‘You can stick your Autumn Statement up your arse’: disabled people organise emergency protest, 6pm tonight

Campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) has organised an emergency protest outside Downing Street. It’s happening today (Friday 24 November) at 6pm. The protest is broadly over the Tories’ benefit changes and the Autumn Statement – but specifically one minister’s comments. Chronically ill and disabled people and their allies are urged to get involved.

DWP: stick your changes up your fucking arse

As the Canary recently reported, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has pushed through punitive measures for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) via his Autumn Statement. These include:

• Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to be tightened, under the guise of ‘reflecting home working’. Hundreds of thousands of people could lose their benefits.
• Claimants in England and Wales deemed able to work who refuse to seek employment to lose access to their benefits and extras like free prescriptions.

Chronically ill and disabled people have been horrified. As one person told the Canary:

The ‘Back to Work Plan’ will lead to more people… dying and our conditions deteriorating through forcing disabled people into job search activity, looking for jobs that we cannot do and cannot cope with due to our medical conditions

However, some Tory ministers’ comments have been equally disgusting. Hunt for example recently said:

Anyone choosing to coast on the hard work of taxpayers will lose their benefits.

But it was Laura Trott who took things to another, even more despicable, level. As the Guardian reported, Trott – who is chief secretary to the Treasury – told Sky News:

Of course there should be support for people to help them into work but ultimately there is a duty on citizens if they are able to go out to work they should. Those who can work and contribute should contribute.

So, DPAC is fighting back with a protest called “You can stick your fucking duty up your arse”:

#ToryCutsKill #AutumnStatement #FollowBackFriday

Tonight at 6pm

“You can stick your f*cking duty up your arse” Protest

Downing St
Whitehall, London

Please use the above hashtags & RT pic.twitter.com/z8AOvtDuGH

— Paula Peters (@paulapeters2) November 24, 2023

“You can stick your duty up your fucking arse”

The group said said in a statement:

Laura Trott’s recent comments about the conservative party’s latest welfare plans have are just downright bloody insulting.

Telling disabled people they have a “duty as citizens” to work, after what they have put us through in the last 13 years is an insult to everyone of us who have survived since they came to power.

Trott was happy to dismiss our valid fears about the Government’s latest attack and the harm it will cause.

Where was the conservative party’s sense of duty when they imposed austerity-cuts to vital public services including:

• Social Care
• The NHS
• Local Councils
• The Independent Living Fund
• Disability Benefits
• Disabled Students Grant
• The Access to Work Fund
• And many many other vital services?

And at the same time cut benefit level and introduced the Bedroom Tax, capped benefit payments and brought in the two child limit.

All of which created isolation and destitution for the lucky – and cold dark graves for too many unlucky victims of Tory cruelty.

Where was their sense of duty when millions were living in fear of the dreaded brown envelope coming through the door because of the Work Capability Assessment and the dehumanising, degrading process that meant for them?

Where was their sense of duty when they left 100s of 1000s of disabled people to die during Covid, while they stepped over the corpses on their way to their parties?

There was no sense of duty, only self interest and greed.

Well, don’t tell us what our duty is – when you so flagrantly failed in yours.

We didn’t go to the country and ask for their vote, their trust and then let everyone down.

It was your duty to respect and empower us as equal citizens with a stake in our society.

Not to take every opportunity to attack, demean and other us.

You failed in that duty.

Don’t dare to tell us what ours is.

You can stick your fucking duty up your arse.

If you are able to support DPAC’s protest in person, get to Downing Street at 6pm on 24 November. Or, you can join in online using #ToryCutsKill.

Featured image via