Disabled people like me are fair game for hate crime, and our government must shoulder some of the blame

When I was abused on the tube, I admit I felt that there was little point in reporting it to the police. This latest set of horrible data helps explain why

Worried about the stress levels of the bigot in your life? Concerned he’s getting all stirred up and might have to do without his blood pressure pills after a no-deal Brexit?

Fear not, because today is kick a cripple day!

So hand him his cricket bat and send him out on to the streets to find the nearest person with a disability – they don’t need to be an actual cripple like me, any disability will do – so he can reduce his stress level by knocking seven bells out of them.

What’s that? You’re worried about him getting arrested? Perhaps even for a hate crime? Fear not. He’s got about as much chance of getting convicted as you have for dropping a Twix wrapper on the floor in the middle of a crowd of commuters on their way to work.

Does my language, the use of the word “cripple”, shock you? Well here’s what should. Leonard Cheshire, the disability charity, today published statistics showing that disability hate crime involving violence shot up 41 per cent over the last year.

The figures ought to be published as a matter of course, but the charity had to send freedom of information requests to all 43 police forces in England and Wales to get them. Well to get them from some of them. A little under half failed to provide full answers.

When the charity collated the data it did receive it found that there were 2,538 such offences involving violence in 2018/2019, up from 1,805 the previous year. Including “non-violent” offences, the shameful total came to 4,111.

That’s a lot of seriously nasty crime. Convictions? Not so much.

Some 84 per cent of these cases went nowhere. Not so much as a “mind how you go”.

A mere 7 per cent resulted in a caution or “community resolution”. Just 6 per cent could be confirmed as having been sent either to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for charging or as having received a charge or summons.

Remember too, that these were just the offences that were reported. I was once abused on a tube train and was told that I should have notified the police about it (it was theoretically non violent, although it felt threatening enough). I didn’t because, as these figures make clear, I felt that there would have been little point in my doing so. I bet I’m not alone.

The citizens of a civilised country would be appalled by this sort of thing. Sadly, I’m afraid I don’t think this one qualifies any more. Have you been watching the way the government behaves lately?

I’ve been writing about disability for just under a decade now and I’m afraid I’m not in the least bit surprised to see these sort of numbers.

They are the inevitable result of a climate that has been created by government and in wider society, under which a handful of disabled people, Paralympians and the like, are put on a pedestal and drooled over as inspiration porn while the rest of us are dismissed as inconveniences at best and dirty benefit scrounging weasels at worst.

The narrative from government ever since Iain Duncan Smith got hold of the Department for Work & Pensions has been to cast suspicion on just about any disabled person who is unable to hang a gold medal around their neck. And some of those that can.

Tabloid newspapers pour petrol on a blazing fire with extreme stories about “scroungers”, like the bloke who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro while claiming the PIP. These invite Bob the Bigot to conclude that if he’s a crook it must mean that they all are.

You’ve probably heard the story about someone’s friend of a friend who was told about some bloke that got disability benefit by claiming a bad back and now lives in the lap of luxury. It’s become a meme. I was told a variant on it by an adapted car dealer.

“I can see you’re struggling, but this bloke I heard of…”

Those were his exact words.

The media mostly ignores stories about the difficulties we face, partly because there are so few disabled people working in it at any level.

Channel Four makes an effort, but elsewhere? The BBC has a couple of correspondents with disabilities, and maybe you’ll see a token wheelchair in a soap opera or two. Maybe.

Meanwhile, the government has the brass neck to claim to be a world leader in disability rights when the UN accuses it of systematically violating them.

And people buy that crap. “It’s just the bloody PC brigade,” the cry goes. “The UN should be looking at Russia, or China, or Iran, or something.”

All these things and more combine to create a narrative that disabled people don’t matter, and aren’t worth being concerned about.

The message has been heard and understood. And Bob the bigot is left to take out his anger where he sees fit.

“Calm down dear. Look Alexa’s told the woman down the road with the guide dog that the weather’s nice enough to take it for a walk. Go and lay into her.”

He’ll feel a bit better, I guess. And if he can’t catch up with her, he’ll find someone else on this lovely kick a cripple day. Which, apparently, is every damn day.