Why i'll be voting Thursday
Firstly, this isn't going to be me telling you you have to vote because men and women died for us to get the right to vote. Personally i think people should even if they spoil their vote. This is a right they earned for us and we should be thankful as other countries don't have that freedom to choose. It's like it or lump it. Anyway this isn't about this so let's move on. The reason for this post is from a personal point of view and i do get some amonimity from it. Thursday will be a crutial day for people like myself in more ways than one. When the Conservatives came in, i was on a back to work program. Granted the Labour one didn't do much but the next few made Labour's efforts seem incredible! The back to work programmes got worse- litterally sat in front of a computer job searching. Private rooms became one room where you sat three foot away from another caseworker and client who could hear all your business. I did everything right so they did nothing for me. Only one caseworker took my CV and actually made it so employers responded to me. He was mortified that the CV i had was used as it was worthless. Most caseworkers couldn't care less and this was reflected in several jobs which they applied for on my behalf- i did well apart from them not telling the employer i couldn't drive. The longer i was there the more desperate they became and tried underhand tactics including humiliating me and not believing me when i said i was ill. On the last back to work course, we were promised an intense course. This course was once a week for 6 weeks between 9.30 and 2. Lessons included drawing a house, writing a letter to our future selves (i never got mine- funny that!), building a tower from dried spaghetti and marshmallows and our local town outing. In this, we were asked to get an Argos special price catalogue, find out about our past town politicians, where the theatre was and taking a photo saying we love our local town. What did this have to do with finding a job? Nothing- as long as we were on this course we were not classed as unemployed. We were classed as in training and we would bend the numbers more favourably. Our tutor, who like me, disliked my comments when i said how it had wasted all our time- no real helpful advice about finding a job or anything. Just a waste of time! When the advisors in my local Jobcentre told me i was unfit to work, i had a doctors appoinment and they gave me a paper. I was gutted- 26 and too sick to work. Coming from a family of workers, this hurt. I didn't want people to think i was lazy. Shortly after i got my Fibromyalgia diagnosis. By the time i applied for ESA, i had four doctors, a physio, hydrotherapist and a Rhuematologist all agreeing i was not well enough to work. This was all wrecked by a lady who claimed to know and understand my conditions. In her report she lied and contradicted the recording so i lost my help for a while. Thankfully a real doctor saw the truth in my tribuneral and 30 minutes later, three months of streds were gone when i was put in ESA the support group. Since then i've had to cut my volunteering right down as it made me ill. Had i been forced to look for work i dread to think how i'd be now. I'm very lucky. Thousands of others have wrongfully been denied help they need and thousands have died and DWP have played a part in their deaths. DWP and Ian Duncan Smith ignore and deny this and that there are targets which time and time again have been proved to exist and that they've been lying. I dread to think what another five years will do damage wise. It scares the hell out of me. Then there is the Human rights act which David Cameron wants to axe. Should that happen, employees rights will be non-existant. Your employer sacked you because they prefer someone else over you? Tough. You get sacked despite something not being your fault? Deal with it. The UN are now looking into how bad things have got. If they get voted out, they could face criminal charges. Not a day too soon. Then there are those who are working but in poverty. Food banks have become the norm, zero hour contracts have to be taken or the job centre threaten you with a sanction, job centre bullying and lying to get people sanctioned, those families who have no heat because they can't afford to pay the bills, those who've been evicted because of the hideous bedroom tax. People can't afford clothing having to beg charities for hand outs. Those who want to move out from home can't as bills have soared too much. This is only a small sample of many of those who have been hit the hardest. What about the Conservatives? They hold lunches and events with wines costing hurndreds of pounds a bottle. MP's revolting a pay cut and voting in a pay increase. Those who challenged Ian Duncan Smoth to live on £53 a week when he bragged he could do it but never took the challenge because he knew he'd fail. Yet they still tell us "we're all in it together." No we're not. The rich have become richer and the poor driven to breaking point. How can people back a government which tells people doing a 20 hour work experience placement which very rarely has a job at the end, to then do jobsearching for 35 hours a week which is impossible as most libraries only allow people a maximum of two hours on a computer and job centre computer having less time and massive queues? What if there is nowhere near to use a computer as is the case in many rural areas? There's only so many times you can ask local businesses to take your CV. Speculative CV's never work and most businesses just toss them away as they get so many. Again you can only phone a businesses so many times before they get fed up of you and ignore you. The current system has failed repeatedly. Job centres change times and dates without informing people in enough time. The current system is broken and will remain so under this party. Another five years of this party and we're all in trouble. No one will be safe. Britian is in more trouble than it's ever been. Problem is Cameron is spouting the same rubbish and people are buying it. I can only hope come Thursday this vermin will be extrminated and people do the right thing by not allowing them back in. In all honesty, many are terrified what damage will be done in the next five years should they come back in because by then there will be irreversible damage. All i ask is to look beyond the smiles amd promises and do what Cameron said "judge us by our past record." If sense previals, their time will be up much sooner than we think. Just do the right thing and vote because without your voice, things may never change. We have the freedom to vote and for our coices to be heard. Use them wisely.