http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=5535

was published this week in the Guardian appealing for Compass, the LibDems and the Greens to work together.

Carerwatch know that these are the people who have been supporting us in our campaign and so we wrote to congratulate them all on this initiative.

http://carerwatch.com/mhealth/

Neal and James and Caroline

CarerWatch is a group of unpaid family carers.

We would like to congratulate you on your very welcome article ‘We need a camp site not a big tent’ in the Guardian and support you in your initiative to work when possible as a progressive coalition.

You say ‘But this emerging progressive consensus is not just confined to Lib Dems and Labour. The Green party shares many of the values.’

We are writing to attest to that from our experience on the ground and to emphasise the desperate need for fair minded people to work together.

We have been campaigning to protect the most seriously sick and vulnerable under ESA – especially those with enduring mental health conditions like schizophrenia and bi polar. The ideological zeal to pressurise the work shy and feckless is driving the Tory/NewLabour coalition forward blindly on this without due care and concern or even compassion for the seriously ill. Professor Gregg tells us that the ’support’ group in ESA was designed to protect the seriously ill and allow them to gain access to all back to work help free from the fear of ‘conditionality’ and benefit sanctions. This is the humane way to include the seriously sick in the Welfare Reform program. But the government is refusing to use the ’support’ group in most cases.

Baroness Meacher is making the case to the Minister that for the mentally ill this isn’t humane or safe. Liberty advise us that it probably isn’t legal. Not protecting the enduringly and seriously sick is not even cost effective. Frightening very sick people will not get them in to work and may make them more ill. Not making their protection part of the Welfare Reform program is absolutely shaming.

We can attest that while NewLabour and the Tories have been deaf to our pleas – Compass, the LibDems and the Greens have supported us fully. So we know how necessary it is for people who can think clearly and fairly and have compassion and common sense to work together.

Neal and Compass have consistently supported us. Baroness Thomas of
Winchester and other LibDems have led a fantastic campaign in the Lords to try and ameliorate the worst excesses of the Welfare Reform Bill. Caroline Lucas and Alan Wheatley are campaigning with us.

So we know from hard experience that on the ground there is a great deal of practical, political reality behind this move for Compass, the LibDems and the Greens to work together and we congratulate you on this much needed initiative.

Frances
Rosemary

–
Carer Watch
A campaign group for carers across the UK run by independent, unpaid carers.

http://www.carerwatch.com
admin@carerwatch.com

IIRC the 10 principal demands of Compass for renewal of Labour incorporated 8 policy areas that the Greens are already on board with. The Lib Dems agree in 6 areas of policy that Compass seeks to embrace. As someone who isn’t a party tribalist lets see where this meeting of independent parties and hopefully independent minds takes us.

My own blog has always been premised upon seeing Labour (and the Greens) as competitors for the progressive vote. The Tories remain the political ‘enemy’.