My latest articles: Wheelchair dancing and an interview with ex serviceman Rory Mackenzie

I've got two articles in the latest edition of the Motability magazine 'Lifestyle'.

The first is about wheelchair dancing [see page 35] and increasingly popular pastime and sport for wheelchair users, and the second is an interview with a great guy called Rory Mackenzie [see page 46] who was injured in Iraq but has gone on to do so many exciting things:

http://digital.edition-on.net/links/6716_lifestyle_79.asp

A Special Kind of Mum - BBC THREE programme preview

Check out my preview of the BBC THREE programme 'A Special Kind of Mum' which goes out at 9pm on Tuesday 26 March and is repeated a couple of times after that, see preview for details:

http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/article/preview-special-kind-mum

Worth a watch I'd say as the issue of disabled parenting doesn't get a lot of coverage.

Comic Relief or Comic Flop?

I must admit I didn't watch the entire BBC 1 Comic Relief output but I definitely saw enough.

I laughed out loud at two bits - the first was the Master Chef sketch with Dame Edna in it, I just think s/he is brilliant and the second was when James Corden introduced "David who went to school in a mankini, yes he's a primary school teacher... now under surveillence by Social Services..." or some such similar wording.  Hilarious.

What was not quite so hilarious, or in fact not hilarious at all, was the Peter Kay sketch.  Don't get me wrong Peter Kay is one of the funniest people around and I liked the idea that he was doing the opposite to what everyone else does on Comic Relief day ie instead of being active he was doing a sit in.

But that for me was where the humour ended as he was shown being pulled around the country by a group of short statured people.  Why by short people? It was simply unfunny, demeaning and stupid.

As short statured actress Kiruna Stamell points out in her open letter to the BBC/Comic Relief [see link below] some of the money Comic Relief raises goes to anti-bullying projects - but where's the positive representation of short statured people in the Peter Kay sketch?  How would a short statured child have felt about watching that I wonder?

Apparently Zoe Ball also thought it hilarious to make a joke about 'midgets' and Ricky Gervais managed to add his tuppence to deriding disabled people too.

Where are all their quips and digs at black people, gay people, women?  Nowhere that's where.  So why do these comedians/presenters think it's still OK to insult and dehumanise disabled people/short people in the name of humour?

When I challenged the Comic Relief press office on this, this was their total brush off of a response:

Comic Relief aims to raise as much money as possible to help vulnerable people here in the UK and in the world’s poorest countries. The night of television is a light hearted and entertaining programme which does not aim to offend. The BBC has full editorial control of all content on BBC channels and platforms and  the programme is made by the BBC, not Comic Relief.  Please contact the BBC with enquiries about the night of television.

I was insulted for the first time in my life on Saturday purely on the basis of being short statured, coincidence after Comic Relief's coverage on Friday?  You decide.


To read Kiruna's letter to the BBC/Comic relief in full follow this link, she's going to make an official complaint but I suspect she'll get the usual response along the lines of the above:


http://kirunastamell.net/2013/03/16/dear-bbc-and-comic-relief/

Oscar Pistorius - either way it's a tragedy

It seems that Oscar Pistorius shot his girlfriend - on purpose or by mistake - either way it's a tragedy.

I get the feeling that some of the people passing judgement on the case have no real insight into the crime culture in South Africa - shootings, car jackings and the like.

Sadly levels of violent crime in South Africa are very high - the country has one of the highest rates of gun murder in the world with over 8,000/year.  What I'm trying to say is that if Pistorius thought there was an intruder in the house that it's quite feasible that that would have push him right to the edge.  And it's impossible to know what you'd do in that state.

Whether forensics can back Pistorius's version of events, or disprove it, remains to be seen.  Cremating the body of the deceased so soon seems a little hasty but I guess these people know what they are doing...

This is the story of a disabled man who had it all, a National and International hero at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.  Whatever happens it's probably going to be very hard for him to get back onto that pedestal.

Moving the disability benefit goalposts

The Government's reform of Disability Living Allowance into Personal Independence Payments is of great concern to many disabled people, check out my latest article for Disability Now on the subject:

http://disabilitynow.org.uk/article/moving-goalposts-pip-eligibility