Published by The Independent (31st March, 2014) They were clearing up the confetti, nursing hangovers and disappearing on honeymoons yesterday after the first batch of gay marriages in […]
Crime / Disability / Policy
Insulted, bullied and murdered – for being disabled
Published in The Independent (November 8th, 2013) David is an autistic man in his fifties. He lives in his own flat in north-east London, earning piecemeal money washing […]
Disability
A year on from the Paralympics, people with disabilities still face prejudice and abuse
Published in The Guardian (August 28th, 2013) When Don goes out, he faces frequent hostility. Despite living in a picture postcard part of the country, this man in […]
Disability / Health / Policy
The NHS is killing disabled people
Published in The Guardian (May 22nd, 2013) My daughter was ill at the weekend. Just a heavy cold; but when your child has profound and multiple learning disabilities, […]
Disability / Policy / Politics / Welfare
All we can agree on is that welfare’s in a state
Published in The Independent (April 2nd, 2013) What a strange world we live in. A clutch of Church leaders spent their holiest weekend of the year queuing up to […]
Disability / Policy / Social care
We’re all living longer. How afraid should we be?
Published in The Independent (February 11th, 2013) On the day I was born in 1962, the number of British centenarians was in three figures. Since then numbers have […]
Disability / Health / Policy
What the NHS needs even more than money – a dose of kindness
Published in The Daily Mail (December 5th, 2012) Even today, 19 years on, I can still remember every second of the day my world crashed in. It was […]
Disability
Put people with learning difficulties at the core of society
Published in The Observer (December 2nd, 2012) Another day, another outbreak of hand-wringing over how to protect vulnerable people from abuse in so-called care homes. Yesterday, it was […]
Disability / Social care
Killing kindness with red tape
Published in The Independent (October 9th, 2012) Kenny’s life in not easy. He is blind, unable to speak, needs help with eating and drinking and suffers seizures that […]
Disability / Health / Policy
Prejudice in the NHS is killing people with disabilities
Published in The Guardian (September 15th, 2012) Imagine it was your son or daughter, your brother or sister, your mother or father. They arrive home from hospital and […]
Disability
The best Paralympic legacy: an end to this disabled apartheid
Published in the London Evening Standard (August 28th, 2012) After the wondrous joy of the Olympics, London is preparing for the Paralympics. Another opening ceremony, another 11 days […]
Disability
It’s not just the bad apples – it’s our rotten society’s attitudes
Published in The Independent (August 9th, 2012) The details are disturbing, a horrific blast from the darkest days of the past. Lonely people with learning difficulties punched and […]