Cracks in the Ceiling Dust in the Goldsack

‘’Prince Phillip’s up there with good ol Maggie now!’‘

Britain is a country profoundly uncomfortable with disability and difference. This appears rarely more strongly than in the workplace and the unemployment system, in which disabled people are caught between two entirely contradictory stereotypes. On the one hand, we are pitiable and infirm, incapable of holding positions of influence or of making a capitalist contribution. On the other, we are lazy and wilful scroungers, leaching off the hard-working non-disabled public. This heightened noticeably as austerity measures began to roll out with a particular focus on out-of-work sickness and unemployment benefits. It was as if disabled people were simultaneously pitied for their infirmity and vilified as a useless burden; judged as incapable of basic tasks by non-disabled people and criticized for not being in employment.