Guardian Article re family of ME patient struggling with social security benefits system

[Bob]

If you think comfortable families don’t get sucked into poverty, think again
Frances Ryan.
Thursday 14 April 2016
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/14/comfortable-famlies-poverty-austerity

[Article includes a weblink to the UK's ME Association.]

Helen and her husband could cope with her sudden terrible illness – but cut after cut has left them regularly going without food

‘The family got through it – applying for benefits, stretching each pound, and juggling bills. Then, in 2010, austerity hit.’

It’s frightening how life can change. Over a decade ago, Thomas Hemingford, now 45, was on a comfortable wage as a software development manager. His family – his wife Helen and their three children – lived in a home they owned on the outskirts of Harrogate in North Yorkshire. They went on holidays abroad, had two cars – and even bought a convertible as a “Sunday car”. But in 2002, bad luck hit: Helen became severely ill with ME and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a progressive disability that affects her legs, arms, hearing and sight.

Author on Twitter:
@DrFrancesRyan

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/720618607588323328

 

[alex3619]

This is too sad for me to tap the like button, but its also a modern reality. I wish this family the best of luck in the future.

 

[Amaya2014]

Hardly know what to say. Incredibly sad about this families crisis...terrified because it could be my reality.

 

[Richard7]

Its a good point to make. One would hope of course that people would be concerned about anyone being in this situation. But some will not be when they can think of it as only happening to some other lesser people, so it is useful to show it happening to people like them.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

The British Cabinet should be put in front of a firing squad and *SHOT*
All just a re-play of an evil that should have died 70 years ago in Berlin.

Folk fool themselves thinking this can't happen in a modern age, or that surely the government couldn't be so evil, their hearts must surely change?
WRONG.
People, are people, then, now, here, there....as I keep saying.
The Privileged Elite nearly always come to think only they are "real" people, and thus, care absolutely nothing for anything but their agendas.
The utter sickening hypocrisy, self righteous, small minded evil of that vile beast Ian Duncan Smith, "crying" on interview couple of weeks ago was an outrage.

The Prime Minister of the UK claimed disability benefit for his disabled son, even though he was a multimillionaire
And when he got into power he axed that benefit for others.
He also had sexual relations with a pig as part of an initiation ceremony into one of the twisted secret societies that flourish
He was part of a club in University days that for fun, would torment homeless people by burning £50 notes in front of their faces.
He is in charge of a government that has helped cover up the truth of the Iraq War (as they are all in on it, on both sides),, and also helped cover up the mass rape and murder of thousands of children by the Elite.
Funny how so many of the accused beasts have died since accused and the delays dealys delays have prevented arrest and trial.

They are *PSYCHOPATHS* or have chosen to be and do evil.

As I've said before, my family fought and killed Nazis, and their Japanese counterparts, the atrocities my folk had to see and live with are an abomination.
It's tragic that many decent Germans and some Japanese were caught up in such things, people who otherwise were decent, but, if you don't fight against such evil, well, you become part of it :/
Whether it was helping round up and execute innocent civilians for reprisals in France or retaliation by utter slaughter of folk deemed "non Human Slavs" on the Eastern Front, or the widespread mass rape and butchery in Hong Kong, Burma, etc
all that evil came about because ordinary folk didn't stop evil leaders.

Such come about because of the will to power of small minded people who chose not to care.
They close their minds and hearts to their acts, and ALWAYS they cycle into worse spirals of abuse unless stopped.
That's what history and personal experience have taught me.

There have been decent politicians, on all sides, who have worked against such scumbags, who BUILT our countries up, but now, too many have been bought and sold by cabals of Big Business and they have forced out the moderates, the honest and humanitarians.

The other day in Westminster, one of the last decent politicians, Dennis Skinner, called the Prime minister "Dodgy Dave", because of the revelations of tax evasion
for this he was expelled, like a naughty schoolboy! from parliament, unless he could think of a less impolite term for that evil filthy SCUMBAG in charge of our nation
so I loved this meme someone came up with, what other names might he have thought of?

 

[Chrisb]

Interesting to compare and contrast the plight of most with the treatment accorded by the right wing press, and his employers, to Duncan Smith when he took absence from work to care for his wife. I have not seen it recorded whether he took a reduction in salary during his absence.

But as we know MPs are not shirkers and are motivated solely to benefit the society they represent.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...an-Duncan-Smith-talks-time-wifes-illness.html

The lack of empathy and understanding is curious.

 

[TiredSam]

I used to think @SilverbladeTE could be a little on the extreme side, but I'm coming to regard him as the voice of reason . I suppose one thing about this illness is that at least you get a free education in politics .

 

[SilverbladeTE]

QUOTE="TiredSam, post: 716145, member: 20476"]I used to think @SilverbladeTE could be a little on the extreme side, but I'm coming to regard him as the voice of reason . I suppose one thing about this illness is that at least you get a free education in politics .[/QUOTE]


yeah life's a lot different when you're on the "other side of the fence"
but that's what the Elite cultivate: a massive fake division in society, "us vs them", haves vs the have nots, etc
And the media lie out their arses about the REAL world.

Two catastrophic wars wracked the world last century, the basic reason being the Elite of Germany were jealous of the Elite of Britain and France, because France and UK had deep water ports so with big navies etc, they could invade and steal other nation's resources much easier than Germany could.

France and UK had huge sprawling Empires that while they did some good, they were won and kept at the cost of war and slaughter, slavery and abuse. Look at the Opium Wars as a foul example, and of the way in the long term such events came back to haunt us all.

The German elite wanted to end that UK/France hegemony and take their "slice of the cake", though in the 2nd World War idea was more of taking over Eastern Europe/Russia for it's resources rather than the UK/France's overseas empire.
Yet these are the scum who whinge about the Working Class having an "overinflated sense of entitlement"!
These gits started or screwed up worst wars in history to grab more for their own greedy hands.
Doesn't matter which nation, the Elite (in general) are always out for *themselves* NOT their country and people, and don't care about the oceans of blood they cause to be shed.

Germany had been wracked for centuries by the atrocious wars that swept the Continent, that left serious issues in it's culture, just as the rule of the Mongols and the likes of Catherine the Great left on Russia ("inhumanity" that is in certain ways in each culture, which eventually exploded in the 20th century into the worst horrors we know of)

UK had the blessing of being an island and thus evaded a lot of the troubles giving a stability that others lacked, but also, a lack of dynamic change. So that led to a desire for "not causing trouble" (which was good), and alas a "stodginess" (which was bad).
So currently, since the populace is so "stodgy", the Elite in UK feel they can get away with *anything*, and have.
Ever want a lesson in the depravity of evil, Belsen, the Killing Fields of Cambodia, Katyn Massacre/Ukrainian Famine and how the UK's Elite used children's care homes as slave brothels are lessons to be learned from, and stopped, even at the cost of lethal violence, from ever happening again.

So, part of that belief that they can get away with anything, the Elite in UK started abusing by denying benefits and medical research into many different disabilities caused by industry, military "research" and other issues.
Since this was so successful, the current bunch who're even worse than the previous generations because NO ONE STOPPED THEM FROM DOING EVIL BECAUSE OF THAT SPREADING CULTURE OF "don't interfere, don't tell, you scratch my back I'll scratch yours",
well, they are now destroying the Welfare State, the NHS, the military and other issues, anything to save spending money, which they then use as tax breaks for the rich.
"Austerity" is a LIE, always has been, was used in Germany for same lying reasons and helped give support to the Nazis. Austerity is just a con game to cut spending so the rich get richer NOT to repay national debt
the bankers are desperate to get everyone in debt, strangling the world in chains of debt slavery

Anyway, the eventual outcome of all this, being lead by utter useless, incompetent, drug addicted, child abusing, rapacious wahoos, is destruction.
The Public in Uk are brought up on a load of bull about the 2 world wars, reality was it was miracle we won.
First two years in both wars for the UK it's Empire and France, were utter incompetent debacle, caused by those inbred Elite idiots.

As example, the reason the French military lost heart in WW1 was *not* because of cowardice, it was because of the Elite's bullcrap and way the Franco-Prussian War had gone, which the French Elite spun into a fairytale, just like the Nazis did with losing WW1.
So the French were told they had to act with "elan", absolute aggressive attacks and courage.
The German military being smarter, let the the French charge into their superb defence works and slaughtered the hapless French poilus' by the thousands. Eventually this decimation and mindless idiocy sapped their will to fight

And that severe damage to their cultural psyche, their pride and military, lead to the French disaster in WW2
Again the French were NOT cowards, far form it, but their leadership were old men, terrified of the butchery of WW1 and they literally broke down, the Generals were largely unable to think, paralyzing the French defence in 1940. Well led counter attacks would certainly have caused severe harm to the German army, possibly defeating but certainly blunting the invasion.

So France was lost, because of a string of historical, cultural, psychological issues.
And these led to the shame of the Vichy French years, of aiding the Holocaust etc, leaving yet more cultural issues.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

While we know we are victims of a conspiracy, to prevent welfare payments and possible cause that may worry the government (bioweapon, or reaction to industrial chemical...merely the FEAR of such is enough to set idiot politicians and bureaucrats to covering things up)
The rest of the population doubts this, just as they doubt the idea that Moslem terrorists are stirred up and armed by Western intelligence agencies for various nefarious desires.

Largely the Islamic terrorism started because the "spooks" knew the Soviet Union was falling and needed a new enemy to keep them in a job! so they made a "never ending enemy", just like in the novel 1984.
also about fact islam bans "usury", which means its harder for the bankers to get debt slavery...and reason you have some prominent Jewish bankers is because Christian bigotry made money lending and debt collecting some of the few trades Jews could do in the Middle Ages.

Which lead to increased bigotry, hatred and murder to steal the wealth of Jewish people, and end result Holocaust, middle Eastern chaos and a handful of Elite scumbags who run lot of the banking world,
the fact the bankers in question are Jewish is purely by quirks of these Human abuses and stupidity ending up with a Elite group removed from the cares and pains of ordinary people, not because of their ethnic/religion.
Scumbags have no race creed or colour, they don't CARE no matter what they say, I can give examples of about any group backstabbing their own people, never mind anyone else.

Note one of the most prominent foundders of the drug dealing criminal enterprise that was British Hong Kong was Scottish (he was one of or the first "Taipan", and is largely responsible for starting the Opium Wars)

Or the ordinary Public doubt those who claim nuclear weapons are militarily useless and a terrible threat of wiping us all out and the risk is WORSE now.
Nuclear weapons are just like the huge crowns, swords and sceptres kings once carried: phallic/ego symbols, seriously!
Huge con trick, but puts Doomsday Weapons in the hands of literal psychopaths and drug addicts
it's well known a senior UK politician is a cocaine addict.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

End result of all this squabbling and lust to control everything by these Elite, will be ruin and war on a scale that will dwarf even World War 2.

If the Elite will prevent 250,000 British Citizens from being treated and helped for M.E., as just ONE of many many other criminal stupid acts, what do folk think the entire worldwide mess will be like in the end?

 

[u&iraok]

Quote from article:

It’s frightening how life can change. Over a decade ago, Thomas Hemingford, now 45, was on a comfortable wage as a software development manager. His family – his wife Helen and their three children – lived in a home they owned on the outskirts of Harrogate in North Yorkshire. They went on holidays abroad, had two cars – and even bought a convertible as a “Sunday car”. But in 2002, bad luck hit: Helen became severely ill with ME and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a progressive disability that affects her legs, arms, hearing and sight.

This can so happen to anyone. In the U.S. one of the causes is not having health insurance. I've seen many stories of people who were between jobs and had a gap of insurance of just one month, then they got sick or injured and...that was it.

We got a deal with Obama care but come tax time we find we have to pay $1,800 back for six months of coverage. My husband was out of work for a year and now only works part time at not that much an hour. Thank goodness I have a job. All it takes is a couple of hits and that's it, especially for people who live paycheck to paycheck.

Healthy people need to have savings and not assume that things will always go on as they have. They also need to believe that they could get sick, which is a fact they would rather ignore.