Disabled people are not the enemy, but the Tory party wants you to think they are

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Why would a government target disabled and sick people as being the ‘problem’ within Britain’s finances? (PA)

Dread and fear are words that spring to mind regarding Jeremy Hunt’s new financial sanctions for disabled people who are unable to work. UK citizens, who have become disabled, or who are too sick to work, and have been forced to rely on social security, now face having their income cut off. Many disabled people in the UK already live in poverty, struggling to survive on meagre substitutes for the wages they were once able to earn. Even more so in the current climate of the cost of living and energy crises. Now we are faced with a complete removal of income.

Why? Why would a government target disabled and sick people as being the “problem” within Britain’s finances? Is it because they need to distract the general public from the billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money they handed to party friends and donors? They need the general public to believe that disabled people are the enemy, a drain on the country’s resources. It is the Conservative Party that is a drain on the country’s resources, having leeched the lifeblood out of the UK to line their own and donors’ pockets.

So what better way to attempt to distract the public than to create hatred towards disabled people?

Ask yourself this: would you rather your taxes went into the pockets of multimillionaires or towards helping an injured veteran pay his rent? To already ultra-rich oil companies or a stroke survivor’s food shop? We are not your enemy. And at any point you could become one of us, as disability is something that can happen to anyone.

Rachel Curtis

Northumberland

What else did you expect?

If I understand this correctly, we are only in year one of an inquiry scheduled to last at least five years. Obviously, as a taxpayer, this concerns me greatly.

What concerns me more is the evidence presented so far, and the level of incompetence displayed by the then government under Boris Johnson, who appears to have taken the view at some point to “let the bodies pile high”. This should be seen as criminal intent and pursued in a court of law.

On reflection, the government’s incompetence does not surprise me in any way. If you elect a known liar and a charlatan as your prime minister – a man who bamboozled the country into believing that Brexit would elevate us to a world-beating nation – what else can you expect? Any accusing finger should therefore be pointed at the gullible voting public.

Gunter Straub

London

Too many mistakes without consequence

Having tried to keep abreast of the Covid inquiry, and what seems to be numerous failings by those then in power, it made me realise that I cannot be alone in thinking that the government has been in disarray for quite some years.

In recent years, most of the Conservatives’ time as the ruling party has been spent attempting to clean up their own house, rather than doing the job they were appointed to.

No other sector or place of employment would tolerate so many mistakes without consequence. The level of inadequacy we have had in successive Tory leaders can no longer be thought of as acceptable.

Glen Dave

Address supplied

The kids are alright

Education secretary Gillian Keegan has expressed “deep concern” that some children are missing lessons to join protests backing a ceasefire in Gaza. Keegan argues such walkouts “should be treated with the utmost seriousness – missing school for activism is unacceptable”.

I think children in the UK showing solidarity with the children being killed in Gaza shows compassion and unity on a far greater level than the Tories are capable of. It offers hope for the future when it is desperately needed.

I also believe that children in the UK are probably thinking that, since their government repeatedly breaks the law and doesn’t follow its own rules, why should they?

Sasha Simic

London