TO READ the polemic from Jeff Adams (Adver, May 22) one could be forgiven for thinking the ‘persecution’ of the disabled was a trait reserved for the Conservatives. According to Mr Adams it was the nasty Conservatives who closed down the Remploy factories which provided work for the disabled. He carefully omits to write that it was a Labour government which initiated the closure of the first 42 factories in 2007; after much campaigning against the measure, the Labour minister reduced the number of closures to 29 factories.
The Coalition government commissioned a review which was undertaken by the largest disability lobby group and their report was published in 2012; and yes, 33 factories were closed, which one could say makes the Conservatives slightly nastier than Labour.
However, Mr Adams declares that “Tory ministers have even been turning public opinion against the disabled”. Such a comment is easy to make but rather more difficult to prove; it also suggests that the average person walking the streets of Swindon and elsewhere is easily influenced on such matters.
I believe it true to say that citizens of our town and throughout the country are aware of and supportive of the disabled; it is also true there are some who through ignorance or malevolence act in ways which are reprehensible towards the disabled. Mr Adams cites the reporting of people who have been taken through the court system for either faking or exaggerating disability and claiming benefits to which they are not entitled; is he suggesting the opprobrium heaped on such miscreants is unwarranted and undeserved?
DES MORGAN Caraway Drive Swindon
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