My April 26 Letter To The Leveson Inquiry

Subject: Inflammatory Media Attacks On Sick And Disabled People In The U.K.

Dear Leveson Inquiry, 

I am a 55-year-old Disability Studies specialist, stock market trader, and a disabled person (born with cerebral palsy) from Montreal, Canada.  For the past several months, I've been reporting  to the UN Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (SRCPD), in New York City, regarding Britain's Welfare Reform Bill and the plight of the long-term disabled and seriously ill population in your country.

I've also been reporting to the UN SCRPD on the inflammatory media attacks on long-term sick and disabled people in the U.K.  Suffice it to say that The Sun's "benefit cheats" campaign does incalculable harm, slandering genuine sick and disabled people by implication and likely is a contributing factor to the rise in disability hate crime (physical and verbal attacks). I've read numerous benefit cheat articles, and on no occasion have either Lord Freud or Disability Minister Maria Miller made an effort to defend the reputation of the genuine sick and disabled—the vast majority of whom are not benefit cheats. (When I e-mailed Maria Maria on February 28, 2012, I received an auto-reply but never a formal response.  I had requested that she send the offending newspapers—the Daily Mail also has published similar benefit cheat stories—cease and desist letters.)

The recent revelations (the undue influence of the government on the press) from this Inquiry beg the question: Did the government merely "endorse" The Sun's benefit cheats campaign or did it impose it?

I humbly request that the Inquiry not reject this brief letter outright due to my perceived lack of standing in British affairs.  This blog piece (http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.ca/2012/04/open-letter-to-sick-and-disabled-people.html), which also contains a recent letter that I wrote to Minister Chris Grayling, adequately summarizes my background and involvement in the above-mentioned crisis.  I firmly believe that my concerns are justified and need to be heard, even though I reside across the pond.

Thanking you for listening.

Samuel Miller.

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Samuel Miller
E-Mail: disabilityinliterature@gmail.com
Blog: Hephaestus: Disability Studies
http://illnessandcivilization.blogspot.com/
Blog: My Disability Studies Blackboard
http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Hephaestus7
(Montreal, Canada)