Finally, A Leader Who Sees Us! My Family's Hope Lies with the Greens.
Let me be honest with you. As a disabled adult, and as a parent to a wonderful disabled child, politics often feels like a special kind of punishment. It’s a cycle of waiting for the latest budget or party conference, only to have your fears confirmed – once again, you and your family are an afterthought, a line item to be cut, a problem to be managed.
My life is a constant juggle of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) forms, fighting for my son’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), and calculating how to make a budget stretch over soaring energy bills – bills that are higher because of my equipment and our need to stay warm and well. I’m also the Green Party’s Disability Officer for Telford and Wrekin, and from this unique vantage point, I’ve watched every major party with a weary and wary eye.
And then I heard Zack Polanski, Mothin and Rachel!
Let me tell you, the feeling was like a breath of fresh air after being stuck in a stuffy room for years. Here was a party leader, standing at his party’s conference, not just mentioning disabled people in passing, but centring our struggles. He didn’t tiptoe around the issues. He named the poison of extreme wealth while vulnerable people like us are left to struggle. He talked about the anxiety of being a renter, the terror of potentially losing your home, and the brutal reality of a welfare system that feels designed to break you, not support you.
And here’s the stark truth that everyone in the disabled community needs to hear: Zack Polanski was the only leader to do this.
I watched. I waited. I scanned the speeches and the headlines. Nothing from the Conservatives, who seem to only talk about us in terms of cutting "unsustainable" benefits. Crickets from the Liberal Democrats. And a deafening silence from Labour and Reform UK. No vision, no hope, no direct address to one of the largest marginalised groups in the country. It was as if we simply didn't exist in their plans for Britain's future.
With the Greens We Are the Plan.
Zack didn’t just offer sympathy; he offered solid, tangible policies that would change our lives. A £40 a week increase to Universal Credit? That’s food on the table and the heating on for an extra hour. A 5% increase to all disability benefits? That’s a recognition of the higher costs we face every single day. Most importantly, he talked about collaborating with us – co-producing a social security system with disabled people. Imagine that! A system that asks us what we need, instead of telling us what we’re not entitled to.
He specifically pledged to protect PIP from the cruel cuts other parties are shouting about. For my family, PIP isn't a luxury; it’s what allows us to live with a semblance of dignity and independence.
For years, we’ve been told to be grateful for scraps, to accept a "managed decline" in our living standards. We’re tired of being a political football. We are human beings, with dreams, contributions, and a right to a good life.
So, to every disabled person, every parent lying awake at night worrying about their child’s future, every carer who feels invisible and burned out – I see you. I am you. And I am telling you, there is finally a place for us.
There is a party that isn’t just including us in the conversation but is building its platform around our right to thrive.
Don’t flock to the parties that ignore you. Don’t settle for the ones that offer you nothing but more anxiety.
Our community, our families, our carers – it’s time to flock to the Greens! Our future depends on it.
See Zack's full speech here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/TZx9VngoYnk?si=aMZdhon8bMniPqi_
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