\n<\/p>\n
The head of one of Scotland\u2019s foremost disability rights charities says she turned down an MBE in the recent new year honours because the UK government was \u201cfuelling hatred, blame and scapegoating of people with disabilities\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tressa Burke, chief executive officer of the Glasgow Disability Alliance, had been recommended by the prime minister for the honour for her services to people with disabilities. Over two decades, Burke has grown the organisation from seed into a nationally recognised voice for disabled people in Scotland\u2019s largest city, and supported more than 5,000 members through the pandemic.<\/p>\n
But in her letter declining the proposed award, seen by the Guardian, Burke told the Cabinet Office: \u201cI feel that I cannot accept a personal honour because disabled people are being so dishonoured at this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact we are being demonised, dehumanised and scapegoated for political choices and policy failures by consecutive governments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke, who emphasises she means no disrespect to colleagues in the voluntary sector who have accepted similar honours, explains that she received the letter of recommendation on the day of the UK budget, which introduced stricter assessments for personal independent payments, frozen or reduced universal credit health top-ups and cuts to the Motability scheme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe budget was an opportunity to send out a signal not about how much disabled people cost but about how much disabled people are worth and are valued by society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, she says, it has \u201csupercharged the inequalities and unfairness disabled people face\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is fuelling misinformation. It is fuelling hatred. It is fuelling blame and scapegoating. When the biggest problem we have is that taxation needs to be addressed and if we could all get behind that, including the most wealthy people, we would be able to offer the provision of a welfare state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burke also challenges the government\u2019s \u201cnegative framing\u201d of disability, which she says is happening at the same time as \u201cgrowing attacks by the far right about whether or not [disabled] people have any entitlement to things and lots of misinformation\u201d.<\/p>\n
While she argues that \u201cScotland is doing better than the UK for sure\u201d, Burke says her members will be watching carefully for the practical implementation of the Scottish government\u2019s new disability equality plan, as well as what manifesto commitments are made before May\u2019s Holyrood elections.<\/p>\n
Burke, who will have been running the GDA for 20 years this coming May, said she also balked at \u201cindividualising\u201d the achievements of her organisation.<\/p>\n
The organisation is built around the twin pillars of supporting people at an individual level and reducing their social isolation, then building confidence and their collective voice to influence policy and services.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately I am most proud of the people power of GDA \u2013 the board, the staff and the members \u2013 all disabled people working together to improve disabled people\u2019s lives at the individual and collective level.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe peer support that members give each other, the friendships that have sprung up, people have even got married \u2026 that\u2019s just something to be proud of. The sense of community and belonging that GDA members have. It feels like being part of a family for thousands of people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The head of one of Scotland\u2019s foremost disability rights charities says she turned down an MBE in the recent new year honours because the UK government was \u201cfuelling hatred, blame and scapegoating of people with disabilities\u201d. Tressa Burke, chief executive officer of the Glasgow Disability Alliance, had been recommended by the prime minister for the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[8944,6850,701,21486,364,5645,9464],"class_list":{"0":"post-39709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-campaigner","9":"tag-disabilities","10":"tag-disability","11":"tag-mbe","12":"tag-people","13":"tag-scapegoating","14":"tag-turned"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}