I have a three year old niece who loves reading together, so I was excessively excited to learn that rapper and activist Akala has brought out his debut children’s picture book. Trying to find books that don’t reinforce gender stereotypes or the centrality of the nuclear family isn’t easy, even in worlds of talking animals and magic. So I was keen to see what Akala would offer us.
Hollywood’s latest tearjerker, Me Before You, which stars Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones, has sparked international outrage from disabled campaigners opposed to the film’s central message, which is essentially that it’s better to be dead than disabled.
If the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party suggested that politics can be unpredictable, the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) in a self-proclaimed stand for disabled people proves it.
Watching the former secretary of state for work and pensions tell Andrew Marr that the cuts are “hurting the most vulnerable” and that welfare cuts “are going too far” was more than surreal. This from a man who has steadfastly lied and denied his way around the true impact of welfare reform since 2010.
Tod Browning’s Freaks, re-released this month, is a 1932 horror film about sideshow circus freaks that was banned in the UK for 30 years. Yet its treatment of disability is notably refreshing compared to most of what the contemporary mainstream media has to offer.
One of the film’s central themes is the concept of solidarity — rather than let themselves be divided and compete for acceptance by the “normals”, the freaks protect themselves against cruelty by adopting the principle of “an offence to one is an offence to all”.
Read more about Freaks: One of us!
Last month's Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) national conference was a chance to agree targets and strategies for campaigning over the next year, reflecting on wins such as the victory over Atos, and taking stock of the battles ahead as cuts bite deeper and conditions worsen. It was also a space to debate and shape the continuing development of the disabled people's rights movement which has dramatically grown, re-energised and progressed politically since the emergence of DPAC in 2010.
Scapegoat has been called "the most important book you will read all year". That's the quote on the cover from Tom Shakespeare, a disability academic of questionable politics who refused to take disability hate crime seriously until he personally experienced it on the Newcastle metro.