Able Bodies

What do you have to say to get noticed these days? Judging by the latest crop of Apprentice wannabes a load of bollocks ought to do it. Or you could just tell the truth. Lord Freud is in trouble because he did just that. Okay it may be a truth we don’t want to hear and he might have couched his utterance in less stark terms but it’s still true and for the avoidance of doubt I repeat it here. Some people, economically, are worth less than others. I know; what a heartless bastard I must be. I make no claim to be otherwise but nevertheless the market daily sets people's individual worth, based on their productivity, abilities, availability and yes, sometimes, their actual appearance.

Only one person in the world can be, say, Bruce Willis, while for all their efforts the majority of the world’s billions might be better utilised as furniture. Why should it be somehow inhumane to say that some people, for whatever reason, make a smaller contribution to a nation's wealth than others? Lord Freud is guilty of only one thing - being recorded giving an answer in a public forum, allowing Labour to wait for a PR opportunity to use it in faux-anger. The PC World we now inhabit peddles all sorts of misguided equal-opportunities garbage and woe-betide the public figure who forgets that the whole purpose of opposition is to prevent the government from running the country.

Thus a perfectly rational response to a valid - albeit fundamentally tricky - question about how to finagle the minimum wage rules, yet still make it possible to employ disabled people without bankrupting companies, whilst also protecting their feelings has become the latest demonstration of why lefties are unfit to run anything, ever. Their sensitive skins prickle at the merest mention of harsh reality, or more likely they are just in tune to anything from which they can  raise a stink of outrage.

I heard a spokesmanperson for DAM ('Disabilities are Marvellous’) or whatever on the PM programme insisting that, in effect, disabled people are just as abled as non-disabled persons. That far from 'dis' their ability was not only absolutely fabby, but that they may even possess super powers... just so long as they were assisted in some ways. Thus a limbless window cleaner could be just as productive as a fully-complemented one, were they only accompanied by, say, an actual window cleaner. She tied herself in knots trying to be politically on-message and deny the evidence that all disabled people have to face and overcome daily.

I could have been somebody; I could have been a contender. I could have been a millionaire, if only somebody would give me a million quid. I could be an international movie star; all I lack is the looks and the talent... and the luck. And sadly, luck is a very real and harsh aspect of all this. The cards are not dealt evenly, but to try and pretend otherwise is disingenuous. Plenty of disabled people put up with their unfair lot and want nothing other than acceptance by society, while others genuinely do need every bit of help we can provide. Lord Freud was actually mooting such help.

Not for political gain, Mr Miliband

I have no axe to grind about disabled rights; many people overcome what to the rest of us seem insurmountable challenges to do sterling work at all sorts of levels... sometimes around about waist height. Okay, bad taste (even I can see that) but you may be surprised to learn that disabled people have a sense of humour... yes, just like the rest of us; you prejudiced pre-judger you. And while they rightly hate being dismissed they also hate being treated with kid gloves. Or as if they weren't there. I heard no actual disabled voices raised in genuine, first-hand protest, merely those of disabled rights ‘activists’ and opportunist political knob-jockeys. So, do you want the truth? Or the lie that the grasping, manipulating left give any more of a fuck about you beyond your vote?