Good afternoon I’m Mark Cooper the National Disability Officer on the Young Labour committee, it is great to be with you today so thanks for inviting me.
Today is Bastille Day, the day that began the French revolution with the storming of the famous prison in Paris. Politics is often seen as a fortress, with it being hard to break into I is going to share with you my thoughts on how this fortress can be entered. So that disabled people and young Labour members can access all areas of politics. .
There are 3 areas, which I want to touch on
Firstly I will tell you about myself because my experiences have helped shape my political views and given me ideas.
Secondly I will talk a bit about my role as Young Labour Disability Officer and the work I am trying to accomplish and finally I will talk a bit about disability and the Labour party although my thoughts on that could be applied to politics in general
So who am I, I am the 3rd out of 4 children this is important because I was treated like any other of my siblings and my parent fought for me to have a mainstream education and to integrate in society from an early age although at school I was surrounded by adults who wanted to protect me rather than allowing me to make my own mistakes. For example at primary school I was not allowed to fall over in the playground or take part in team sports like football. I wanted to fall over and score the winning goal for my team but I couldn’t. Why did I want to fall over it was to fit in.
My parents had to be firm and with me and the school with me so I wouldn’t be lazy and the school so I would fit in with the other kids build friendships which believe me is hard to do when your surrounded by adults and I still find it hard now. When I was at
Being encouraged by my parents to fit in the other kids was a small thing aimed to make a big difference. They also encouraged us to express our opinion on issues. I have a twin brother who Is also politically active he is in the green party I am thankful for this because if he joined the Labour party and we both ran for leader it would be like the 2010 Leadership election all over again. My dad is from County Durham and is very proud of that. We were on holiday in the area and he took us back to where he was born. At the time I was a conservative party member but I was so shocked that the community he grew up in had been decimated by the closure of the mines by the Tory government I resigned from the party and joined the Labour party. That small idea of my dads to take us there has a huge impact on me because without it I would not be talking to you now
I attended the University of Aberdeen graduating in 2007 and the local paper reported that I overcame my cerebral palsy to graduate so I thoroughly recommend Higher education if you want your disability to be cured.
The best thing I did there was to go to New Mexico for 6 months. It was great for me not just for my suntan but because America is so much more disabled friendly than the UK I don’t mean in attitude I mean in practice
Everywhere was flat and had a disabled toilet so I had a brilliant time rather than constantly thinking about barriers to my life I was able to concentrate on having fun and working instead of thinking can I see my friends? I knew I could.
The time in New Mexico was a small thing that made a huge difference in my life because from that trip I haven’t let my disability hold me back
In 2008 after spending a year job hunting I found a job in banking it was with Lehman Brothers My start date was 13 September 2008 a day forever etched in my mind because I never started the job no I did not have a change of heart, the bank collapsed so my job along with thousands of other just disappeared, I sat in my flat in tears I thought my shot at the big time had gone. Yet two years later I would have gone on change the law to improve pub access
I founded the barred campaign to improve disabled pub access - a subject in which I have no interest! The aim of the campaign was to improve access information to pubs. The campaign changed the law in Scotland so that all new pubs have to say how they are or are not accessible to disabled people this will then allow people to make informed choices about where to go out to
You may of noticed that this speech has a theme to it which is small things can make a big difference and that is the philosophy which I have used during my time as the Disability Officer for Young Labour.
When I was elected in Glasgow I said I would do two things 1) try and reboot the disabled members group. This will give disabled people a voice in the party, which at the moment is not heard and it should be. There are many great disabled members in Young Labour and Labour students but after they leave there is not currently a forum within the party for them. At the moment disabled members are out side the tents looking in when we should be inside the tent looking out. It is up to us as disabled members to say to the party we can help you not you must do things for us
The second thing I said I would work towards it is to ask the party to produce a disability manifesto this would cover things like housing and jobs. In Scotland for the Parliamentary elections we had one, which I thought was great not least because I was on the front of it.
I have also written a disability advice sheet for organizers which detail the kind of tasks people with a variety of impairments can do. The aim of the sheet is to persons out of the equation and just focus on campaigning.
In 2010 I was the PPC in Orkney and Shetland. And I would like to see more support given to disabled people to put themselves forward as candidates. The kind of support I mean is administrative support. When you are seeking selection it is a good move to contact all party members and disabled people may not be able to write addresses on envelopes or it may take them ages to stuff envelopes this may put people off from standing so by offering a small amount of help it could encourage more disabled people to put themselves forward.
Hands up if you have been bombarded by emails inviting you to go to conference here in Manchester in September I know I have! Well I intend to come but it needs to be made more accessible, I don’t mean the venue or the hotels I mean the conference itself. I hope to make a speech, but I can’t jump up and down in the hope of attracting the chairs attention, so how can I participate?
I know I haven’t done any campaigning work during my time in office but I felt if we as party don’t have the infrastructure to support disabled members then what right have we got to lecture others on disability if we cant get it right so ourselves ` by working to towards rebooting the members group and the manifesto these small steps could make a you’ve guessed it a big difference
In 2015 the Labour party faces a challenge, which is to set out a vision of how it would change the lives of people in Britain. It’s a challenge because it has to be a vision which is positive about the future and not just to say the coalition are bad and Labour is good. I just want to conclude with a few thoughts of where I think disabled people fit into that vision.
The Labour has a proud record on disability issues but we need to recognize that we cant just rest on what we did in government and assume because we introduced legislation like the equality act and the coalition are taking away disabled peoples benefits that disabled people will vote for us.
I have always that disability is a strand of equality, then why is it not part of the equalities office? The disabilities minister is working from the DWP that needs to change.
To use a sporting analogy the hardest thing to in sport do is to be behind at half time in the super bowl and change the game plan of how you got there. Well my friends that time has come up to change. Until now the game plans has been to give disabled people rights and support through benefits. Now we have to support disabled people to use those rights. Or to put in another way its time to start seeing disability as a societal issue and not one the individual has to cope with alone. The game plan will be harder to construct because there is one thing that we have to do is to rebuild the trust in politicians from disabled people because it does not exists because as one voter said to me all politicians do is take away my benefits.
That voter was right, all politicians are seen to do is take away benefits from disabled people. For years politicians of all colors have talked about welfare dependency and how this must be changed. I agree but the welfare dependency by politicians must stop too there are other way to help disabled people.
It can stop by addressing concerns of many disabled people like me I am an unemployed graduate I am sent by the Job Centre to A4E to help me to find work yet all A4E offer me are courses on how to do a good CV and interview techniques, they took one look at my CV and said we don’t have any jobs for you so why don’t you become a student again.
I would like there to be a disability graduate scheme or something for people who are not suitable to work for organisations such as Remploy. It wouldn’t cost a lot of money because all that would have to be done is reduce the umber of contracts given to firms like A4E and use that money instead to run this new service. Just this week the government has chosen to close Remploy factories which will place further strain on a system, which cannot cope
Housing is a huge for anyone who is trying to find work and even more so for disabled people.
I have been unemployed since November 2010 and in April 2011 I found and was offered in a job in London which I was unable to take because I could not find an accessible place to live which I could afford. The government is trying to get as many disabled people who can work back into work, but I very much doubt that all the disabled people will be able to find jobs in their locality so some will have to move, but they will not be able to because they will face the problem I did.
I am a social tenant, which means I live in a council flat (or housing association property). Mine has been adapted for the needs of a disabled person. E.g. it has a wet floor shower and lower worktops in the kitchen. This type of accommodation is very rare in the private sector at an affordable rate. So being a social tenant is like having a golden ticket to Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory and not something that one gives up easily. When I tried to move to London I found I was not entitled to help to find accommodation in the social sector until I lived there which is fare enough. But that meant I had would have to leave my Edinburgh flat, if I did this I would be declaring myself homeless which meant I would not be entitled to any help at all, because in the eyes of the law I had chosen to move. There are house swapping websites but that can take months to find somewhere. So if someone is offered a job where they don't live the employer will not wait a long time to withdraw the offer. In the end I had to choose my house over my job
Labour would help disabled people by making a small change to the housing system to make it easier for people to move.
Disabled people would fit into the 2015 vision because Labour policies speak to their needs if you get the same response I did from voter I mentioned earlier you will be able to say no politicians don’t just care about your benefits Labour will support you to find a job or a home
In 1789 that would of thought that by storming of the Bastille in France would be changed forever? The revolutionaries did by doing a small thing that made a big difference!
As Young Labour Disability Officer I have campaigned for a disability manifesto and the re introduction of the disabled members group small things that will hopefully make a big difference
As a Labour movement we must change the way disability is viewed by society small change big difference and by simply having this conference you in North West Young Labour have taken a small step to making a big difference to our party! Thank you
