As the debate over the EU intensified, people living in the UK have had TWO project fears for the price of one and the two camps are only separated by degrees of Tory Evil – one side is relying on Xenophobia and Racism, the other side is relying on tired Economic Horror Stories.
It is a hard call deciding whether to trust Iain Duncan Smith, the man that slaughtered thousands of disabled people, or David Cameron, the man who allowed Iain Duncan Smith to slaughter thousands of disabled people but you cannot help but growl at the irony of people citing ‘Control!!’ as their main Leave argument.
I am from Scotland.
Our MPs make up approximately 9.07% of the UK Parliament. That is 59 MPs out of 650 MPs. We have zero power when things go wrong.
I want my country back. I want it back from Westminster.
I watched, powerless, as welfare turned to warfare against the most vulnerable in society; disabled people, families, people who are ill, children.
I saw the Independent Living Fund destroyed[1]. This was a fund for the most severely disabled people in the UK to allow them to have a quality of life. It was scrapped by the Conservative Government
I saw sanctions driving up suicides[2] and homelessness[3]. The conditionality of Universal Credit could see the number of sanctions rise to 600,000[4]. It is killing people.
PIP…I’ve written about it many times[5]. The abuses, the deaths of disabled people. No one cares. The crimes against basic Human Rights that should (and maybe one day will) be seen as murder by the State, a Conservative Government State. History will judge us but right now – No one gives a shit.
The Housing situation in the UK itself is a crisis which I am experiencing myself. I’m now a month closer to homelessness. I won’t survive it to be honest. I’m already disabled (affected by the aforementioned cuts) and I will end my life before I end up in some god-forsaken temporary shelter after losing my pets and belongings. I don’t have much to live for. My illness has taken my home, the man I loved, my hopes and dreams and now I can’t afford another private tenancy. There comes a point when one person cannot actually deal with losing anything else and as stupid as it sounds – losing my pets and belongings is where my thread of life snaps. My local authority, North Ayrshire Council, is offering no reasonable support.
Suicide is an entirely different topic. People like me have been made to feel like it is their only option…because in 2016 it is. I think the dehumanisation of people like me is exactly what the Tories want but I also don’t see any other political party rushing to fix it.
I’m in Scotland. I could argue that we’re building more houses and waiting for welfare powers to be devolved but it won’t be in time to save me and so from my perspective they are utterly meaningless.
So when the EU referendum came along I didn’t know where I was sitting. And I started off very apathetic. People told me to ‘Do what’s right for your family’. What was the point of the EU when, let’s be honest, my own situation couldn’t be any shitter? And I was also bitter over the fall of Greece. That made me angry.
But as time went on I could also see the Right-Wing Xenophobia surge and I realised that the EU ref was becoming a ground-zero for hatred and racism in the UK. It reminded of my grandfather.
My Grandfather died[6]. In his lifetime he lost his dad to a Nazi Concentration camp. I think that key event would forever destroy my family. My grandfather did not know how to talk to people after losing his dad. His son, in turn, did not know how to speak to me and I did not know how to speak to anybody. The scars of the past still pull at the edges of the present. But some people have forgotten.
For me, racism and xenophobia are not far in my past. I still carry the emotional scars of a disconnected Europe and the burns of a racist Right-Wing history.
Let me tell you, from my Grandfather, you don’t want to go back to that.
Leaving the EU would hand our future over to a Conservative Government that’s only agenda is Conserving the 1%. Most of their current policies should be seen as war crimes against the lower classes.
I can’t change my fate, but I can vote in the hope that things will get better. I can vote to keep Scotland out of Westminster’s clutches.
Scotland has far more hope and potential for radical change than London.
We need independence but we also have to try and do the right thing.
And for me and for anyone that opposes the Tory’s in Scotland, voting IN is a way of conveying our feelings.
I would rather be part of Europe than part of the UK and one day, although I won’t be there to see it, Scotland will be Free to make this choice on her own.
Maybe an Indy Scotland will not be part of Europe, I don’t know, but we will never get the truth or full understanding of this decision whilst we are part of the UK.
Our MPs make up approximately 9.07% of the UK Parliament.
One day we’ll make up 100% of an Independent Scotland. Until then I want to be part of the wider world.
I want my country back. I want it back from Westminster.
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[1] http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/disabled-independent-living-fund-last-5976980
[2] https://www.rt.com/uk/344307-benefit-sanctions-suicide-crime/
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35063040
[4] http://npi.org.uk/publications/social-security-and-welfare-reform/rise-sanctioning-great-britain/
[5] https://defiaye.com/index.php/2016/01/08/dwp-deaths/
[6] Grandpa died in a horrific preventable death in an NHS hospital. He bled to death from a perforated bowel – there were no suitable surgeons on call. He died in agony