From DPAC comes the first list of names of Tory MPs who voted to cut ESA while being involved with disability charities. It also mentions the three (Messrs Malthouse and Cleverly and Ms Rudd) who have already been given the boot by their charities. Please follow the link below, read in full and post comments there.
Source: Operation #ToryDump Lobby Disability Charities to reject #ESACut MPs #NameandShame (Updated)
Various bits of autism related stuff, including an account of a talk by Mel Bruce for NAS West Norfolk, and some photographs.
Last night I attended a talk given by Dr Mel Bruce, a clinical psychologist at Starfish Plus. There are also a few other things I will be covering in this post.
The talk was scheduled to run from 7-9PM, and I was required to be there (the scout hut on Beulah Street, as so often for NAS West Norfolk events) early to help with the setup. Mel opened proceedings with a brief account of what she and her team do, and who they work with, before taking questions from the floor. One of the things Mel mentioned when talking about communication was the use of a system of communication cards, which would work rather as the coloured badges at AutismCon did – in that case red was for “don’t talk to me unless it is an emergency”, yellow for “don’t initiate conversations but you can respond if I talk to you” and green for “I am happy to talk”, with freedom to change according to how you are feeling at any given moment (I selected a green badge and stuck with it the whole day as it happens). A great quote which showed how involved she is with the autistic community “Don’t do anything about us without us”. Another excellent point she made was about referring to special interests rather than obsessions.
Although this talk did not deal with issues that relate directly to me, because it was aimed at parents of autistic children, and therefore I maintained a purely listening brief, I enjoyed the evening, and am looking forward to meeting Mel again at the Positive Autism Awareness Conference NAS West Norfolk are holding at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn on April 15th. Meantime, we have connected on twitter.
Just a brief mention of the fact that following a very unsatisfactory response by Sir Henry Bellingham on the subject of the cut to ESA, in which he claimed to be talking to lots of local groups moves are afoot to organize a meeting between ourselves and him. Further information about his record as an MP can be found here (warning – it makes grim reading).
This section is here because it was recently brought to my attention that there are still problems with doctors being unwilling to diagnose autistic spectrum conditions (ASC for short) and in some cases unwilling to refer people for diagnosis. In the nine and a half years since I was diagnosed (25 years later than I should have been but that is another story) my life has improved hugely in all sorts of ways.
My message to doctors faced with people seeking a diagnosis of an autistic spectrum is this: if you feel unable to do this yourself, then refer the patient to someone who can. To point blank refuse even to refer someone is unacceptable and indefensible.
The National Autistic Society are running a Public Awareness Campaign, to which I am pleased to say I have been able to contribute. In answering the questions I was sent as part of this I referred on many occasions to things that happened before I was diagnosed, precisely because (see above), things have been so much better since I was diagnosed.
Yes – a good news story to end the text section of this post. Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a 6th grade student with autism, was facing life with a conviction for a felony offence. Following a prolonged campaign, all charges against him have been dismissed. More details are available as follows:
This post does exactly what the title claims. The photos are all from yesterday, which has the distinction of being the first day in 2016 on which I ventured out without putting a coat on (yes folks, it has been a long wait but spring really is on its way)
This weekend saw the penultimate round of the Six Nations rugby tournament. Ireland, coming into this round with a draw and two defeats to their name, faced Italy who had lost all three of their matches. Ireland racked up 58 points in the end, to open clear daylight between themselves and the foot of the table. England played Wales at Twickenham and at half time the score was 16-0 to England, probably should have been 23-0 and had it been 30-0 Wales could have had no complaints. Wales played much better in the second half, but had left themselves too much to do to get back in the match. In the third match Scotland faced France and followed their victory over Italy in the previous round with another in this match. The key try that put Scotland out of reach was a brilliant solo effort from Duncan Taylor.
The effect of this action was that England with four wins out of four are now uncatchable at the top of the table and head to Paris with their sights firmly set on completing a grand slam. This is a mightily impressive first campaign for new England coach Eddie Jones. As well as leaving England out of reach at the top, Scotland’s win over France left Italy marooned at the bottom with no way of avoiding the wooden spoon. Of the teams in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, separated by just two points, Wales have a massive advantage because not only are they currently in second, they finish their campaign at home to Italy. Scotland and Ireland face each other, while France have an England team with confidence sky-high to contend with.
These photos were all taken while out walking yesterday and are presented in the order in which they were taken…
There will be a long post about various autism related issues coming either tonight or first thing tomorrow.
Next time someone dares to suggest in your hearing that only Tories can be trusted with the economy point them in the direction of this very detailed piece of analysis by Richard Murphy…
Source: The Conservatives have been the biggest borrowers over the last 70 years
A sample image just to encourage you…
A review of a book in a new find of mine, the Bryant & May series, with a few other bits.
Although the book review is the principal focus of this piece there are a few other bits that I will be sharing afterwards.
Those of you who follow my London transport themed website may recall that I posted a review of a book called Off The Rails which featured a team of oddballs collectively known as the Peculiar Crimes Unit (officially the Peculiar part of the title referred to the crimes being investigated as opposed to the investigators but one might think otherwise).
Since reading that book I have taken every opportunity to deepen my acquaintance with Arthur Bryant, John May and their team of oddballs, and The Burning Man is just one of a number of their adventures that I have recently read.
The story in this book features riots provoked in part by misbehaving bankers being used as a cover for a series of murders all of which involve the use of fire. The story has many twists and turns. There are also various subplots, principally the antagonism between the PCU and Superintendent Darren “Missing” Link.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, as I have every book I have encountered in this series, and heartily recommend it. It is in that spirit that the following is offered (and I hope will be accepted)…
To set the stage, here is a photograph of the paragraph on page 144 that gave rise to the quibble:
How many of you can guess without reading on where my quibble arises?
If you guessed that it was the sentence “He worked with some crazy people, borderline-autistic tech-heads who were likely to turn up at the front door, find no-one home and climb through a window.” score yourself 10 out of 10.
The phrase borderline-autistic is meaningless given that autism is a spectrum condition, and the usage of such a phrase is indicative of what Richard Dawkins terms “the tyranny of the discontinuous mind”. I also take umbrage at the notion of an autistic person responding to finding no one at home by climbing through a window. Finally, as an autistic person who is skilled in the use of computers I still object to the conflation of autism and tech-headedness – while the two traits can go together they do not always do so. Finally, I find the entire sentence lazily reinforces damaging stereotypes about autistic people. To finish this section, although in one sense every post on this blog has an automatic connection to autism, you can find more posts in which I specifically deal with autism here.
The new information office at King’s Lynn bus station is a treasure trove. My latest find focuses specifically on West Norfolk…
I make no comment as yet on this scheme, which is still at a preliminary stage, just reproducing it in full…
NAS West Norfolk are holding a Positive Autism Awareness Conference at the Duke’s Head Hotel on Friday 15th April. One feature of this conference will be a photographic display by yours truly. I have mentioned this in a number of previous posts.
A sharing weekend at DreamBigDreamOften (thanks Maria Jansson for giving me the heads up)…
This is a link to a post on Richard Murphy’s blog Tax Research UK
Acknowledgements to the Eastern Daily Press for this story of local diversity…
From dusk ‘til dawn, volunteers scoured 25 nature reserves and beauty spots to see how many species they could record there.
And now, with the results all in and analysed, the winners can be revealed: with Norfolk sites in the top two spots. The so-called “Bioblitz” study was carried out by the National Trust at 25 of its coastal sites in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The surveys were carried out over 24 hours, with volunteers scouring their patches for species, to see how many they could find in the time.
The location with the greatest number of species was the Brancaster estate, where 1,018 were recorded. In second place was Blakeney nature reserve, with 934 species. The Brancaster Bioblitz took place in July. Keith Miller, coastal ranger at Brancaster, said: “We only had 24 hours to survey wildlife. I used every single one. From surveying for owls at midnight to leading bat walks for families the following evening.
This is a link to a wonderful post on thepoorsideoflife, therefore I am disabling the comments as these should be posted to the original site after reading in full.
We’ve been working on this for a while now, this things aren’t quick to publicise because we have to ensure the legalities are correct. For too long now DWP workers have been wron…
Source: DWP workers please read.
A combination of sharing a new find of mine and advertising an event that my mother and aunt are involved in.
I am doing two things in this post, related by location. One, I am sharing a new find in the map department (available for free at King’s Lynn Bus Station), and two I am advertising an event that will be taking place at Gresham’s School, Holt at which my mother and my aunt will have a table-top stall.
This is the title given to this double-sided fold out leaflet that I recently spotted in the Information Centre at King’s Lynn Bus Station. I have six pictures to share…
Now zooming in on one particular event that will be taking place in the East of England. A table-top sale will be taking place at Gresham’s School on Saturday April 2nd between 10AM and 4PM to raise money for Walking With the Wounded. My mother and my aunt will be running a stall at which fruit prints (I am showing images of 12 out of a substantial collection) and knitted tea cosies (I only have an image of one, but I have seen two others in advanced satges of preparation). I don’t know what the planned prices for the cosies are, but the prints will be sold at £5 for one or 3 for £12.
aspiblog 