Mr. Perrin’s blog: A Word in Your Ear.
WERE the powers that be within the Conservative Government, e.g. the Prime Minister and Jeremy Hunt, being deliberately perverse when they elevated Ms Jackie Doyle-Price to the post of a Junior Minister within the Department of Health, even more so by appointing her as the spokesperson on care for the elderly and the mentally ill?
For sheer effrontery, I liken her appointment to that of the appointment of Tony Blair as” a peace envoy” to the Middle East, talk about adding insult to injury. Like Blair, the only person likely to benefit from Ms Doyle-Price’s appointment is Ms Doyle-Price.
Her pronouncements, both pre and post her appointment, have not been sympathetic towards those who rely on payments from the public purse such as pensioners, the disabled, the mentally ill, and those in need of special care in the latter stages of their lives. She says that people should stand on their own two feet and support themselves, not rely on the taxpayer. All this from someone whose substantial wage is paid by the taxpayer, whose expenses are paid by the taxpayer, and who will eventually receive a generous pension, also paid for by the taxpayer.
Her most recent pronouncement that ownership of a house is not an investment to be inherited by one’s children, it is an asset to be sold off to pay for the cost of care in old age, demonstrates just how hard-nosed she really is. Like the big bad wolf she will huff and puff until she has blown your house down.
The fact that she “drops into a few stalls” at an open event and says a few complimentary words does not necessarily mean she cares about the welfare of the elderly or the mentally ill, on the contrary, it is probably more about promoting the fortunes of the Conservative Party and enhancing her own political ambitions.
Having said all of this, I have to acknowledge that Ms Doyle-Price has been elected Thurrock’s MP at three successive General Elections. What this says about Thurrock voters leaves me somewhat baffled.
I hope that her success is not due to public support for her views on the care and welfare of the elderly and mentally ill.
Us Blind and also mentally ill people, do not want to be on benefits earning £60 to survive on.
We want to contribute as much as we can. what gets to me is companies see us as dead wood and dont want to employ the less efficient. the tories believe in free market economic neo liberalism for business while cutting the support for the less able. while giving Billions each month to bankers and blaiming the financial deficit
on the unemployed, disabled and now also pensioners.
Care to comment JDP?