The "Underclass" - I used this term to Kate Green when she interviewed me for a job, in 2014.
I knew that under Corbyn we would win many more seats - because I was the Point Person (Secretary, Chair and Organiser and Founder) of a Momentum branch of over 500 members, and was on the Momentum National Committee as the Disability Representative - voted in by other disabled people.
What you are describing isnt unique to you - with the exception that you had greater visibility and greater opportunity to 'mingle' - if you hadnt been promoted by others, and chosen, and be in the right geographical locality, and look good on camera... then you wouldnt have had these opportunities.
Please dont fall into the trap of thinking you are where you are because of some genius. You have talents that we all supported to ensure the one gap in our 'company' was filled - you marketed and sold our product.
We are not ungrateful for that - but you also got richly rewarded, while we continued as the Underclass. You left us behind. Not intentionally, but as a consequence of us raising you up. You did a great job. But so did the small people, and the medium people. The ones who couldnt write but could copy text and tweets. The ones who could write, and wrote copiously for those who couldn't. The statisticians, number crunchers, the endless trawlers of Hansard, the collators and the ones with long memories. They all have a place in your story, and like most successful people you have pretty much forgotten them. Perhaps thats an integral feature of the Underclass - left behind and forgotten.
So I ask myself - why are you writing your stories? Who is it for? Is it for the people left behind? The Underclass?
Nothing I have said here is said with malice. You are still one of my favourite people, were a fabulous friend who could mix serious with ludicrous, tears with laughter, generous in soul and in character, and with all the fabulous and the failings we love and accept in our friends. I still giggle far too much at things said and shared a decade ago. I still marvel at our collective success.
But this last decade has been so terribly hard for many of us. A decade of water flowing under the bridge of time, eroding the river banks of life.
I wish you every success in this venture - but I am still pondering the 'why'.
By the way, feel free to delete this comment if its too painful to show to others. I'd fully understand if you did. ;-)
I acknowledged you all and all of this in the post. I contacted you privately to say I'd be writing this. I helped you and many others with their own ESA applications. If this is what you had to say, then clearly, yes, that will be a discussion and it is for another day. There isn't a day of what I did I can't defend. Thanks xx
Other perspectives will be different, but from mine I saw the pros outweighing the cons, and none of the cons being red-lines.
I was forced to attend a WCA in 2019, miles from home, and they expected me to manage the journey without support despite all the evidence the DWP had that this wasn't the case. You were the head of customer experience at Maximus then, so when it all went tits up and the HCP disappeared rather than take responsibility for my safety when the fire alarm was set off, I at least had the option of contacting you directly to report the incident.
You passed the matter on to the right channels, and other than an acknowledgement, I never received any outcome report from either the DWP or Maximus. When something like this happens at any other organisation dealing with vulnerable people, it's always recorded as an incident. This didn't appear to be the case at the DWP and Maximus, but contacting you meant there *is* a record, and with that the possibility of accountability, at some point.
I've been waiting nearly six years, and likely will be waiting longer. The option would not have been there if not for you starting A Diary of a Benefit Scrounger, inviting people in, and leaving when a policy implementation role was offered. If the system couldn't be fixed from the inside, there would have been few others capable of finding out.
I'm still unsure about this. I'm not attacking you - just pointing out that you moved on - and we didnt.
You stopped being a part of what we are. You remember - but you escaped. There was only one opportunity to escape and you would have been an idiot to not take that opportunity.
But to now use us to enter into a debate with Sam F is weird. To take a trip down memory lane is weird. You are you NOW, not then. You dont now represent us - because you are no longer the Underclass. Mentally you might feel a cohesion - in the same way I feel for the homeless. However I can only tell the story of THEN, not of now - and thats not at all interesting or actionable. Its become an anecdote.
So, I return to my question... "So I ask myself - why are you writing your stories? Who is it for? Is it for the people left behind? The Underclass?".
Maybe you just want to write.
Maybe you have a 'master plan', maybe you dont.
Maybe you want to debate how to ensure we dont have an Underclass.
Maybe you are debating that the Underclass exists and how it should be described. Thats privilege. Thats white, middle-class privilege right there. The pontificating class who can debate the existence of inequality without addressing the causes of inequality.
Do we need more of that?
Or do we need to eliminate not just inequality - but the causes of inequality.
And how do your stories do that?
Are we on different pages now? Or are we reading totally different books...
The "Underclass" - I used this term to Kate Green when she interviewed me for a job, in 2014.
I knew that under Corbyn we would win many more seats - because I was the Point Person (Secretary, Chair and Organiser and Founder) of a Momentum branch of over 500 members, and was on the Momentum National Committee as the Disability Representative - voted in by other disabled people.
What you are describing isnt unique to you - with the exception that you had greater visibility and greater opportunity to 'mingle' - if you hadnt been promoted by others, and chosen, and be in the right geographical locality, and look good on camera... then you wouldnt have had these opportunities.
Please dont fall into the trap of thinking you are where you are because of some genius. You have talents that we all supported to ensure the one gap in our 'company' was filled - you marketed and sold our product.
We are not ungrateful for that - but you also got richly rewarded, while we continued as the Underclass. You left us behind. Not intentionally, but as a consequence of us raising you up. You did a great job. But so did the small people, and the medium people. The ones who couldnt write but could copy text and tweets. The ones who could write, and wrote copiously for those who couldn't. The statisticians, number crunchers, the endless trawlers of Hansard, the collators and the ones with long memories. They all have a place in your story, and like most successful people you have pretty much forgotten them. Perhaps thats an integral feature of the Underclass - left behind and forgotten.
So I ask myself - why are you writing your stories? Who is it for? Is it for the people left behind? The Underclass?
Nothing I have said here is said with malice. You are still one of my favourite people, were a fabulous friend who could mix serious with ludicrous, tears with laughter, generous in soul and in character, and with all the fabulous and the failings we love and accept in our friends. I still giggle far too much at things said and shared a decade ago. I still marvel at our collective success.
But this last decade has been so terribly hard for many of us. A decade of water flowing under the bridge of time, eroding the river banks of life.
I wish you every success in this venture - but I am still pondering the 'why'.
By the way, feel free to delete this comment if its too painful to show to others. I'd fully understand if you did. ;-)
I acknowledged you all and all of this in the post. I contacted you privately to say I'd be writing this. I helped you and many others with their own ESA applications. If this is what you had to say, then clearly, yes, that will be a discussion and it is for another day. There isn't a day of what I did I can't defend. Thanks xx
Other perspectives will be different, but from mine I saw the pros outweighing the cons, and none of the cons being red-lines.
I was forced to attend a WCA in 2019, miles from home, and they expected me to manage the journey without support despite all the evidence the DWP had that this wasn't the case. You were the head of customer experience at Maximus then, so when it all went tits up and the HCP disappeared rather than take responsibility for my safety when the fire alarm was set off, I at least had the option of contacting you directly to report the incident.
You passed the matter on to the right channels, and other than an acknowledgement, I never received any outcome report from either the DWP or Maximus. When something like this happens at any other organisation dealing with vulnerable people, it's always recorded as an incident. This didn't appear to be the case at the DWP and Maximus, but contacting you meant there *is* a record, and with that the possibility of accountability, at some point.
I've been waiting nearly six years, and likely will be waiting longer. The option would not have been there if not for you starting A Diary of a Benefit Scrounger, inviting people in, and leaving when a policy implementation role was offered. If the system couldn't be fixed from the inside, there would have been few others capable of finding out.
I'm still unsure about this. I'm not attacking you - just pointing out that you moved on - and we didnt.
You stopped being a part of what we are. You remember - but you escaped. There was only one opportunity to escape and you would have been an idiot to not take that opportunity.
But to now use us to enter into a debate with Sam F is weird. To take a trip down memory lane is weird. You are you NOW, not then. You dont now represent us - because you are no longer the Underclass. Mentally you might feel a cohesion - in the same way I feel for the homeless. However I can only tell the story of THEN, not of now - and thats not at all interesting or actionable. Its become an anecdote.
So, I return to my question... "So I ask myself - why are you writing your stories? Who is it for? Is it for the people left behind? The Underclass?".
Maybe you just want to write.
Maybe you have a 'master plan', maybe you dont.
Maybe you want to debate how to ensure we dont have an Underclass.
Maybe you are debating that the Underclass exists and how it should be described. Thats privilege. Thats white, middle-class privilege right there. The pontificating class who can debate the existence of inequality without addressing the causes of inequality.
Do we need more of that?
Or do we need to eliminate not just inequality - but the causes of inequality.
And how do your stories do that?
Are we on different pages now? Or are we reading totally different books...
Brilliant as ever
Thank you lovely.