I am still in a state of euphoria concerning the cricket. After 24 years of disappointment, it feels great to have beaten the aussies in Australia: for, as the great Bill Shakespeare put it, ”Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer!”’ Yet just as the TV News has already moved the Ashes victory off the main article slot, and pictures of sunny Sydney have been replaced with those of overcast London, so must I return to more grave matters. It is now apparent that the government aim to cut disability benefit by twenty percent, something I am now very worried about: both Lyn and I get higher-rate DLA – it is our main source of income as neither of us have paid work. The benefits we get are enough to get by on, but only just, so if DLA is cut I’m not sure how we will cope.

I’m sure many people with disabilities will have the same fears. I guess we are, in a way, fortunate as both Lyn and I obviously qualify for benefit. However, I’m concerned for those claimants whose cases aren’t so clear cut. These cuts will no doubt push some very vulnerable, fragile people off benefits and try to force them into work when they may not be ready. In other words, these cuts will fuck up peoples lives, and for what? To appease the bankers, so that tax can be cut! This is an example of how uncaring the Tories are. These cuts are criminal, and will hurt some of the most fragile people in society; this is wrong, and we shouldn’t put up with these Tory arseholes fucking up our lives.

It is summer in the southern hemisphere, and it has been glorious; but here it is winter and it is going to be one of great discontent.