ukjess you are right, russians and I are bound to feel a little heated on this topic since we have ourselves coped with school, university and careers in a time when it wasn't acknowledged that you could be bright but still have learning difficulties. Success has come to us both, and many others,but not without cost to our confidence and self esteem since whilst we have the cognitive ability and particular strengths in creativity and analysis we are also capable of appearing what society defines as being stupid especially, in my case, when it comes to the speed with which I arrive at ideas and analysis and the organisational and literacy skills that some see as a mark of efficiency, competency, or whatever. We both have children who thankfully have a diagnosis and understand their own strengths and weaknesses and have been helped with coping strategies (where they haven't developed them themselves) but they face a far more difficult world than we did. I could mess up my O levels, find a way to achieve good enough A levels to meet my BCC offer to read History at a Russell Group university and then be in a position to embark on a successful career and further academic achievement (including achieving distinctions in an MBA and MA) but my DDs face having to achieve As to get on a good course at a good university. Thankfully one is through the process and flying in her Science degree but for the other I am already losing sleep over what fate has in store for her on the 15th in these days of Gove's deflationary dystopia. She has the coping strategies and fully understands that being Dyslexic and Dyspraxic means having to work harder and smarter, it is not an excuse, but still with one shot in a three hour exam there are so many ways she may have been tripped up by her poor processing skills, her working memory, her disorganisation, her slow speed of reading and writing, and her anxiety (in spite of counselling and hypnotherapy) and have failed to achieve the A she is perfectly capable of, even with. 25% extra time (which believe me she uses to the full). She has already demonstrated her ability in her course work (which thank goodness still exists in her A level courses, because presumably they understand that the skills involved are absolutely essential for success at university, and the basis of most assessment there, and hello, there is software that easily spots plagiarism) and her EPQ.
1 in 10 people have a Specific Learning Difficulty regardless of ability. Of course there has to be definition of how much and which support they get and on what basis. Yes 25% extra time doesn't compensate for the speed of working for students like my DD. However after years in which the support was put in place for pupils like my DD based on what was recommended by experts we are now facing a world in which the D of E is taking things backwards, not based on sound evidence and the advice of the experts but based on the sort of prejudice and opinion that would normally only qualify to appear in an article in the Daily Mail. Read the link I gave, OFQUAL accept they are discriminating, they are just under pressure to reduce numbers.
For every anecdote you can give me of escalating numbers getting unjustified extra time I can quote all the parents I know who have struggled to get any support in the state system for any DC who is able to achieve above the average, regardless of their potential to achieve better given the right support, there is thread after thread on the subject within Mumsnet. I could also quote the teacher responsible for SEN at my DDs school who daily faces a challenge to persuade parents that their children have a SpLD, that it isn't a pejorative label, that it doesn't mean they are stupid, and to educate teachers at the school about the actual nature of SpLDs and counter all the stereotypes (eg my DDs English teacher telling her she was doing so much better and she was clearly cured 
) I can counter your assertion that too many people are getting unjustified support with an assertion that rising numbers getting support reflects increased awareness and better diagnosis. More DCs getting the support that Russians and I and many others would have greatly benefited from. That was the basis of my saying that I hope that with your prejudice and bias you are not allowed near a school age pupil, because I feel very strongly that pupils with SpLDs do deserve to have teachers who look at their potential and spot why it is they are not achieving it and do all they can to support them. If you are such a teacher then I apologise, but what you have posted on here suggests differently.