This week, the Equal Marriage bill is back in the Commons for its report stage. Before that, MPs will vote tonight on an amendment that would provide another step for equality: extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples. Conservatives, lost between protecting marriage from civil partnerships and attempting to wreck the gay marriage bill, are currently […]
As Black April hit, the past few weeks I’ve been writing in particular on the sweeping changes to social security. Thousands of people with a disability or long-term sickness are now finding themselves hit by multiple cuts. I spoke to a few of them here. The bedroom tax perhaps exemplifies the current changes: ill-thought out […]
To be disabled these days is perhaps the most hated version of the “skiver“. From 1 April , these “skivers” will start to see much of their support crumble – not with one welfare reduction, but several. Researchreleased on Wednesday shows thousands of disabled people will be subject to up to six cuts simultaneously. About 3.7 […]
This week, I looked at two contrasting areas of disability: the debate surrounding the use of sex workers, and the ‘bedroom tax’. Two thirds of the people due to be affected by the upcoming ‘bedroom tax’ have a disability. That’s 440,000 households. I spoke to five of them for the New Statesman. Some needed the […]
I do enjoy a bit of television and by a bit, I mean more than is healthy. I also enjoy reviewing television, often the sort that depicts marginalised groups (or, that is, the groups that tend to be depicted badly). This week I wrote a piece for The Independent about Derek, Ricky Gervais’ controversial sitcom about […]
‘According to research by Women’s Aid, one in four women experience domestic violence. For women with a disability, this figure doubles. Be it at the hands of their partner, family, or carer, almost one in two disabled women will be abused in their lifetime. Some of their experiences fit within traditional definitions of domestic violence. […]
Disability and abortion are two words not without a creeping discomfort. More so, when put together. The latter recently reared its head; casual calls to draw back a woman’s right to choose are now familiar in their cyclicality. The Tory minister for women Maria Miller, for her part, would like to reduce the abortion time […]
