit payments for weeks, sometimes months. Such people do not automatically find a job, but fall deeper into debt, suffering extreme stress and exacerbating the medical problems that made work difficult in the first place. Mark Wood and David Clapson both died penniless and alone when their benefits were cut. These tragedies move us to question the sanity of sanctions What are they supposed to achieve?
Many of the people who will have been sanctioned will have been vulnerable, or will have become vulnerable and be living on the minimum, like my brother. He was not living on champagne and caviar, he was barely existing. The vulnerable do not shout out, they just suffer in silence. They are easy targets.
Gill Thompson, David Clapson’s sister
A civilised society does not allow people to starve to death, least of all those too vulnerable to look after themselves. What price is too great to pay for the government’s political and populist witch hunt against benefit cheats and scroungers? The Green Party asks how much blood money is too much.
Join them on Thursday evening, 27 November.
Why Did Mark Wood and David Clapson Starve to Death?
Find out first hand from Mark and David’s sisters, Cathie Wood and Gill Thomson
7.30 pm Thursday 27 November
Langdale Hall, Market Square, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 6AB
.
Further information:
Stuart Macdonald
Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate for the Witney constituency
01993-772871
07740465284
.
Please feel free to comment. And share. Thanks:
Pride's Purge 
Reblogged this on jaynelinney and commented:
If there was Ever a reason to have Iain Duncan Smith, the Minister responsible for these disasters Investigated – it is THIS?
#IDS These Death are YOUR Responsibility
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/investigate-ids-for-lies
LikeLiked by 5 people
This is disgrace and Labour seems as committed to the sanctions regime as the Con dems . The PCS is supposed to be against sanctions but wont support members who refuse to impose them they wont even support their own disabled members who are discriminated against by the DWP wild cat strikes are needed to pot a stop to what amounts to murder.
A Parliamentary debate would force all the parties to openly declare where they stand ( and pehaps convince more people how useless they are) and give the opportunity to the handful of MPs who are on our side to high light the worst cases
please sign and share with out illusions
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petition
LikeLike
don’t forget to add all of those that have died and for a updated list see here
https://www.facebook.com/ribbonsforwelfare?hc_location=stream
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘The test of a good society is you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society. And that test is even more important in difficult times, when difficult decisions have to be taken, than it is in better time’s
(May 2010)
– Excerpt taken from ‘David Cameron’s Bumper Book of Bare-faced Lies’ (Mendacity Press, £19.99)
LikeLiked by 4 people
Reblogged this on sdbast.
LikeLike
victims of our greedy establishment…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Far be it from me –.
LikeLike
It could be any of us – how many more have suffered in silence and how many more will go on to suffer?
I would love to see IDS, Cameron, Freud, McVey etc. all suffer a long slow death whilst starving and in agony…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on anemone of promise.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Jay's Journal and commented:
I hope the place is packed with people who “may” be able to do something about this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson Second Line View of the News and commented:
shame
LikeLike
Where is the massive pubic outrage over these state “murders?”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ned – What do you think massive pubic outrage would achieve? The outrage of the 1 million+ people marching in London achieved absolutely nothing. All the main English parties have long ago agreed that slashing and privatising welfare is the right way to go, so the democratic route is irrelevant.
Have you got any ideas which might make any real difference? I haven’t, and that’s pretty hard to come to terms with…
LikeLiked by 1 person
What says it all about this despot unelected assembly at the palace of despair in Westminster by the lake is the fact that the results of inquiry into the death has been postponed untill after the election. God forbid that the plebs draw their own conclusions from the results. I can hear Smith shouting on question time about what a unfair advantage this would give the opposition if they were published.Totally unbelievable, totaly typical of an elite that sees the disable, sick, unemployed and disabled as merely political collateral damage.God help us and the pensioners if by any miracle they get back into power.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am one of the ‘lucky’ people who:
– early retired on a public sector works pension at 4 per cent poorest income
– as is average to bulk of men and women being early retired in lieu of redundancy under massive austerity job cuts,
– disabled, chronic sick, unable to work – no benefit.
– Denied State Pension payout at 60, joining 530,000 women since 2013.
– So for a couple means 7 years lost state pensions. As denied state pension payout 1 year for a man born from 1951 and 6 years for a woman born from 1953
– Far, far less state pension from the biggest con in UK history of the flat rate pension
– And huge numbers of people actually due NIL STATE PENSION FOR LIFE
that is sole food money in old age for a great many.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
The Green Party have the solution to starvation, that might save lives in their 2015 manifesto pledges, but which they are too timid to tell us all about them:
– universal and automatic Citizen Income, non-withdrawable
to level of basic tax allowance, with a supplement to those living alone and for the disabled.
– Bettered State Pension, giving a full state pension to all citizens
leaving no citizen with nil food money for life coming with the flat rate pension to men born from 1951 and women born from 1953.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now
This would totally solve the 70 per cent rise in starvation in the UK since 2010 because of welfare denial (aka ‘reform’).
Not only because of the unemployed (only 3 per cent of benefits bill) losing all benefits for various reasons, including the near 1 million benefit sanctions that are months long, when it takes about a month to starve to death.
But also because the increasing number of working poor are the majority of those needing referrals to food banks (according to Trussell Trust, who run half of UK’s food banks).
Perhaps they might explain why these new §9since The Greens’ Spring Conference this year) policies are not on billboards on towns all over England and Wales (and the 4 or 5 constituences in Scotland not due to fall from Labour’s rule to the Scottish National Party in 2015)?
Because neither The Greens’ national office nor their email of The Greens’ Leader Ms Natalie Bennett will answer me on that one.
You might ask them at their meeting on the starvation death caused by the state allowing the poor to starve, just as the Tories did with the New Poor Law that forbade feeding the starving outside of the Workhouse that itself killed 5 million in the 19th Century.
LikeLike
It is about community as well….do we know who lives next to us? Do we care? My neighbour floods me on a regular basis ’cause he is old and forgets to turn off the tap 😦 so i can’t forget him 🙂 My other neighbour is sad because her old friend died…fast life kills off opportunity to speak and listen and slow down…community is breaking up…so we need to look out for people especially the elderly and infirm and find the time to love more openly.Kindness is a grace which we ignore at our peril.So let’s get stuck in and be aware of who are our immediate neighbours. Starting now!
LikeLiked by 1 person
These were tragedies waiting to happen to people that fall foul of ATOS putting the bonuses paid for declaring clearly unfit people fit to work ahead of the health of the people summoned to appear before them. I have seen as an observer the ATOS questionnaire that is designed to produce from the people call in the answers that let a ‘nurse practitioner’ to come to the decision ATOS wants.
However, where were the sisters when their beloved brothers were starving to death?
LikeLike
Reblogged this on markcatlin3695's Blog.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on | truthaholics.
LikeLike
Pennie – Yes you’re right that we should be aware, but is relying on neighbours a viable substitute for an effective and caring state welfare system?
LikeLike
I suffer from post traumatic stress disorder …dissociation and other mental health issues due to the murder of my mother and other traumatic events in my past……I am hungry… Cannot afford to heat my home and cannot even afford clothes from a charity shop… I feel that the government punish me for being vulnerable and feel dehumanised even more due to their callous actions. So as well as the pstd and other mental health issues I have to go hungry and cold which then exacerbates my problems
LikeLike
Reblogged this on These Things Worth Shouting About.
LikeLike
Pingback: People starving to death in the UK – on David Cameron’s doorstep | Yellow Telephone
Reblogged this on Belle Jar.
LikeLike
I have been fighting a case for a terminally ill man after he lost his second appeal in with the First Tier Tribunal in January this year. He has had no money for nearly 2 years. I managed to get the Upper Tribunal to look at his case again and was given a date for a hearing. However, this was suspiciously changed for a meeting with the Clerk and on questioning this later, I was blatantly lied to by the court, who insisted that it was a hearing I attended and the person I saw was the judge. The man’s wife attended with me, so she witnessed everything,
The Upper Tribunal have strung it out unbelievably. I received a letter stating that the “Judge” who I met with had given permission for a hearing in front of the Upper Tribunal but the First Tier Tribunals had a month to appeal this. Then I was notified that the First Tier Tribunal admitted err in law and confirmation that the Secretary of State also confirmed Err in Law, which I would have thought would be enough to reinstate this poor man’s entitlement.
However, apparently, the Upper Tribunal Judge was then to make a decision whether to turn the previous decisions over, set a date for a hearing or refer the case back to the First Tier Tribunal.
Yes! he referred it back. These bastards should be strung up for murder. They are fully aware that I am just an ordinary working class person with no qualifications in law. Hence, I am not entitled to justice either.
LikeLike
Pingback: Sunday feminist roundup (30th November 2014) (feimineach/com)
To the sisters who’s bothers died of starvation. Where were you when your brothers died. This is not just a state matter, this is a family matter. When we are at our lowest and most in need who do we turn to for help love and support, our families. You sisters allowed your brothers to starve to dealth. Sham on you. My sister would do the same, she’s a nasty gready grabby person too.
LikeLike