The reality of the cuts

Such global facts and figures so often miss out the very real human dimension.

The great advantage that most MPs have is that they meet a very wide range of people who come to them to explain their personal circumstances and to seek help.

Their stories illustrate the reality of policy made remotely in Whitehall.

Anna Mace with Ian and her petition

I recently went to see a constituent, Anna Mace who suffered a Porphyria crisis in 2000, which left her, while still a young woman, profoundly disabled in and in a wheelchair - she also has severe epilepsy.

Anna is on the front-line of the impact of public spending cuts on so many public services not least to the disabled and I was proud to stand with her at the Hardest Hit Campaign Rally in Newcastle last Saturday.

Anna is not, however, prepared to roll over without a fight and I am proud to back her.

She has produced a petition which starts by slamming the severity of the cuts that affect the disabled, vulnerable people, carers and families.

I agree with her view that she understands that some cuts have to be made but information keeps changing to why and how we are losing.

Her main point is that people like her have individual needs but the cuts are grouping people together in "boxes" and not focusing on the individual package of care needed.

She criticises the fact that there is poor communications between the council and service users, hitting those who can't fight back.

She rightly concludes that once benefits have been reduced there is not help or options to support the individual with the potential for a huge loss of quality of their life.

Anna is one of a growing number of individual disabled people who are paying a high price for the destructive behaviour of the banks and a Government who are clearly making disproportionate cuts to councils in the North.

I was very moved by their dignity in the face of such indifference when I joined the Rally and marched with many disabled people from the Bigg Market to the Monument.

Newcastle Chronicle and Journal

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Promoted by Ken Childs on behalf of Ian Mearns, 12 Regent Terrace Gateshead NE8 1LU