Lord Morris of Manchester

I'm sure you've all read by now about the death of Labour peer Alf Morris. He was the man behind the 1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act and the man behind Mobility Allowance (which then became the mobility component of DLA and will soon become the mobility component of PIP).

The Channel 4 website's obituary has a great quote from him:

“If we could each bequeath one precious gift to posterity, I would choose a society in which there is genuine compassion for long-term sick and disabled people; where understanding is unostentatious and sincere; where needs come before means; where if years cannot be added to their lives, at least life can be added to their years; where the mobility of disabled people is restricted only by the bounds of technical progress and discovery; where they have the fundamental right to participate in industry and society according to ability; where socially preventable distress is unknown; and where no one has cause to be ill at ease because of her or his disability.”

How the last few years must have broken his heart. That all compassion for disabled people has evaporated from our society, that all understanding has been replaced by hate. The fact that means have been put far in front of needs; resulting in the deaths of numerous disabled people because the government had decided to retract their support. The closure of the Remploy factories restricting the number of disabled people taking part in industry. Where socially preventable distress is inflicted on disabled people deliberately. And given that Mobility Allowance was his baby; the fact that mobility is being taken from 20% of that benefit's successors.