A cruel society is being built. Voting Labour begins the fightback | Owen Jones
It's a moment many of us who oppose this government have had: something that powerfully crystallises just what is at stake. For me, it was on 17 July 2014. Sue Jones tweeted me: her disabled daughter had died; thus she had a spare room; thus she had to pay the bedroom tax. "It's been an epic nightmare," she wrote. "Shameful and cruel."
It had been "like dealing with robots", she later told me. "No room for discussion. Their answer was, pay or move." I felt fury - cold, seething fury - but I also had a moment of panic. A cruel, remorseless society was being built where predominantly poor people with a disability or a close family member who was disabled were being forced to cough up money they didn't have or downsize to smaller properties that didn't exist; where instead of building desperately needed council housing, we balanced the nation's books on the backs of grieving, impoverished parents.
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