I think that it is right that The (UK) ME Association is pursuing a
formal complaint against The Sun newspaper regarding Rod Liddle's recent
grossly unbalanced article on disabled people in general and ME patients
in particular.[1] The article is indicative of a worrying trend of
discriminatory media articles in the UK[2] that are reminiscent of
deliberate public desensitisation towards disabled people in 1930s
Germany. The formal complaint should in my view however also be against
James Delingpole of The Telegraph: who recently wrote an article on the
Telegraph website (link below[3]) entitled 'THE FAKE DISABLED ARE
CRIPPLING OUR ECONOMY'.
Delingpole writes in support of The Sun's Rod Liddle stating:
"Rod Liddle has just incurred the wrath of the disability lobby by
having a go in his Sun column at "pretend disabled" people. Included in
this category, Rod decided, were people with fibromyalgia and ME. Lots
of people queued up Twitter [sic] to say how horrid they thought he was,
wishing he would succumb to some kind of disability himself, etc. I
suppose, having recently suffered from an ME-like illness I should be
one of them. But unlike Rod's Twitter critics I took the trouble to read
the full article and I think Rod's point is well made."
Having irrationally and unfairly asserted that those complaining against
Liddle have not read the Liddle article, Delingpole goes on to wildly claim:
"Every time the disability lobby squeals for more another few jobs are
lost, another few basis points are lost from GDP growth"
In my view Delingpole has got things back to front and his macroeconomic
illiteracy is staggering. The idea that it is disabled people that are
crippling the economy against a backdrop of inadequate government policy
on the back of criminal international sabotage by greedy investment
bankers is risible.
The bigger truth about illness, disability and the economy is that
having a system of reliable health and welfare insurance paid for by
individuals themselves is essential: for personal rainy days, for
helping people to have the best chance possible of getting well enough
to return to productive work and for broader macroeconomic function. In
the UK, such a system is meant to be provided via compulsory National
Insurance Contributions. In the case of ME patients however, myopic
Government policy is hell-bent upon using highly questionable
policy-based-evidence[4] to reduce short-term costs: by limiting care
provision and denying genuine science-based medical treatment to patients.
In formulating policy on ME patients, the UK government has unduly
favoured the output of a small coterie of psychiatrists linked with the
permanent health insurance industry[5]. Much the same can be said of the
UK Science Media Centre (SMC) in its coverage of such matters and ditto
for journalists generally who all too often lazily take their cue from
the SMC[6] and, in some cases at least, top it up with their own
ill-informed and prejudiced assertions.
In the case of state care policy and health matters for UK ME patients,
there will be no improvement whatsoever until ministers and journalists
stop ignoring the recommendations of an international panel of ME
experts[7] and abandon support for the highly flawed NICE Guideline 53
on 'CFS/ME'.
K Short. 4 February 2012.
ENDNOTES:
[1] http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=10210
[3] James Delingpole. Daily Telegraph Blog. 'The fake disabled are
crippling our economy', January 26th, 2012:
[4] http://meactionuk.org.uk/Corporate_Collusion_2.htm
[5] http://meactionuk.org.uk/Corporate_Collusion_2.htm
[6] http://meactionuk.org.uk/Corporate_Collusion_2.htm
[7] Myalgic encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria. Bruce
Carruthers et al, Journal of Internal Medicine. Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x:
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ICC-FOR-ME-October-2011.pdf
[Permission to repost]
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