to think people should be a bit more sensitive when discussing things in public in front of people they don't know?

[FioFio]

I have just stood behind a couple of women in Tesco I don't know why I go there, it's convenient berating the fact that children with special needs get free transport to school and how bloody dare they blah blah blah and why on earth aren't their parents means tested

I mean what the actual fuck

People harping on about means testing do understand that means testing a benefit for a child would actually means - you know - means testing the child. Not the parents, the child. Also it might be worth pointing out that in most cases transport is provided for children with disabilities because their nearest suitable school is more than 3 miles away - and it's provided for NT kids in the same situation. If you CHOOSE to send you school to the desirable one more than three miles away, tough, you can take them yourself, if that's the nearest suitable school transport should be provided. Here check it out www.direct.gov.uk/en/parents/schoolslearninganddevelopment/schoollife/dg_10013990 The transport budget for rural areas is huge - because all those NT kids need transporting to school, perhaps their parents should be means tested as well :rolls eyes:

Check out the rules for DFG's and you can really get your knickers in a twist.

Although I have found the journo/troll accusations levelled at fiofio fairly amusing. She were round 'ere when it were all fields.

oh and fiofio I was hosting a coffee morning (god knows why) in my house once when ds3 was a baby, and someone in my house started to complain about children with special needs. In MY house. She had the decency to look embarrassed when I informed her that ds3's eldest brother was severely disabled.

my god!

Those children with special needs are such an inconvenience to those without them :o

Well yes. Particularly because she was SN TA (in mainstream of course), so those irritating oiks actually created her job

fgs

mercibucket Tue 03-Jul-12 20:39:48
"So we leap from comments about the idea of means testing a benefit provided for disabled children to racist/anti-semitic comments as if they are entirely the same thing?"

I never said they were analogous: I was responding to this comment, by ophelia275: "I think people should be entitled to their opinion whether you agree with it or not (especially when they are having a private conversation which you are listening in on) and that banning opinions that are not to your liking is totalitarian and the antithesis of the liberalism", by pointing out that most people do, in fact, think there is some point where free speech and liberalism should give way to common decency.

We may not all agree where the line should be drawn, but ophelia seemed to claim that there should be no line whatsoever, and I don't think many of us would agree with that once we've thought it through.

Personally I don't think the comments overheard by the OP (however misguided) amount to hate speech or should be banned.

But there is no doubt that there is more hate speech directed at disabled people now than there has been in the past. It seems to me very similar to the kind of rhetoric directed at other groups when I was younger: single mums at one time, homosexuals at another, Muslims at a somewhat later date. And as was the case with those other groups, it is justified with rather questionable figures about abuses and supposed cost. Figures which never seem to stand up to any real investigation.

Just came back to this and ooh that all went a bit weird like didn't it.

Thinking 'Ooh people should be a bit more sensitive they don't know who might be standing behind them' is not the same as BANNING. It is different. It is not policing thought. It is not totalitarianism. It is just asking others to be a bit more sensitive. There are two responses to the OP that make sense:

a) YABU and rather too sensitive, get over yourself.
b) YANBU people should be a bit more thoughtful.

But wittering on about free speech is irrelevant because the OP did not say she wanted people prevented from saying stuff. She wanted people to self-moderate and y'know just generally be a bit nicer.

Personally I'm on b) because I hear people spouting off a whole pile of wank about what children with SEN are 'entitled' to all the fucking time and it winds me up and I don't have a child with SEN. The legal rights to transport are pitiful, in an era of cuts it is one of the first things to be restricted. On the whole means-testing is a pointless waste of time because it costs more to administer than it saves. But as I pointed out above, in many areas, children with SEN have no more entitlement to help with transport than any other children. If they have to travel further to get to school then help is provided but that would also be the case if they lived in a remote area or couldn't get a place at a school near their home.

can i just pop in with the freedom of speach thing a sec. this is the uk we dont actually have it, well unless you are prepared to go stand on speakers corner we have rules and laws that whilst mostly are a technicality are there to prohibit behaviour liable to cause offence or distress they do actually cover the spoken word.
all totally irrelivant ofcourse but just felt like saying it

Its quite distressing when people exercise their right to talk utter shit about muslims, immigrants, sn, single mums etc. I hate the fact that Im being exposed to how stupid that person is and further more how proud they are of their stupidity. They need an education and to put down the DM. Very distressing to feel surrounded or in the company of idiots

People just don't realise how lucky they are

elliejjtiny Do they go to the same school or a different one?

If they go to the same school it probably makes sense to take him anyway. If it's a different one you know you can request an earlier pick up time to ensure you can get other DC to school on time? A boy on DS' taxi has to get picked up just after 8am so the Mum can get his older sister to school. He used to get picked up around 8:25 but it wasn't suitable. I'm not sure if there are any laws you can use to back this up if your LA are being picky. Perhaps someone on this thread can help?

They go to the same school. There isn't anyone else entitled to free school transport coming from this direction so DS2 would be picked up quite late otherwise he would be sat in the taxi at school for 30 mins waiting for the TA to come into the playground if he left before me and DS1. I can't see the LA being happy about that but I'll ask when we hear from them in August.

Is there going to be any benefit to you for him going on transport if you've got to go to the same school anyway?

Not really, that's why we decided not to pursue it. It would only be helpful if DS1 could go with him. TBH I don't mind that much as it means I can chat to the other parents and can talk to DS2's teacher and the SENCO if he's having problems. I just feel the need to speak up on threads where some people say that all children with disabilities get free transport, free cars, loads of money and a goat .

elliejtiny, could you let me know how to apply for the goat? I've always wanted one.Wouldn't mind the free cars and loads of money either, but if I had to choose.....

I have to ignore people who comment on how much DD's taxi and escort must cost the council 'When they're having to cut vital services'. I quietly tot up how much keeping her in care would have cost had we not adopted her, whilst thanking the Lord that after 11 years I no longer feel I have to justify every thing I do for her.

I really dispair when I hear people make sweeping generalisations about what other folk do, or get.