Why I'm voting Labour as a person with a disability.

As a 27 year old woman with a chronic illness/ disability, I’m going to be voting labour on the 12th of December and here’s why. 

It’s hard to keep your blog from being politically involved when you write about so many issues that are affected by the decisions made by those in parliament. If you’ve come here via my twitter account you’ll know both myself and my partner are strong Labour supporters. Part of that has come from our own experiences and the experiences of those around us. 

Growing up, my family never had much. Mum became a single parent when I was ten. She was an absolute inspiration to me and my brother, who was ten years younger. We never went hungry even though mum did. We were a family that always believed in working if you were able to and mum always did. Luckily I had always been a healthy child, but my brother spent the first few years of his life in and out of hospital, because of life threatening asthma attacks. Even so I don’t think I really understood the importance of the NHS until I was diagnosed with Atypical depression at age 19. 

I relied heavily on the NHS for my basic survival. Without the medications to dull the suicidal and impulsive thoughts in my head I don’t think I would have lived past 20. I can only imagine the horror of the bill I would have received in a healthcare system like the states has. It’s likely I just wouldn’t have been able to afford treatment. The thought of the NHS being sold off to private providers throws me into a spiral of panic. It’s something that has already been happening under the current Tory government and if we’re to believe the leaked documents (which most of us do) we can expect a lot more of this.

When I was diagnosed with EUPD/BPD I started to understand the struggles people with mental health issues went through to get treatment. I have been conditioned to be used to a low quality of care but under the current government, services are at breaking point. At one time I was left without mental health care for six months, whilst the NHS attempted to transfer my care. Upon investigation it would appear that the whole issue was a paperwork problem likely caused by the lack of admin staff. With no community care team available to me and no way to get my medication reviewed (my GP refused to touch it), my mental health deteriorated rapidly. I couldn’t work, I rarely left the flat and I became actively suicidal. I realised that I could have easily become another in the 130,000 preventable deaths caused by austerity. I received emergency care only. I was admitted to a psychiatric ward on a few occasions, where the staff were overworked and burned out due to high patient levels and low staffing levels. The overcrowding got so bad at one point they had to send a young man to the dementia ward to sleep for the night because there were no beds. The hospital budget was so minimal that they didn’t have the funding to provide patients with essential sanitary products. From what I hear my experience is common. Thanks yet again to Tory refusal to properly fund mental health. 

It’s not just a healthcare problem. If you have a disability or chronic health problem you will probably be familiar with the benefits system and the lengths you have to go to for financial help. The assessments are deliberately brutal and designed to make applicants doubt their own ‘validity’ in their claim. These assessments have driven many to self harm and suicide. A personal friend of mine who suffers from an eating disorder lost her PIP, because she ‘only’ starved herself four days a week instead of five. Under a tory government the message that gets repeated is “Your only worth is the money you make us.” This ethos means if you are disabled, if you aren’t able to work full time, if you need extra support, “Then you are nothing to us.” I’m not prepared to give my vote to a party that treats people as property to simply be thrown away. 

Austerity has been a lie. We have not been “in this together” as we’ve been told. The rich continue to get richer. The tories represent millionaires who refuse to pay their fair share, mega-corporations who dodge taxes, greedy landlords, Bullingdon club wankers who burn money in the faces of the homeless and exploitative employers. They represent money, greed and corruption. They do not care for the most vulnerable in society and they never will, it is not in their best interests. 

So what can we do to tackle these parasites and try to get some humanity back into our leaders? Well in my opinion, vote Labour. Their manifesto has been increasingly positive. They’re promising new funding for our essential services such as the NHS, social care and teaching. They’re investing in the future of green energy rather than denying us a future at all by willfully ignoring climate change. They’re tackling poverty and inequalities such as the wage gap between women and men. They have been doing so much to include young people in politics and have engaged youth like no other party ever has. And as for Jeremy Corbyn, he has always been on the right side of history. At Grenfell he was there. The Yorkshire flooding, he was there. I have always seen so much passion and compassion in Corbyn; the likes of which I have never seen from Johnson or Swinson. 

The main argument I have seen against Labour is that such spending plans can’t possibly be funded. Every time the counter argument is yes it can and it’s coming from the top 5% of earners; people earning over £80,000 a year. One such earner described his weekly tax increase as “the price of a bottle of wine”. That’s it, that’s all. To see poverty decreased, to see the NHS stabilise, to greatly decrease homelessness, to see your elderly and young people get the care they need. Labour also wants to make sure that big companies aren’t dodging taxes and are paying their fair share and that they must pay their employees a living wage. A vote for labour is a vote for fairness, and in my opinion a vote to avoid another five years of torture and uncertainty for people with disabilities. 

There are so many more reasons for you to vote Labour and if you’re still on the fence, then please go and check out their manifesto. I trust them far more than I will ever trust the Conservative party and I believe the country is beginning to see that. Please vote in this crucial general election and see what a difference you can make to the place we call our home.