cheap drink, strong dope and tranquillizers
I don’t remember how it got there. I kinda guess it’s related to the “oh-my-god-life-is-so-shit-I-want-to-die” episode I had last night. As usual, cheap drink, strong dope and tranquillizers got me through.
streamed live on Teh Intawebz...
Firing-up my geriatric computer to attack the headlines aus Die Zeit mit meine schlechte Deutsche, I notice on Twitter the Brandon Trust are having another “100 People: 100 Voices” Learning Disabilities Conference, and it is to be streamed live on Teh Intawebz... The flyer says “This is your opportunity to tell us what is important to you”.
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| Live from Teh Intawebz - Mr Personality |
Brandon Trust sees a future where people with learning disabilities will exercise full citizenship with all its rights and responsibilities within UK society, where every person will be empowered and supported as necessary to safely live their life to its full potential.
Great White Hope and putative saint
And headlining the event is none other than the Disabled Community of Britain’s Great White Hope and putative saint, Bendy Girl.
the corpulent sight of Matt Britt
Hitting the video feed, I'm greeted with the corpulent sight of Matt Britt, one of the the Brandon Trust’s umm... “Employment and Support” advisers. (Little did I realise at this point, that this horror show was going to contain more than one Matt).
“Why haven’t you got a job?”
Looking distinctly Pooh Bear-ish in his spanking new blue Brandon Trust T Shirt, Matt I (as we will call him for ease of identification) outlines a future where asking the Brandon Trust for help and social care will get the response
Why haven’t you got a job?
I’m serious. (I’ve got the short-hand notes in case of High Court actions).
putting pressure on the disabled, their parents and carers
Matt speaks of putting pressure on the disabled, their parents and carers to change the current habit of asking
Do you want a job?
into
You will go pack incontinence pads at one of our ‘work-projects’, on a short-term temporary contract, wholly dependent on massive hidden government subsidies, mainly paid through cutting your benefits and support to as close to zero as humanly possible.
he’s “enabled” many of his clients to join “Job Clubs”
He also speaks glowingly of how he’s “enabled” many of his clients to join “Job Clubs” where despite their numerous and serious disabilities, they will disappear from the disability statistics and glory in their new found status as fully enabled, supported and largely unemployable Job Seekers.
the blonde, poodle-haired, irredeemably chirpy PR guy
Next up is Matt II, Matt Boyle, the blonde, irredeemably chirpy, poodle-haired, PR guy from the Brandon Trust who is conducting an “interview” with one of their “local user forums”.
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| Live From Norwich... It's Gorgeous! |
He begins with excruciating sub-Alan Partridge repartee
Your mum and dad brought you down!?
(Everything Matt II says comes with an exclamation and question mark.)
I need a bus pass
replies the less than enthusiastic interviewee. Matt II rapidly moves on to his next victim.
Any experiences you want to share about the buses!? You have something positive to share about the buses!?
A long painful silence follows.
Do you have a bus pass!?
Another painful silence follows, although fortunately slightly shorter than before.
Do you have a bus pass!?
Hey! That's a great photo on there!
Matt II ploughs on, to no reply. Undaunted, he continues, addressing what seems entirely empty space, Hey! That's a great photo on there!
Another of the user panel erupts UrrghArrrghUrrrrrrrrgh!, at this point, I find myself joining the interlocutor in an unholy counterpoint...
Full Metal Jacket Matty continues
Any experiences you want to share about the buses!?, Full Metal Jacket Matty continues.
I get teased...
Desperately he turns, seemly at random, only to hit point-blank by
The bus stop is so far away, I have to get a taxi to it
I scream. Literally, I scream
I scream. Literally, I scream. I’m autistic you see. I have alexithymia. Difficulty expressing my thoughts and feelings so instead I just go UrrghArrrghUrrrrrrrrgh! and smash things up.
Frequently it’s the telephone. I’ve got through 4 in the last year. I always make a point of buying the cheap ones, knowing they’re not going to last long.
the endless stream of negativity
Matt II continues, the endless stream of negativity from the panellists can’t be ignored and he is begrudgingly dragged into engaging with their concerns... I leave the room at this point.
ignore the whining from the lonesome whisky bottle
It’s about 11.30 am and I can no longer ignore the whining from the lonesome whisky bottle. Despite this failure, I do manage to ignore the seductive susurration emanating from the tranquillizer cupboard. They can't be wasted on generalized existential angst. They're for life-or-death situations.
I return to the forum, dainty porcelain cup of whisky and a suspiciously large and stinky brown roll-up in hand.
Speaking in a particularly sexy low-cut maroon ensemble
Bendy Girl, Kaliya Franklin is powering up an improvised ramp onto the stage accompanied by rapturous applause. Speaking in a particularly sexy low-cut maroon ensemble, she appears to be accompanied by what looks like a G4S security guard in a blazer and tie. I try to ignore this fact. I don’t succeed.
silly-voice-o-meter hitting about 5.5
Kaliya gave a brief introduction, but almost certainly due to the psychic trauma of what followed, the recollection entirely escapes me, save for the flash-back of the silly-voice-o-meter hitting about 5.5 on a scale of 0 to 10,
one of the most grievous errors of judgement
In what must surely rank as one of the most grievous errors of judgement since Bill Clinton did-not-have sexual relations with “That Woman”, Bendy Girl announces that we are going to have a “musical quiz”.
a “musical quiz”
My spare bedroom, (which is about to attract a £13 a week reduction in my housing benefit), erupts to the sound of The Wheels of the Bus...
“The wheels of the bus, go round and round, go round and round...”
the ringing afterglow of this thermonuclear stupidity
In the ringing afterglow of this thermonuclear stupidity which at one point included Noddy (sorry but it's true), I was so distressed that for a moment, reality began to slip away. UrrghArrrghUrrrrrrrrgh! goes the scream of the slo-boi on and on, on and on...
Presumably feeling that her experience of physical disability equates with ours with mental disabilities, Bendy Girl goes on to say that we are partly to blame for the bullying and harassment we suffer... and that it is the sequela of expecting the worst of people... and we need to be more open with our attitudes...
UrrghArrrghUrrrrrrrrghArrrgh!
"UrrghArrrghUrrrrrrrrgh!", I reply to the screen, "UrrghArrrghUrrrrrrrrghArrrgh!"
Several minutes later I regain my composure to hear her sign off and leave the stage with the Gandhi-esque phrase “Together we can change the world...” as once more my world is drowned in tinny music. This time it’s Queen
Buddy you're a young man hard man
Shoutin' in the street gonna take on the world some day
You got blood on yo' face
You big disgrace
Wavin' your banner all over the place
We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you
After lunch, (in my case 2 cups of whisky, 3 ‘roll-ups’ and a determined ignoring of the drug cupboard) the video feed resumes and introduces (for some reason) the Labour candidate for mayor of Bristol, Mervyn Rees, who doesn’t say (or do) anything.
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| Unlike the Labour Candidate - can speak. |
I may have lost consciousness at this point
For some reason my mind wanders to Chomsky... I think I may have lost consciousness at this point...
Sometime later, I come-to, and realise once again I’m drowning in an tsunami of Schlager. This time it’s Abba‘s “Money Money Money”.
reality is about to be torn
The panic rises, an unstoppable red-hot column of lava - I make a grab for the pills, then inexplicably, the sense that reality is about to be torn into jagged, bloody pieces, recedes.
It all suddenly makes sense.
Money, Money, Money,
It must be funny,
In a rich man’s world.
Kaliya Franklin/Bendy Girl is an impressively brave woman. A fact that brooks no confutation.
own particular brand of neo-Liberal nastiness.
However the huge maturity, professionalism and realpolitik shown by her and the others in leading the campaign in defence of disabled peoples’ rights in the face of the government’s cuts, has led her right into the gaping maw of the Brandon Trust’s own particular brand of neo-Liberal nastiness.
drowned today in a sea of condescension and cheap music
The voices of the autistic and intellectually disabled people that the Brandon Trust and their “Official Ambassador” Kaliya Franklin, claim to represent, drowned today in a sea of condescension and cheap music.
We don’t need you to speak for us.
We can speak for ourselves.
But you’re not listening.
You got mud on your face
You big disgrace
Somebody better put you back in your place
We will we will rock you
We will we will rock you
