FURIOUS! What we're all talking about. Mr. Liddle.

To say this makes me mad, is possibly the understatement of the century. A few of my friends may think I'm over reacting, but all those who have a disability, (whether it's M.E or fibro or not) or who live with someone with one will be just as outraged as me. Rod Liddle from The Sun newspaper, thought it was perfectly fine (in his deranged opinion) to write an article stating that it was his "new years resolution 2012 to become disabled", What. A. Jerk. Because it's one hell of a lot of fun, a complete barrel of laughs (note the sarcasm).  The article has since been removed from The Sun website, but the damage is done. Not to mention (at last look) an apology has yet to be issued, and you can't un-sell the hundreds of thousands of newspapers that have already been sold. As the article has been removed I can't post the link to the article itself but I found this, which is most of it: http://www.freezepage.com/1327578079WVBGACETGC

Some other choice quotes from the piece in question include:

“My New Year’s resolution for 2012 was to become disabled. Nothing too serious, maybe just a bit of a bad back or one of those newly invented illnesses which make you a bit peaky for decades – fibromyalgia, or M.E.”

“And being disabled is incredibly fashionable. The number of people who claim to be disabled has doubled in the past ten years.”

“It has become easier to claim those benefits, partly as a consequence of the disablement charities who, out of their own self-interest, insist that an ever-greater proportion of the population is disabled.”

"And who can blame them? Not only do you get money from the Government and don't have to go to work — but if you play your cards right you might get one of those badges which lets you park wherever you want."

       "Right in front of the cashpoint, for example. And you can use those enormous toilets with levers and handgrips and emergency buzzers they have in all public places, without feeling too guilty about it."

Well Mr Liddle, you pea brained idiot. I have a few responses for you.

Firstly, I suffer from (and have suffered for going on 11 years now) of both of your "newly invented diseases". Which, it turns out aren't that newly invented. Now I'm not going to mention fibro too much as I'll hold my hands up and confess that I don't know as much about it as maybe I should. But M.E, I have read EVERYTHING I could read, when I could read a lot. This disease which has many names including Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), post-viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome, and, I'm sure, many other terms. Affects roughly 250,000 people in the UK alone. There have been over 60 recorded outbreaks of the disease across the world, the first in the UK at the Royal Free Hospital in London in 1955, SO hardly a new disease! It is recognised as a neurological illness by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and there are NICE guidelines in place to advise on how to treat the disease, although there is still a lot to be learnt.

And, as for it making you feel 'peaky' for decades. For a start, who wants to feel PEAKY FOR DECADES???? Secondly, it is so much more than that! Common symptoms include (mainly taken from www.ayme.org.uk) :

• Fatigue: Utter exhaustion, often to the point of collapse. Different from even the worst tiredness experienced by normal, healthy people!
• Pain: can occur anywhere in the body, but most often experienced as headaches and severe muscle and joint pain. Skin sensations, like crawling, pins and needles and extreme sensitivity.
• Cognitive impairment: poor short and medium term memory, mental confusion and mental fatigue; the brain seems to run out of steam. Difficulty concentrating, word-finding and thinking. Inability to plan.
• Other symptoms: body temperature disturbance, dizziness, vertigo, postural hypotension, sensitivity to light and noise. Possibility of sleep disturbance, nausea, loss of appetite, gastroinstentinal disturbance, mood swings, panic and anxiety, acquired sensitivity to food, medication, alcohol and chemicals.

There's probably hundreds more that I haven't mentioned. I would be here all day. So Mr Liddle, still fancy it?

As for being disabled being incredibly fashionable. Well, being someone who is massively against fashion, trends of any kind, in fact doing my best to go against the grain of society. Tell me sir, why then, would I choose to be disabled. No one sane, normal individual would CHOOSE this. The amount of people claiming disability benefits has, according to you, doubled in the past 10 years. Have you ever thought that maybe this is because many spent the last decade using their savings or relying on family (as I have) and that these means are no longer there and therefore the only choice left to these people is to claim benefits. Many who do claim them, don't want to. For many, it has been a last straw decision.

"Who can blame can blame us? Don't have to work and get money from the government?" The fact you are missing sir, is that many of us WANT to work. Many of us would do practically anything to BE ABLE to work. So Mr Liddle, instead of calling us lazy, stating that we don't want to work, that we can't be bothered, why don't you get on the governments back. I think you'd find sir, that if they were to begin to shape the job around the individual and not the individual around the job, then Mr Liddle, a large percentage of the disabled population would be able to work. Surely this is a much better use of your time than insulting an entire community of vunerable individuals, with you badly researched, clearly un-thought out rantings?

O and it is DEFIANTLY not easy to claim benefits. As anyone can read in my previous post entitled "slipping through the cracks" I am living proof that it is not easy to claim benefits. If you have a disease like my that varies and is invisible it becomes even harder. I cannot claim job seekers or income support as I cannot work. I cannot claim ESA either as my husband works in excess of 24 hours a week, despite his low salary. We fall through the cracks and often have to rely on my parents to make ends meet. So yes Mr Liddle, it's a piece of flipping cake!

O and the blue badge! That is so difficult to get. I only received one in 2010, despite being ill since 2005 and confined to a wheelchair since 2006. So yes I can park close to the cash point, but I can't drive the car to one myself and, when I get there, often someone has to go for me, or unload a wheelchair and push me to the cash point, only to re-load the wheelchair minutes later. The toilet, the joy of using a disabled toilet. How many have you been in Mr Liddle? They are often a mess, not kept as clean as others. The hand rails and the emergency alarm. Because it's so dignified having to have help on and off the toilet, and even more brilliant having to pull that buzzer and have someone you don't know come in, find that your half-naked on the floor, having fallen off the toilet and found yourself unable to get up. Yes sir, everyone wants that!

I tell you what Mr Liddle, come and live with me for a week, of my best friend and her four children, or any number of the people I know with M.E and fibro, or those with other illnesses and disabilities. Live our lives for just one week and I promise you Mr Liddle, you will not think it is so "cool" to be disabled.