WTF are Frothers? Have you seen them around and wondered? Not a quiche, but a protest group. Tory, Labour, Lib Dems - Common Goal - Protest Against the Cuts

[MmeLindor.]

What are the Frothers?

The term "Frothers" came about one dank and dismal November day in 2011. A frustrated user of the parenting forum Mumsnet started a thread about her dismay at the cuts that the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government was inflicting on the British public.

She stated that she was not "quite a frothing berserker but I am getting rather cross with our government messing with the good stuff".

The good stuff - policies, benefits, institutions that had taken years to achieve were being cut for no good reason, often leaving gaping holes in the fabric of British society.

The NHS, with which we Brits have a love-hate relationship, but like a favourite sibling, we wish to protect from harm.

Sure Start, a successful scheme that supported parents who were struggling and offered children from deprived backgrounds a better start in life.

Universal Child Benefit was cut for those families who had one earner bringing in more than £44k a year. If both parents each earn less than £44k, they keep their UCB payments. This obviously hit single parents and families with a single earner hardest.

Disability Living Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance - which enabled those with disabilities to live a decent life, without feeling that they were begging for assistance or were a burden to the taxpayer.

Student Fees, the introduction of which, contrary to Lib Dem pre-election promises, means that a whole generation of young people will have to think carefully before applying to higher education.

These and many other cuts are being made in the name of austerity. We are "all in this together", but some of us are deeper in this than others.

We all understand that there are sacrifices to be made but why should these sacrifices be borne by those who already have so little?

The general public seems oblivious of the dangers being faced, they are unaware of the injustices being wrought on the already disadvantaged.

The government is winning the war of the headlines. They have blasted the recipients of DLA and ESA as scrounger and cheats so often that the general public believe it. They misinterpret data to "prove" their points. Teachers are painted as being irresponsible and greedy, while the bankers rake in the money.

The poster on Mumsnet was not alone for long. Within a few days, a group of over 30 posters had formed. They asked themselves, "What can we do?".

The idea of a blog was born. Three days later the blog had over thirty authors signed up, a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

The Aims:

• to open the general publics' eyes to the injustices being created by the governement

• to inform those who are facing cuts about their rights

• to link with other activists and charities, in order to put pressure on the government

Are you a Frother?

Come and join us.

BLOG

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

Hello Frothers

I'm wondering if any of you can help publicize Croydon Council's plans to dispense with SEN transport and replace it with a combination of personal transport budget (£20/week) and lessons on how to use buses (WTF?)

The consultation group (16 families drawn from the 970-odd in the borough) thought that shunting severely disabled children onto overcrowded London buses would prove empowering and would reduce bullying and discrimination.

"By building the confidence of young people with SEN through travel training the programme may minimise any risk of harassment or discrimination that young people with disabilities may experience in public life"

"Where children or young people and
their parents/carers feel that it is
appropriate, the proposal offers an
opportunity to adopt a more
personalized and empowering
approach to travel to and from
school and home. It also offers
young people the opportunity to
develop their independent living
skills, which develops their
confidence and transition to adult life"

pdf here

webpage here

CC are currently asking affected parties to complete on online questionnaire
here which will (probably)
either be ignored or be spammed by the worst kind of reactionary Mail-reading tosspots.

There has been minimal publicity about this, and concerns raised have been ignored or marginalised.

And for a bit of personal input (what one Guardian commentator charmingly called "shroud waving") if my severely autistic son's escorted minibus was replaced with a personal travel budget, then I would spend over 4 hours per day escorting him to and from school. The £20 would just about cover the cost of my bus fares. I'll leave it to your imagination what an hour's travel on a noisy, overcrowded (illegally so) London bus would do to my son, who has major sensory issues, and cannot cope with noise or large crowds . Walking would not be possible for us, as he has dyspraxia and hypermobile joints. The school is nearly 4 miles away, and the journey involves two very steep hills and a walk along two sections of dual carriageway.

Added to this, due to school catchment areas, my daughter would only be offered a place in the school closest to her home. There is no way I can simultaneously be in two different places at once to do the school run (I'll leave hypothetical quantum entanglement out of the discussion for simplicity's sake) . The journey would also impact upon my health. I have Lupus and EDS-2 hypermobility, which severely limit my mobility. Sitting on a crowded bus for 4 hours a day would put me at risk of DVT or a pulmonary embolism.

Christ VLG - I can see why you're not pleased!

Would you like to write a post for the blog yourself as a guest contributor? I always think they work really well when it's written by someone who really understands what it means in real life.

Thanks, SGM.

VLG
That is awful. How on earth could anyone think this was a good idea. We have a lot of good Twitter followers who would be able to help you get some publicity, I think.

I agree, that if you would like to write the blog yourself, that it would be more powerful.

Thanks for all the RTing today.

I'll have a bash at it tonight, if that's ok? I'll need to read fully through the pdf (have just skimmed it so far) and get DP to help write the post as he's the literary one in the partnership.

Initially CC are looking to push as many families as possible onto the Personal Transport Budget, with minibuses/taxis for the more disabled. They are also considering the receipt of Mobility Component when calculating PTB awards... presumably PTB will be reduced or withdrawn in these cases, as they will argue that Mobility Component covers transport to and from school As the more severely disabled children will receive MC, then said taxi/minibus provision will be withdrawn. I also expect that eligibility criteria will be tightened up, and PTBs reduced over subsequent years.

Other points to note...

Croydon Council considers up to 75 minutes a reasonable journey time

London Buses meet the criteria for transporting severely disabled and
vulnerable children to and from school.

The initial Focus group took opinions from just 16 families- 1.6% of the affected group.

More able children will be given Independent Travel Training in order to teach then how to use buses. Once they have completed this training, then they will be expected to travel alone, unaided and unescorted. This could apply to 8 year olds with mild-to-moderate learning or physical disabilities.

Risk Assessment of this proposal only considers the financial risks. As the minibus fleet is replaced with smaller buses and taxis, the cost of the scheme could initially be more then the current Transport Budget.

Croydon council are a disgrace.

That would be good, SGM. Kind of a late night spartacus round up.

or early morning, if you are doing it then

:o

How dare they? Don't they know you have mumsnetting important work to do.

hello all frothers!

wtf has been going on??? been having to deal with a poorly dd and rl, but have been frothing in spirit with you all

btw,

I thought I would do a post on Mobility Cars, the truth about them, what you need to do to get one, levels of disability, etc. So if anyone has any links or info about that, give me a shout.

Hello Blackout. Good to see you. How is your DD now?

oh please do something about mobility cars, it winds me up no end about people getting cars for free

my friend gets a car so i know a little bit about it, if not i can give her a shout. she is away at the moment, because she has had an op and she can't afford to live in this country while not working!!!

dd is a lot better now thank you am thinking about asking the hospital for are own parking space

I know a bit about it, through my dad having one but wanted experienced and info from other places too.

It was all the "all those scroungers who get cars for free" - that always comes up when people start to talk about benefits.

ooh i do love the 'get a car for free' bollocks

forget the fact that you lose your dla to pay for it but you also have to pay a lump sum before you even get the car

Evening all

MMel, I saw that thread - blimey.

Wasn't MrsDeVere on there talking about mobility cars? May be she could give you some help. I think she's been tweeting with the #frothers.

I'm a wee bit busy at the mo but am twittering as much as possible.

I've got a couple of ideas for blog posts but am struggling to find the time to put ideas together coherently. I'm working on it though!

Yes, she did mention a thread about mobility cars, will have a search for it.

Love this post

A random thought I had the other day: It's funny how people are always so up in arms about benefit fraud (or benefit claiming in general!) on the basis that "it's my taxes they're spending" but usually very relaxed about VAT fraud which also deprives the country of millions in lost revenue.