UK 21 June 2018 | 3-hour ME debate in Westminster Hall, secured by Carol Monaghan

Cinders66 said:
I actually think it's a cheek to even raise the Ricky gervsais thing and say he should give us an apology, it's irrelevant. It's not HIM I want an apology from or action from and then the minister proceeded to mainly defend the [[appalling]] status quo whilst jarringly quoting unrest as if he "really understood". Jessica in Bed for her birthdays, which he tied into home education, was nothing to do with education, in fact I very much doubt in most of those years Jessica could do any home learning it was the waste of life caused by there being no treatment, caused by no research.
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To be honest, i'm not even offended by that joke.
 
Sasha said:
The minister was sounding very promising at the beginning in terms of his understanding and attitude but was disappointing in what he was able to offer, IMO, at least on the spot.

I wonder if it's likely he'll go away and make better things happen. I don't know how much to expect from a minister at the end of a debate like this.

Big thanks again to Carol Monaghan.
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I think the minister was tbh the weakest player in the whole debate, though am v grateful for whatever positive changes he can bring to the process, of course. Carol was stupendously good as were all the other MPs.
 
I thought the Gervais bit was pretty shitty, and reflective of a lot of prejudices that were still being promoted by those within the UK Establishment, but there you go. I think less of Gervais for it, but he's far from our main problem.
 
It sounds like Steve Brine was not up to speed with the facts but had an education in the feeling of suffering. All well but for a Debate facts are kind of the go to item to put forth a sound and unassailable argument. Talking feelings can have a use but belongs elsewhere.
 
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One of the more disappointing things for me was Brine Shrimp saying everything is going swimmingly because the MRC is talking to the CMRC, which is actually the MRC, which in this case is the CMRC, which is actually Stephen Holgate. What could be better? Something does not quite add up when no significant funding has resulted.
 
large donner said:
Personally I think Rickey Gervais is the last of our worries and I don't want to see a twitter storm that brings in the whole world to turn it all into an even bigger joke and sidetracks the amazing work that was done yesterday.

A Twitter storm could take this off to a whole other direction like a "what about freedom of speech" angle or even worse. Also we will get trolled the hell out of.

Ricky Gervais is just a comedian who made an ill informed joke about disabled people because of people in the BPS crowd who ill informed the whole of society.
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Gervais has always been a one trick pony. He has always chosen targets that he pretends are difficult but which, in reality, are easy; that's his 'shtick'. Same with Hopkins etc. He has plenty of critics that have pointed this out (despite praise for The Office). Completely understandable that the Daily Star picks up on the Gervais aspect as this is a celebrity obsessed culture and the Star, well, has never possessed the most serious of editorial lines.

He's never going to apologise. He doesn't have quite the street cred that he had so let him (as it were) dig his own grave.

A little bit of a sideshow. The science is, finally, winning.
 
Snowdrop said:
It sounds like Steve Brine was not up to speed with the facts but had an education in the feeling of suffering. All well but for a Debate facts are kind of the go to item to put forth a sound and unassailable argument. Talking feelings can have a use but belongs elsewhere.
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he may be aware of facts but as a government minister it is form to toe the line,he may only recently have been briefed on the government line, however what he needs to be doing is making clear that the line is not acceptable and getting it changed

ETA assume that he went with Ricky Gervais as a way of deflecting attention because he knew the government line is weak
 
I think Steve Brine's speech will have been written for him by civil servants from the Department of Health to be as bland as possible and make sure they point out all the things the government can't do because it's someone else's responsibility (NICE, MRC, doctor education etc), and he's just allowed to add a 'personal touch' at the beginning and end.
 
Trish said:
I think Steve Brine's speech will have been written for him by civil servants from the Department of Health to be as bland as possible and make sure they point out all the things the government can't do because it's someone else's responsibility (NICE, MRC, doctor education etc), and he's just allowed to add a 'personal touch' at the beginning and end.
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exactly this @Trish you can tell which are his own bits
 
Alis said:
there is an article in the canary about the debate.today . does anyone know / could tell me [have to be in a very simple way] how would I link to it without copying out the really long url thing ? which I cant do right now. :(:confused::unsure::unsure:
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I already linked to that here, thanks: https://www.s4me.info/threads/media-articles-on-westminster-debate-june-2018.4683/#post-84500

With all web pages you should just be able to select the address, then 'copy' it, and 'paste' it onto another webpage. The specifics of how you do that depend on the device. With a mouse you right click the address with your mouse, on a smart phone you normally just need to hold your finger down on the address for a bit of time for a menu to pop up. The forum software here will then convert any lengthy web address to a shorter link for people to click on.
 
Much as I find Gervais unfunny, and a man who frequently hides behind the standard gutless bully's 'it's just a joke' excuse to evade responsibility for his own words, it isn't Gervais who should apologising.

Brine is just deflecting outrage onto Gervais and away from him and his government. Don't fall for it.

Forget Gervais. It is Brine, and all UK governments going back to at least the Major government (IIRC), who should be apologising.
 
Personally, and this is just me musing, rather than an apology from a rather bland and unfunny "comedian" I'd rather have at least some of the following;

PIP - which I was robbed of by an assessor who was both woefully untrained and dishonest;
SDP which I was robbed of as a consequence of being robbed of PIP
My local council to have the money to be able to offer me care, and the trained people who know enough about my conditions to deliver it.
My local council or housing associations to have enough money to have the property stocks so that I can have a ground floor property, a 3rd floor flat with no lift isn't exactly ideal.

Now can RG provide any of these, or influence people to do so, or is that more the preview of, say, a government minister.

ETA - you may have noticed that no treatment or cure was mentioned, I no longer have any faith in doctors, unsurprisingly, or research, I don't have any faith in MPs either but doctors haven't publicly said that it's all in hand, that the ill and disabled are being looked after, that care is provided to those who need it etc. MPs have, government ministers have, this week, so......
 
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Yes, I agree, but by retweeting Robert's tweet, Gervais has bounced it straight back to Steven Brine, who is tagged in the message, and effectively endorsed the suggestion made by Robert that Brine should ask the Dept of Health and Social Care to apologise.
Robert 1973 said:
Perhaps Ricky could ask the Minister when the DHSC will be apologising for its mistreatment and neglect of people with ME.
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No harm in having support from high profile people, even if just on social media.
 
Indigophoton said:
Yes, I agree, but by retweeting Robert's tweet, Gervais has bounced it straight back to Steven Brine, who is tagged in the message, and effectively endorsed the suggestion made by Robert that Brine should ask the Dept of Health and Social Care to apologise.

No harm in having support from high profile people.
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dont like what RG said and it was shocking in Unrest but it was a long time ago
and actually Steve Brine if you piss into the wind and the wind is blowing in the wrong direction it gets blown back on you
 
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