Only 1% of MPs are disabled, despite one in five of the population having a disability. The way to address this is simple
Indeed. Discriminate against able-bodied candidates even if they are the better candidate. That’s what this vile policy means. Selecting people on the basis of physical disability and not on merit. It is evil.
Even the Guardian commentariat find this one too hard to swallow. Maybe there is hope after all. Let it be said that I will actively vote against any candidate selected from a shortlist based upon physical characteristics and not purely on merit.
The idea that MPs are supposed to represent a particular demographics is absurd. They are there to represent their constituents – the colour of their skin, what they keep in their pants or whether they are disabled is neither here nor there and nor should it be.
Alice Kirby is an activist and disability rights campaigner
And should therefore be ignored.
Stop the world – I want to get off! Please tell me this is some kind of joke. Please.
It’s the Guardian. They don’t do humour.
“And should therefore be ignored.”
+100
Yep, grab a few MPs and cripple them.
I’d willingly knee-cap a few selected MPs!
I suspect that there is a lot of goal-post moving going on here.
One in five is disabled? Only if you have a very wide definition of disabled.
Only one percent of MPs is disabled? Only if you have a very narrow definition of disabled.
And that’s before we rule out certain disabilities that more or less automatically rule out one being an MP. (Unless, that is, we want MPs who are bed-ridden, unable to talk, have serious mental illness or are mentally sub-normal.)
“Unless, that is, we want MPs who are bed-ridden, unable to talk, have serious mental illness or are mentally sub-normal”
Oh dear. Looks like we’re actually overstocked with disabled MPs, then, not understocked, being as that pretty much exactly describes the vast majority of them in one way or another …
99% of them are mentally handicapped.
You beat me to it: that was my first thought.
Call for the Handicapper General
Yes — it seems the only way. That was a doozy, by the way.
Harrison Bergeron
But aren’t MPs supposed to represent their constituents. If they can only do that by being like their constituents, and it is clearly impossible to be like all of them, then they should mostly be white and male.
Or looking at it the other way, if 5% of MPs were disabled then one-in-twenty constituencies would have an MP that wasn’t representative of 95% of their constituency!
You get the sledge, I’ll get the hobbling post.
Lots of constructive solutions here. Well done all.
20% of the population has a disability? WTF are we breeding here? This sounds more the the Island of Dr. Moreau than the island of Great Britain plus the Northern Irish part. That figure must be far too high.
I think that they must be counting almost any infirmity whatsoever to get to a figure like that. I have type 2 diabetes, does that count? I don’t consider it a disability. I keep it in check by doing insane amounts of exercise so, not only am I extremely fit but it doesn’t affect my quality of life in the slightest. Two of the guys that I work with have had double hip replacements, do they count? both walk normally, they don’t use blue badges in their cars or anything. Thinking about the circle of people that I know, I can think of two people whom I would describe as being disabled in the way that most people would understand it. That is nowhere near 20%.
PM T May is disabled – type 2 diabetes
Morgan & Soubray are disabled – mental inability to understand facts
Abbot is quadrouble disabled – type 2 diabetes, obesity, mental inability to understand facts, inumerate.
Actually Alice Kirby may have a point. If all MPs were senile no new laws would be created and older stupid (eg green, hs2, hinckley) laws could be easily erased.