Bristol Uniparty candidates shat on "the disabled community" from a great height, while banning POW candidate from Speaking.
Report from the "Deaf and Disability Hustings" on 25 June 2024
This hustings was organised by WECIL, BRIL, (two local disability charities), and hosted by Inclusion London.
This event made me so angry it's taken me a couple of days to calm down enough to write this!
Held in Bristol's prestigious “Beacon", formerly the Colston Hall, those of us who care about these things were pleased that it was:
Central; on bus routes and near taxi drop-off points; very accessible, with lifts, and plenty of choices between disabled, unisex, and Male or Female Loos.
It was partly held online, so that those who couldn't get there could join in and ask questions. There was a projected caption service (which didn't work very well) for the deaf members of the audience. All “Brownie Points” for the organisers, so credit where it's due.
But after that promising start, the event was a washout, and a perfect example of top-down authoritarianism wrapping itself in the “Inclusion” flag, (and we all know what colours that flag is, don't we)?
So here's my observations of the organisers failures, which I do not believe were accidental:
The hustings was ostensibly for the Bristol Central constituency, which has 6 candidates. In the alphabetical order they're listed, on the “Who can I vote for” website, they are:
Robert Clark, Reform UK. Nicholas Coombes, Liberal Democrat. Thangham Debbonaire, Labour Party. Carla Denyer, Green Party. Kellie-Jay Keen, Party Of Women (EXCLUDED). Samuel Williams, Conservative and Unionist Party.
Here's the video of the event by “Inclusion London” (I know, I know 🙄).
https://www.youtube.com/live/xF2_SF5Il-4?si=9Ox-XSE0c3Wp4508
Scroll to 3:20 to hear the Reform candidate express his disgust that a candidate had been barred as a Speaker. If he hadn't said this, none of the disabled people in the room, or their Carers, would have known, because the Chairman didn't bother to mention it.
I do not advise listening to the endless waffle of the Uniparty representatives (NOT candidates - this was FAR too small beer for them to turn up). They came from all constituencies north, south, east, west, none of them from the area it was supposed to be about. How do I know ? - because they told us!
Labour, Tories, and Greens sent minions who don't live in the constituency, who struggled to read the simplistic scripts given to them by their bosses, and answered questions by falling back on sob stories about elderly relatives in care homes, I kid you not.
Or maybe you SHOULD listen, to hear them repeatedly say they didn't actually know what was in their manifestos on these issues. In reply to questions, let me remind you, from the supposedly oh-so-important “disabled community".
Their chairs on stage had labels with such small writing that from 6 feet away, I struggled to read the names. Not that it mattered, as they weren't even there. The only ones who did turn up, fair play to them, were the two who have no chance of winning this seat, Reform and the LDs!
Oh, and the candidate who was excluded, Party Of Women.
The approximately 50 disabled people and carers in the room had made a huge effort to be there. Several in wheelchairs, they had travelled in adapted minivans from their various centres and organisations. It would have taken up their whole day, getting ready, travelling, going home, for the 11am - 2pm event.
I was there (apart from supporting the excluded candidate) to make notes on what the candidates said, for the small Carers support social group I organise.
The double think-bubble is our own design, it represents our “parent” Mental Health charity, Rethink. As there was no one else there from Rethink, I intended to take notes to feed back.
But looking at the notes I took, I see that they consist of pages of “more waffle, didn't answer question, said he couldn't answer” etc.
As we went into the event, we were invited to leave questions in a box on the reception table. I did this, and guess what, that box was never mentioned by the Chairman at any point. It was obvious they had no intention of looking at it's contents.
Nor was he interested in taking any questions not already on his script. After our treatment downstairs, blocked from entering, and then monitored as if we were domestic terrorists (despite having tickets) we hoped to be able to at least ask a question from the floor.
Kellie-Jay's intended question was: what did the candidates think about disabled women, (in Bristol's care homes, day centres, hospitals, GP surgeries, and receiving Care visits at home), not being guaranteed the right to ask for female-only intimate Care because they have to accept men in Womanface as “female"?
We see from the recent Tribual case some brave Nurses are taking against their NHS Trust employer, that this is a very real issue of safeguarding;
The issue of same-sex personal care is one many Carers and disabled people feel strongly about. But what use to ask the question anyway, since the Uniparty candidates didn't bother to show up? Here's KJK’s video of the farce by the back door, on the ground floor of the Bristol Beacon. https://www.youtube.com/live/ZLd53zo-Gow?si=70y8kiKDpIFNBaP5
I'm amazed at how calm I was at the time, because I'm so angry, just writing this, my heart condition could easily kick off!
Don't mistake me, both myself, with 40 years experience of the shithole which is Bristol local politics, and Kellie-Jay, have both seen and experienced far worse treatment. I am furiously angry at the way Bristol's “disabled community” were shat on from a great height by the organisers of this hustings, and the no-show Uniparty candidates.
I spent the last few years at my workplace (up to my cancellation from the Morning Star, in February 2020), as a Union Rep, specialising in disability issues. It will not surprise you to know that much of my time on Union issues (unpaid, in my breaks) was spent dealing with complaints about the disabled Loos being used by everyone else, their inacessibility, unsuitability, and not conforming to building regulations.
(Just to give you an idea of why it matters so much, there were at least two colleagues in the building with Stomas. Plus plenty of Chron's, pregnant women, and other serious “invisible disabilities").
I am SO pleased that the Plandemic lockdown gave many of us the opportunity of early retirement. Because if I was still a Union disability rep, having to deal with the women's and disabled Loos being used by “tranz” people to the exclusion of who they are designed for, I think my heart condition would have offed me by now!
We heard afterwards that the Uniparty candidates are not attending ANY hustings in Bristol Central, except for one run by the news outlet Bristol 24/7, which has the biggest audience.
Is it just me who suspects that their ignoring the voters who bother to turn up to these things is connected to Bristol local politics? A let's-not-rock-the-boat-locally-by-arguing -with-one-another-at-the-hustings agreement?
In May, the Greens took control of the city council, after years of having elected Mayors to blame all the disasters on. ( Bristol voted to stop having elected Mayors).
From being in special measures for Planning, to terrible Ofsted reports and schools in special measures, to Bristol's endless traffic congestion. For the last year, the Labour councillors have refused to even sit on the Planning Committee!
So if Labour's Thangham Debbonaire wins Bristol Central, which their own supporters feel is a safe bet ( but don't bet on it, if you're a candidate! 😂) she can smooth things over for the Greens in Parliament, with all their little local difficulties. They will undoubtedly lurch from one crisis to another, especially if the other parties on the council abdicate their responsibilities, like Labour have been doing on Planning!
After 40 years of involvement in Bristol politics, as a candidate, an activist, AND a disabled resident, and Carer, what I witnessed at the Disability Hustings was, sadly, just par for the course, for this ridiculous little West Country Banana Republic.
I watched Kellie-Jay Keene’s videos of the way you were treated and it was disgusting. As for that woman calling you fascists she needs to look in the mirror. My sister is a carer (in Sussex) and her clients are a majority of women and none of them want strange men coming in their homes and giving them intimate care. It really upsets me how many organisations are bending over backwards to not upset ‘trans’. What about women? They don’t care.💜🤍💚
Great report Stella.