This will be a first post in a series of monthly posts I will do every month about the state of the Labour Government and how I think they are doing, especially and obviously for LGBT+ People.
GP Criticises the ban on Puberty Blockers in England and Wales
Wales Online has reported that transgender kids in Wales are now taking extreme and potentially dangerous measures including buying homemade drugs or deliberately becoming anorexic because accessing help has become so difficult.
She said children with gender dysphoria, who do not have the same level of access to heath services as adults, are taking matters into their own hands rather than waiting until they turn 18 to access care.
This is how to Wes Streeting, the current Health Secretary, who stated soon after coming to power last year that the temporary ban on Puberty Blockers for transgender kids will be indefinite, basically meaning permanent.
The ban needs to be reversed as soon as possible to save lives. While there is a trail of puberty blockers going on for transgender kids, as in line with the CASS review that was carried out under the conservative government, this will take to long.
How many more transgender kids have to die before the government will act?
Rachel Reeves is rumoured to be cutting disability benefits
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, is rumoured to want to cut £6 billion from the UK benefit bill. This will target not just people on UC (Universal Credit) but also PIP, or Personal Independent Payments.
It is well known that most people who get PIP are working people. So this brings up a challenge for the government. They were elected on not raising the taxes for the working class of the UK and looking after the working class. Labour, the party that is in government, was after all born from trade movements that represented the working class in the late 1890s/early 1900s. I am sure that the founders of the movement, the trade unions like the miners union, would not agree with this.
It is also absolutely wild that a Labour government would be going down the route of austerity, like the last Conservative government did for almost 13 years.
One of the main cuts the last government did was to social benefits, and that measure has been an objective failure that has resulted in a bloated national debt that has reached 100% of GDP.
All these cuts have done is push more people on sickness benefits, as all it does is impact most on these already vulnerable. It was associated with worsening mental health and increasing suicides.
What is needed is not more cuts to the benefit system but help for the young working-age people with the problems they face. Mental Health help in the UK is almost nonexistent.
I am an ex-soldier from the British Army and I have PTSD. I am on long-term sick thanks to having that, as I have blackouts, can get very stressed in busy places, and can lash out in that situation. I also struggle to use public transport as I can get very bad headaches and very stressed being on things like buses and trains for longer than 1/2 an hour. I am also very hyper-aware. I was with Veterans NHS over 10 years ago and seeing someone about it. The funding ran out after 12 sessions.
I was starting to feel better about it, but now, 10 years later and with no help apart from some compensation from the MOD and a certificate giving me free prescriptions for life regarding my PTSD, I am getting worse. I still try the methods of what they told me all those years ago, going for a coffee in a busy place, trying to stay for a bit longer, and stuff like that. These days, I cannot go out of my house without headphones on.
The benefits I am on are UC on the equivalent of top-rate ESA and PIP for mobility. If the treatment I was getting 10 years ago carried on, I am 99% positive I could have been back in work, being productive, and not on benefits.
The government needs to look at prevention and invest in things like mental health services and curing people, not punishing the poorest in society.
To tackle the black hole in the countries finances why not tax the super rich, or as the PM, Sir Kier Starmer said during the General Election last year, the people with the broadest shoulders.
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