Reblogged from Sue Marsh:
Dear Conservative Central Office
Despite appearing on Sky News (twice) LBC Radio and BBC Radio London when I should have been enjoying a wonderful roast lamb dinner my husband had slaved over on Easter Sunday, I'm still awfully cross.
You released statistics to the press on Sunday claiming that
"878,300 people claiming incapacity benefit - more than a third of the total - have chosen to drop their benefit claim entirely rather than face a medical assessment, new figures have revealed."
This clearly implies those 878,300 people felt their claims may be unjustified.
What's more, they're not NEW figures, they're old. You released exactly the same nonsense a few months ago only to be proven wrong by your own stats showing 94% of people either returned to work or got better and - as they should - dropped their claims voluntarily.
May I also ask why YOU "released" (or as we now see "re-released") these figures? Why not the DWP? Since when did No. 10 decide to make very unwell or disabled people look dishonest and lazy over Easter? Don't you see how dangerous this is? How low you are stooping to force through "reforms" widely described as "unfit for purpose"? Reforms even Professor Harrington, your own independent adviser accepts are still failing thousands?
If you believe in the "fairness" of your reforms, have the courage to stand by them. If you can only distort the truth, asking the public to judge some of the "most vulnerable" you pledged to look after on false implications, on statistics your own figures show to be entirely misleading and inaccurate, you are unfit to govern. Actually, you are inhumane.
Never has a case been so clear cut. The two simple links in this article prove you used data to incite mistrust of a vulnerable group.
If there's any justice, this post would go viral and you'd be forced into an apology by Midnight.
Sue Marsh
