Steve Topple: The media is waging a coordinated war against chronically ill and disabled people

https://mrtopple.com/2019/03/18/the...-against-chronically-ill-and-disabled-people/

 

It's a pretty good piece covering the main PACE/Sharpe/DWP issues. He knows his stuff on this topic.

He talks about his partner's illness in one of the links he gives.

https://mrtopple.com/2019/02/10/why-im-giving-up-writing/

The one reservation is Steve's background formerly writing for the Canary. Whilst I support many of the issues it covers, it often sensationalises stories and gets facts wrong.

That said, he is using his audience to get out the story out to a wider public and is to be commended.

Also looking forward to a piece from the Guardian's Frances Ryan.

UPDATE: when I had a bit more time & less brain fog I read the later articles. They do get increasingly more ranty and go into conspiracy theory territory.

 

https://mrtopple.com/2019/03/18/the...d-war-on-chronically-ill-and-disabled-people/

 

I think it is generally good, but that the history does not go back nearly far enough. The time that needs looking at in detail is 1993 when Peter Lilley brought in John LoCascio, and "sang" his little song to the party conference.

 

A series of articles?! There seems to be so much stuff to read today.

 

https://mrtopple.com/2019/03/18/don...e-war-on-chronically-ill-and-disabled-people/

 

@dave30th The first article mentioned in this thread may be of interest to you since it mentions Kelland.

 

I just read the first one, and there were some good and interesting bits in there, but I thought there were also some counter-productive sections.

I think it's probably a bad idea to bring up Kelland's other reporting unless you've really had time to go through, check the evidence, and find areas where she was wrong. There's a possible narrative of her just being an instinctive shill for various bodies with money, power and influence... but was her work on those areas misleading?

Kelland seemed to assess Tuller's work not by checking whether he got things right or wrong, but by thinking he was some sort of shill for the unreasonable patients who he'd crowd-funded from (even though his work on this topic long pre-dated any crowd-funding). She didn't point to errors in his work, but spun a narrative. It's a cheap way of working imo, and shouldn't be applied to Kelland any more than Tuller.

I think that speculations like these are really unhelpful with any writing around PACE:

The best way to challenge the unfounded assumptions of others is to stick closely to the evidence imo.

 

well, my mother also donated, and she doesn't have ME!

 

"My partner Nicola is chronically ill, as many of you know. Before we got together she had previously been told her illnesses were ‘all in her head’ and mental health-related, even to the point that professionals sectioned her under the Mental Health Act when she was desperate for support."

 

He found this tweet from the sister of the boss of the SMC. It looks like assistance in antagonizing/trolling to try to sustain the dying false narrative.


https://twitter.com/user/status/1107681142570913794

 

Please thank your mom for us. I read through your looong list of donors and bet it will be longer next time.

 

When Frances Ryan publishes her Guardian piece, it might be worth contacting Jackie Long & other relevant journalists.

Essentially you're leveraging content in the "mainstream media" to generate more.

That's what happened with Kelland's Reuters piece, it stimulated similar pieces elsewhere. (no doubt abetted by the SMC)

 

Steve Topple isn't everyone's cup of tea for some of the other causes and people he is involved with eg George Galloway.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1107973614085783552

 

Steve has also been accused of anti-Semitism too for his past Tweets.

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/...tisemitic-conspiracy-theory-theories-1.473575

Whilst we appreciate his work on ME, critics will bring up articles like this one to condemn him.

 

Perhaps tackle from a different route. Scottish coverage ( Parliament, newspapers and BBC) has been sympathetic in the past few years- perhaps a toehold could be gained here which could be leveraged?

 

Yeah I mean he’s been accused of antisemitism and goes on Russia Today...not a great track record.

It’s difficult isn’t it. I think if it was any other subject I’d distance myself from someone like that ASAP, but we don’t really have the pick of the bunch :/