I just got in from a long, frustrating afternoon trying to find a branch of HMV. According to the web, there is one in Canary Wharf, but when I went there, there was no sign of one. From there I decided to go up to Stratford in search of similar stores, but again found nothing. Frustrated I opted to give up and head home.

Coming across the bridge to Stratford station though , I encountered something which really, really pissed me off. There are often beggars on that bridge, trying to fleece people going to and from Westfield shopping centre. The spectacle I saw today was, however, particularly disturbing: a man was walking up to people and trying to appear like he had learning difficulties. He was moaning and groaning and speaking in a distorted way that could only be a sickening stereotypical imitation of someone with LD. Needless to say I found it utterly disgusting and insulting, and instantly wanted to do something about it.

I think I have written about this before. If these people really had learning difficulties, they would presumably have social workers and bee entitled to just as much support as I have. There would be no reason for them to stand in public places begging for money. It is therefore far more likely that they are doing a perverse imitation of someone with a disability, and playing off the sympathy that gets in order to get money. No social worker would allow their client to beg in the street like that.

If that is so, then how can I feel anything other than personally insulted? It is akin to someone painting their face black, adopting a crappy southern US accent, and walking up to people to ask them to “Spare some change for a poor old n*****r?” It deliberately portrays people like me as nothing but useless wastrels or vagabonds, reliant on peoples’ charity to survive.

When I saw this I stopped in my tracks and looked around for some security guys. I was there for a few minutes, but when two men in high viz jackets arrived the guy with supposed learning disabilities had suddenly disappeared. There was nothing for me left to do but continue on my way home. I know I should just ignore it, but things like this get to me: what this guy was doing, in crassly imitating having a disability for sympathy, and using that sympathy to cheat people into giving him money, felt like a physical insult. I am proud of who I am; I am proud of being disabled and of my disabled friends. To see someone imitate us like that, using disability for pity when they would have never experienced what it is like to live a life like mine, mocks and degrades not only my life but those of my friends. It is something I find utterly, utterly intolerable.