Friday night is children in need night. You know, I still have partial memories of being dressed up and bussed into winsford town centre as a young child in order to rattle collection buckets by school. I must have been five or six. Back then, of course, I thought it was great fun. Yet with hindsight, I see it as exploitative and repressive.

Charity represses disabled people, turning us into victims and objects of pity. We are, of course, neither, and I will decapitate anyone who says otherwise. It is true that we crips do need more support, but it should be the duty of the entire community (ie the state) rather than the conscious-placating activity of the altruistic few. That way, the implication is that we are a valued part of the community rather than a bunch of outcasts dependent on begging and handouts. There is no denying, of course, that charity is born of kindness, but in this case it is a misdirected kindness which casts disabled people as victims and outcasts rather than as an integral part of the whole. This is why my politics are to the left of centre; I do not want to be seen as a victim, but as a valued citizen.