An Early Day Motion is a chance for MPs to raise awareness of serious issues.
"EDMs are used for reasons such as publicising the views of individual MPs, drawing attention to specific events or campaigns, and demonstrating the extent of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view. Although there is very little prospect of EDMs being debated, many attract a great deal of public interest and frequently receive media coverage."
Currently, the EDM has received 78 signatures, making it the 9th most signed EDM!! This is completely fantastic and thank you SO much to those MPs who've already signed. It's wonderful to see so many new names strengthening the voices of sick and disabled people and realising that far from being unreasonable, we are urgently concerned that the WCAs are failing so many people with serious illnesses and disabilities.
But I have even better news! Jamie Cartright, disability campaigner and writer (@Epipsychidion86 on twitter) has put together a brilliant, simple website to help people ask more MPs to sign. He had the idea a few days ago and must have spent every hour finding all the information and putting this together.
This link http://edm295.blogspot.co.uk/ will take you to the site and you can see who's signed, who can't sign, who can and use an easy tool to approach any you feel might like to know more about Atos, ESA and WCAs.
Although EDMs are largely symbolic, the more MPs that sign, the more we know support their constituents suffering through wrong decisions, lengthy, stressful appeals and increased poverty.
Please, support Jamie's website http://edm295.blogspot.co.uk/ and help to share it around.
"[T]his House deplores that thousands of sick and disabled constituents are experiencing immense hardship after being deprived of benefits following a work capability assessment carried out by Atos Healthcare under a 100 million a year contract; notes that 40 per cent of appeals are successful but people wait up to six months for them to be heard; deplores that last year 1,100 claimants died while under compulsory work-related activity for benefit and that a number of those found fit for work and left without income have committed or attempted suicide; condemns the International Paralympic Committee's promotion of Atos as its top sponsor and the sponsorship of the Olympics by Dow Chemical and other corporations responsible for causing death and disability; welcomes the actions taken by disabled people, carers, bereaved relatives and organisations to end this brutality and uphold entitlement to benefits; and applauds the British Medical Association call for the work capability assessment to end immediately and to be replaced with a system that does not cause harm to some of the most vulnerable people in society."
The DWP have also posted details on their website of the third part of Professor Harrington's consultation project and submissions are being invited from organisations and individuals on whether there has been any discernible improvement in the WCA process as a whole. Unfortunately the site does not make the questionnaire accessible to be filled in online; you can view the document but not complete it. Deliberate obstruction? Anyway, you can email them for a copy, complain about not being able to do it online, and then the maximum number of people can hopefully have their say.
The Government has admitted publicly for the first time that Kenyans were tortured and sexually abused by colonial forces during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s. The admission came as a trio of elderly Kenyans told a court how they were beaten and castrated.
have just emailed my mp the right horrible david willits, tho it is part and parcel of his parties policies to trample on the less fortunate in life .let me rephrase that, it is party that only looks after the rich ad wealthy. tho all should be emailed and named and shamed if they do not sign up to end the suffering and deaths each year caused by there ideological cruelty .can you remember what ca moron ,used to spout, it is not what you cant do, it is what you can do? we will help the disabled, well i have had numeros tests, examinations, filled in many forms, all drawing the same conclusion i am disabled, and i have been left to rot . i am scared to go out, just in case i take that one to many step, or walk faster then i i am deemed able to by thees draconian measures, to be labeled a scrounger . the condom party are paying me the benefit that i should, get as i have payed tax for 30, years. i am now awaiting an answer from atos again, and i am worried if one day they say i have to go on the wrag i couldnt do it. but there are no jobs any way . are there going to be any promps to any mps who will not sign this or abstain from the process? i hope so. we should all do our best if we feel well enough to spread this information. all the best people steve.
Very helpful website. My Tory MP always says as he's a minister he can't sign EDM's, not that he would sign this one, but he's damn well going to receive the information anyway!
Here is here twitter profile : "Chronic Spoonie, lots wrong. ESA stopped by this inhumane government. Preparing for dialysis. Each day is tough."
I won't go into more detail here. It's not for me to list her complaints and trials, but there is one thing everyone in this country should know.
So far 83 MP’s have signed this very “humane, understanding and good intentioned” motion – Thank You So Much!!
Time for ALL these disability groups, organisations and ALL others to come together and speak with one voice to be heard loud and clear so that Cameron and company cannot turn a blind eye.
In addition to this once ALL these disability groups and ALL others come together they should start fund raising to pay for GOOD legal advice looking into all the legalities of what has happened regarding ALL matters regarding this matter from start to finish with the view to challenging Cameron and others in a Court of Law.
The sick and disabled have been lied to (Cameron's promise during the final televised electoral campaign debate 2010) where cameron promised if you are sick, disabled, vulnerable or the poorest in society you have nothing to fear because he would protect that group of vulnerable people in society if he became prime minister but the reality is that once Cameron became prime minister the sick and disabled were deliberately targeted for discrimination as Cameron and company pushed out false and misleading information to vilify the sick and disabled to justify their cutbacks upon that group of people. As a result the sick and disabled have been lied to, discriminated, persecuted, abused and subjected to draconian and barbaric treatment by ATOS under instructions from Cameron and company. From start to finish the sick and disabled have been continuously abused without respite.
It is now time for ALL to come together to fight as one to deliver people from this evil. Only once ALL these people and groups come together as one will your voice be heard but you also need to let Cameron know that you will take this fight to court to protect the most vulnerable in society that do not have a voice.
Give that voice to those people that cannot fight and do it now.
Once ALL those disability groups and organisations come together to fight as one, you could also do ONE big petition whilst raising funds for legal advice and possible court proceedings.
Thats the answer is is not ? Yes all those disability groups along with all the others should come together and speak as one. This Government can be brought to account and that will only happen if everyone comes together so that they cannot ignore the weakest in society. Once all the groups come together it could be called The Coalition For Justice.
Email sent to my MP, who is good at supporting me when I email him.
Wow, I have just come across this site. I cannot believe the amount of ill-informed and emotive comments. I was always taught to get the full facts before making any comment, which is why we have two ears and one mouth. But most of this is just ill-informed vitriol. How can we possibly expect to be taken seriously as a group when we allow these sorts of comments to be published?
Well you could make a start by clarifying your professional opinion as all you have done thus far is to make a closed statement and from myself from the establishment you will need to state your point about who is ill informed ? and why as I'm sure the readers to this blog would love to know ?
wow, i have just come across this site .i can not believe the amount of ill treatment and emotive feelings by the last government and this to me and i do not mean the majority i mean all of the sick and disabled, o apart from you that is the full facts are blatantly obvious to me, we as the disabled are being systematically abused, and i will make that comment as i am living with the consequences of an uncaring elitist government. it is not ill informed vitriol, it is fact. i feel this site is taken seriously .it is just a shame when subversive negativity rears its ugly head over well informed truth in the shape of living proof steve.
"How can we possibly expect to be taken seriously as a group when we allow these sorts of comments to be published?"
who is 'we' in your statement?
"I cannot believe the amount of ill-informed and emotive comments. I was always taught to get the full facts before making any comment, which is why we have two ears and one mouth. But most of this is just ill-informed vitriol"
who says so 'ill informed vitriol'?
Two ears and a mouth - you should be so lucky!!
f) a congenital mixture of the lot of them?
Thank you so much to everyone who's emailed MPs so far!
If you want to get in touch about anything to do with this campaign, my email is in the opening section of the website above (http://edm295.blogspot.co.uk/).