Cameron’s speech appeals to “aspirationalism”
I’ve been following the response among my friends, most of them activists in the disability community, to David Cameron’s speech at the Tory party conference today (a full transcript of it is on the...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Some pictures from Salisbury and Weymouth
Salisbury, 6th October 2012, a set on Flickr. I stopped off at Salisbury yesterday on the way back from seeing my friend in Dorchester. I was only there two hours, and so took a...
Jimmy Savile: the benefit of hindsight
I watched Wednesday night's Exposure documentary in which the claims that have been made about his molestation of young girls in the BBC studios and at a special boarding school in Surrey in the...
Rochdale grooming and the “Asian” dimension
Last week, the issue of the grooming and sexual abuse of girls in Rochdale and other northern towns was in the news again, as a report by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board was...
Islamophobia Watch: Why Conway Hall was right to ban ‘Tommy Robinson’
Islamophobia Watch – Documenting anti Muslim bigotry – Why Conway Hall was right to ban 'Tommy Robinson' A comprehensive article about the debate that was to be held at Conway Hall between the "Muslim Debate...
On free transport passes and invisible disabilities
Epileptic Jess McGee, 19 Ordered Off Bus After Driver Calls Her Illness A ‘Pisstake’ The other day my new Asperger’s job consultant in Kingston asked me if I had a Freedom Pass (a free...
My letter on ME in today’s Telegraph
Means-testing pensioner benefits is a political rather than practical policy – Telegraph I wrote the Telegraph a letter on Monday in response to Max Pemberton's article on the issue of mental health stigma in...
Exaggerating Thusha’s disability
The BBC recently conducted another ‘exclusive’ interview with the family of Thusha Kamaleswaran, the (then) 5-year-old Tamil girl shot and paralysed in a gang-related incident in south London last year. There is a written...
Max Pemberton: the red herring of ‘mental health stigma’ in ME
Why few dare tackle the psychology of ME at the Telegraph website This article is by Max Pemberton, who has earlier written in the same paper about why ME sufferers are wrong to object...
Motorists support rise in speeding fines, charity claims
I was listening to the You and Yours programme on Radio 4 early this afternoon, and I heard part of an interview with some woman from the “road safety charity” called Brake, and she...
XMRV is not the only virus
ME is probably a mental illness after all – but that does not mean that it is not real – Mail Online – Michael Hanlon’s Science blog: From The Cutting Edge This is one...
Review: Fy Chwaer a Fi (My Sister and I) on S4C
S4/Clic O’r Galon: Fy Chwaer a Fi S4C is a Welsh-language TV channel that only broadcasts in Wales, although you can get it on satellite (not cable) and online, and it offers subtitling of...
On ‘child brides’ and irrelevant imams
I saw two stories in the mainstream press today that were about the state of the British Muslim religious establishment. One was in the Daily Mail by Baroness Cox which was based on a...
Disabled people in the UK versus Nazi Germany
Last week Stephen Sumpter posted an article comparing the situation facing disabled people in the UK today with that facing them in Germany in the 1930s under Hitler. The Nazis ran a programme to...
How to blaspheme in Pakistan
How to commit blasphemy in Pakistan | World news | The Guardian This is a fairly comprehensive assessment of the situation surrounding the blasphemy law in Pakistan right now. While I am not against...
What’s wrong with the Green Mile?
Last night it was announced that the actor Michael Clarke Duncan, best known for playing John Coffey in the 1999 film The Green Mile, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name,...
Global warming and the circles of denial
Along with the Arctic ice, the rich world’s smugness will melt | George Monbiot (in yesterday’s Guardian) This article appeared in yesterday’s Guardian and it is about the record melting of Arctic ice that...
Review: ITV’s “Don’t Hate Us”
ITV Player: Tonight — Don’t Hate Us Last Thursday ITV broadcast a documentary on the rise in hate crimes against people with disabilities which has occurred since the coalition government came to power and...
Assange, Galloway and low Muslim expectations
Last week there has been a lot of discussion about people’s attitudes to rape with regard mostly to the extradition of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, currently hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in...
The problem with Policy Exchange’s housing sell-off
Yesterday there was a report published by the Tory think-tank Policy Exchange (previously discussed here as a source of reports from spies in mosques) which proposed that councils should be forced to sell off...