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column

When talking takes the biscuit socialist reformers Sidney and Beatrice
Webb and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
One of my explanations is that people
who depend for their esteem on their
Simon Jarrett discusses the perils of language and the stupidity brainpower to the exclusion of all else feel
of intellectuals, and is baffled by some moral juggling from very threatened by people who can lead a
within the House of Lords good life without any apparent need for a
massive intellect.

Outfoxed by morality
s Pippa Bailey reminded us in a I got a phone call one day telling me Talking of people with strange views
New Statesman article about the “a customer has escaped from the about learning disability, Claire Fox has
Apower of social media companies, day centre”. been in the news recently.
the only industries that refer to their I would guess that a real customer Fox, a former member of the
customers as “users” are tech and could just walk out any time they like Revolutionary Communist Party who later
illegal drugs. and buy a service from another day became an MEP for the Brexit Party, was
She’s not quite right. People with centre. I doubt if Waitrose managers recently elevated to the House of Lords.
learning disabilities who receive services get worried calls to say that a customer This caused controversy because she is
are also referred to as users. has just escaped from the savoury seemingly unrepentant about her past
Bailey’s point is that when you are biscuits section. support for IRA bombing campaigns.
categorised as a user of something, the I heard her not so long ago on Radio 4’s
aim is to exploit you and extract as much Big brains, small minds Moral Maze discussing the morality of
value from you as possible. Which should I was recently asked to write eliminating Down
give us pause for thought when we use something about how syndrome through
the term “service user”. intellectuals have viewed antenatal testing.
people with learning She said that she
Customers on the loose disabilities. wanted to both
Language is always problematic and, in I wrote that on the whole, celebrate the lives
seeking to overcome the problems, we with a few honourable of people with Down
sometimes make things worse. exceptions, intellectuals have syndrome and see
I was once involved with a local always looked very badly on the end of Down
authority that decided to use the word people with learning prenatal testing.
syndrome through
“customer” instead of “service user”.
disabilities, and often express
Kiliweb/Open Food Facts realise that the people they worked with the wish they were not their extinction is quite a
The idea was that this would make staff
To wish simultaneously
to celebrate a type of
around at all.
were just like any customer in a shop or
The long roll call of shame
person and bring about
elsewhere, and should be accorded
includes writers Virginia
similar respect and courtesy.
Woolf and DH Lawrence,
moral juggling act. n
That’s how this one feels. None of manage the funds the discretion to Ministry of Justice, with no one seemingly
this was intentional or anyone’s fault release money to parents up to a certain willing to give his problem – or his
actually. Indeed, the Labour government amount, with safeguards in place so solutions – a genuine hearing.
that introduced child trust funds that it happens only where the child That was when he came to me. I
specifically encouraged parents of lacks the mental capacity to access the listened, then I took the issue straight to
disabled children to set them up by money themselves. the top to the prime minister.
giving them additional payments. But The second proposal is to extend the At a prime minister’s questions
nobody told those parents about hurdles existing law that allows parents whose session in October, I told Boris Johnson
they would face – including these child is terminally ill to withdraw from about Mikey, and urged him to consider
exit penalties. child trust fund accounts on their behalf his father’s proposals. He promised
before they turn 18 so it covers mental to look at them, so I am following this
Two solutions ignored capacity as well. up with him and with ministers in
The really frustrating part is what Together, these changes could make the Treasury.
happened when Mikey’s parents tried to an enormous difference to tens of This is not a party political issue. It is an
get it fixed. thousands of young disabled children and injustice affecting tens of thousands of
With the help of a specialist lawyer, their carers. disabled children, and one that should be
they have tried to get the government They don’t require much on the part of relatively simple to put right. At no cost to
to consider two proposals that would the government – a relatively small piece the taxpayer.
enable parents of severely disabled young of secondary legislation and some All it needs is for ministers to listen to
people to access their child trust funds, guidance for providers. It should have carers. And that’s why I’m determined to
without the need to go through the court been a quick fix – an easy win. campaign for all carers. n
of protection. Instead, as happens all too often,
The first, put forward by industry Mikey’s dad found himself passed back Sir Ed Davey MP is the leader of the
bodies, involves giving the firms who and forth between HMRC and the Liberal Democrat Party

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