The MEA ais quite rightly being challenged about what they’re going to do about this and I don’t think they mean just in terms of the delay but in terms of the absence of anything to deliver anything for this misrepresented, harmed and neglected community.
I don’t think that type of challenge is gonna be well received but I think there should be a major questioning of why the MEa & AFME has never organised campaigns on services or research, even during this process, which is atypical for national charities. The patients saw the absence of ambition and sought to apply external pressure, which is basically what charities do to turn up the heat, to make it less possible for a government to carry on ignoring you and our charities ,refused to publicise or support. ? There’s a possibility that they felt during a negotiation that they couldn’t take on a campaigning role. I don’t know if that’s right. However , if they carry on thinking that they can just resume whatever actions they were doing before this, they’re wrong and if the government thinks this problem can be just swept under the carpet when it’s an injustice, they’re wrong. Enough is enough
Long Covid has shown what the government can do for this type of illness both in terms of swift set up of services and immediate dedicated funding and there’s no reason whatsoever it cant do the same for m.e
I hope that a patient campaigners launch a really strong campaign because this government has got a weak spot now, it’s known for being cruel to the vulnerable- regarding the fuel tax , regarding PIP and also there’s recognition that there’s been these great scandals/ injustices and as far as I’m concerned m.e is one of them. So we should be retaliating hard with the support of Lib Democrats & the greens
. I think we need to make noise until they reverse this decision and part of the reason they thought they could get away with this decision was because as well as stigma, we’ve been very very quiet.
Obviously there’s been scepticism / concern for a long time amongst informed patients because the draft was lame but I think the community is gonna be stunned that the government thinks it can take three years of our desperate lives on a review and consultation that was supposed to take a few months and are still coming back with no funds