To want to go and kick this man right up his ignorant arse

[OhDoAdmit]

I am rushing off to work so sorry if this has been done.
I am also sorry for the DM link but they are rather good and this sort of story.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058976/Future-mayor-sparks-outrage-saying-parents-using-disabled-children-planning-permission-huge-extensions.html#addComment

This man has made one of the crassest comments I have seen. He has epitomised the current demonisation of people with disabilities and actually taken it to a whole new level.

Now I realise that this thread will bring out a whole heap of 'my neighbour's cat's uncle had a blue badge and he ran a marathon last week' type of comments. But I will ignore them - thats is what the DM comments page is for.

Just a few thoughts before I go and work with families who are clearly raking it in from haveing a child with complex needs

Having adaptations to your home is unlikely to ADD value and will put most buyers off.
Looking after a child at home will save the tax payers at least 2k per week per child
People who have severely disabled children often have to give up work to provide care - yes even when the go to school full time. How does your boss like you taking a few hours off to take your child to the dentist? Well imagine having 3 appointments in one week, a month or two in hospital per year plus being called to the school on a weekly basis because of seizures, temperatures, falls and unexplained prolonged bouts of crying... Still think you could hold down a job?

This guy is a fucking knob.

I am angry

pendeen that may be true but the issue here is the spirit and tone of his comments.

He displays a breathtaking lack of knowledge and a staggering insensitivity and he is about to become a Mayor

I think the planning and funding issues are also connected. Without the funding the planning is pretty irrelevant for the vast majorities of the familes anyway.

My friend has three young children, two of whom are disabled, although you wouldn't know right away to look at them. But they have a condition which offer a low life expectancy, if they make it to their late twenties they will be said to have done very well. But it's only if. She frequently rings me in tears to say another family they have met through hospital appointments or through the charity that supports families who have a child with this condition has lost their child, often they are only a few years older than my friends oldest child is now.

I'm sure she and those other families will take great comfort in the fact that their houses will be worth a lot of money and will be thrilled to know that this man has no objection to their children.

has he resigned yet?

His comments were very insulting.
He should consider his position and spend more time with his family.

My blood pressure is raised enough having read the thread - I'm not even going to read the article.

Has anyone linked him to this thread?

Maybe he would like to take the opportunity to tell us what he actually said and how the nasty nasty journalist twisted his words?

I mean - 'I have no objection to disabled children' - what did he say? Disabled children & their families need all the assistance they can get. I will be doing everything I can to make their lives that little bit easier'

Does he really believe that £30k would improve a house that much irrespective of what you do to it? Let alone if you use that to adapt it for the specific requirements of the disabled person living in that house. Does he really think lifts/hoist rails/handrails/special baths/showers/toilets really actually improve a house? What an utter fuck muppet.

STB Mayor . Why am I not surprised.

Well- he appears to have acheived the impossible- enabled an overwealming agreement to happen on 'AIBU'.

I can not get my head around it- where is he coming from? There are few people who would begrude such families making a 'profit' on their home, although I imagine cases where this actually happens are incredibly rare.

You're right, Flip, people give their jobs up to look after disabled children, and lose hundreds of K over their working lives. If they make a few grand on an extension, good luck to them. Sadly, though, I just don't think they will for the reasons we've gone into all over this thread.
Arsepart of the highest order, this bloke.

His email replies still suggest that he just does not get it. People who have rural occupations will experience disability at some point in their lives. If he does not think they should build an extension on their property to make life easier for their child with complex needs, their son who had a quad accident, their daughter who fell off her horse or their elderly parents what are they supposed to do? Does he want the countryside cleansed of disabled people? I cannot understand the link he is trying to make on affordable rural housing.

If he had made comments to me about making a profit when my seriously ill child dies I would seriously consider investigating harassment under the Equality Act 2010 as I perceive this as insulting, humiliating degrading and divisive. It does not matter whether he intended it to be or not.

OhDoAdmit

In most cases yes, but in these specific instances, not really. The sort of development he was criticising is not the same as most disabled projects at all.

I have no doubt even the wealthiest appicant wouldn't turn down grant aid but that is unlikely to be a significant factor here. I had a quick look at the application and the drawings; it is a very upmarket development indeed. I'm not sure why this application was singled out because it did not even go to planning committee but was decided - on 7 October - by council officers so it cannot have been very contentious.

The politician phrased his reservations in a very crass way (not many councillors are known for their soaring intelligence or learned erudition) but behind all the bluster there is a serious point lurking.

Sorry pendeen you are making good and valid points but there is nothing that can possibly justify this man making these statements.

Nothing. People have resigned for far less. As I have said, I am not a fan of kneejerk resignations, I prefer people to stand and be accountable.

This man has caused a lot of hurt. My biggest objection is that he has fed into the growing swell of anti-disability opinion.

Our society is becoming more and more antagonistic towards those they presume are milking the system. Families living with disability are an easy target. It matters not how outrageous the statements are, there will ALWAYS be someone who qualifies them with 'its not everyone but I know xxxxx who gets xxxxx and there is nothing wrong with them'

It is becoming so deeply ingrained that cannot be any thread, any article without comments linking disability to fraud. The two words are almost synonomous (sp) despite statistics and evidence to the contrary.

it doesn't matter how well off you are or how expensive your house is, having a disabled child will still cause the same anguish

OhDoAdmit

My post may have come across wrongly, as being about the disability issue.

My slant is probably slightly OT, as I am an Architect and I was commenting on a hidden but often common abuse of the planning system.

That was the meaning of ".. there is a serious point lurking ."

Sore point with me (for obvious reasons) but I accept a mild rebuke for going OT. The disability issues are, of course, very important.

I am not defending the man. As I said above, he is a small-time politician and I don't think his political career will go much further after those comments.

He also looks very creepy, but that's just my opinion!

No rebuke meant pendeen honest

I meant it when I said you were making valid points.

This twit is one in a very long line of twits making twittish comments about stuff they know twit all about.

It all gets put in the pile and dragged out later as fact, as in 'remember that time that couple used their kid to get planning permission'.

I think he looks well creepy

He is an idiot.

We (my Dad really) is in the process of adapting my parents home to accomodate my increasingly disabled Mother.

Extensive efforts have been made to 'camoflague' what is essentially a downstairs bedroom/ wetroom etc. to avoid decimating the value of their house.

As others have said. Adapted properties are difficult to sell.

Parents are lucky as they can at least afford a 'nice' extension.

Holdup, I have a 'severly disabled' child (according to DLA).

Where the hell do I claimmy free extention????

Someone please tell me!!

I'm sure the man is a twat but the reason the DM are "good at this kind of story" is because they have a tendency to make stuff up in order to arouse outrage and make people hate each other. If it suited them better they'd put in a different story, probably one of the 'blue badge holder running a marathon' stories you rightly loathe. So I won't be clicking on the link and contributing to their advertising revenue.

The story is elsewhere if you want to google. It was local before it went national.

just because it is in the DM doesn't make the bloke less of a wanker.
has he issued a statement?
has he apologised publicly ?(sp)
is he a wanker still?

www.lep.co.uk/community/disabled_slur_politician_sorry_he_caused_offence_1_3954755?commentspage=0

Not an overly impressive or sincere apology im my opinion.

The point he was trying to make was that there need to ne affordable family homes for local people.It is a big problem in rural communities of developers, buying up doing up and selling on houses.An extension might add hundreds of thousands to the value of the house, yet grab rails hoists ramps etc can be removed relatively cheaply.tThere is no reason why parents of disabled children can't be property developers is there? It doesn't mean that they all are or even that most are but some will see and opportunity to make money and who can blame them?
The comments he made were clumsy,insensitive ,badly worded and I can understand would be hurtful , but underneath all thet he IS making a valid point.

"clumsy"
this is a future mayor, not a man in the street.

well that is a non apology.

What an arsehole. There are a fair few people talking about it on Twitter as well.

mayors and councillors are just men in the street though aren't they.they all have regular jobs too!

Hardly just a man in the street. A man in the street would have no influence and no platform. He is going to be Mayor with all that entails.

There is no excuse for his words.

What valid point is he making? That there is a slight possibilty that someone might make some money on a house they own and they might have a child with a disablity?
That needs saying does it?

That really warrants those comments?
Bollocks.

Its more crap to add to the pile of crap.

A handful of families across the country who happen to live in a big house and have a disabled child is doing fuck all to increase the problem of rural homelessness and poverty.

The so you have a house that is worth 250k that first time buyers and young families cannot afford? You add an extension and it possibly adds 50k to the price? So those families who couldnt afford it before still cant afford it.

It is a non issue. FFS.