Without radical change, the cost of social care could soak up every penny of Barnet council’s budget within 20 years Let me to introduce you to the Barnet Graph of Doom . It’s a PowerPoint slide showing that within 20 years, unless things change dramatically, the north London council will be unable to provide any services except adult social care and children’s services
New documentary follows Tom Spicer as he leaves his Devon care home on a quest to meet Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich Tom Spicer is wearing a huge pair of headphones and an expression of mild anxiety. Backstage at the Honda Centre, Anaheim, California, at one of the world’s biggest rock gigs, Tom is about to find out whether he will fulfill his 15-year-dream to meet his idol, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich.
Mobility scooters are big business – and they can transform the lives of people with disabilities. But their rising popularity in the UK is creating hostility, not least when able-bodied people use them as a cheap alternative to a car The TGA Supersport tends to be bought by people who were fond of motorbikes in their youth, and many of its owners know it affectionately as the Harley, because its high silver handlebars supported by chrome springs are immediately reminiscent of the brand. It’s a Hell’s Angels look for people with limited mobility
Unite is offering legal, debt and benefits advice for out of work people in their local communities to win new followers to its cause When a visitor enters the Casa Bar in central
Brimstone and Treacle, Dennis Potter’s play featuring the rape of a disabled woman, caused a storm in the 1970s.
When Rachel Cooke went to meet historian David Starkey, often called the rudest man in Britain, she expected it to be war. But that was before she started laughing at his tales of a first date in the Beaver’s Retreat In the afternoon of 3 June, the Queen will mark her diamond jubilee by sailing the Thames from Hammersmith to the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich aboard the royal barge, the Spirit of Chartwell
Removal of specialist support leaves those wrongly assessed vulnerable to poverty and homelessness, campaigners warn A woman with learning difficulties, severe epilepsy, schizophrenia, cerebral palsy and asthma recently underwent an official assessment of her fitness for work, which concluded that there was nothing preventing her from taking up employment.
An eye disease left Wheatcroft blind at 18, but by memorising routes he runs unaided and even competes in ultramarathons. Mark Russell joins him for a run and hears his remarkable story The London Marathon will see tens of thousands of competitors take to the capital’s streets this weekend, but for some runners the prospect of covering 26.2 miles just isn’t enough and only an ultramarathon will satisfy their itchy feet.
Paul Farmer says he has resigned to publicise his anger at an ‘inhumane system’ that is telling severely ill and disabled they are fit to work Here’s the moral dilemma that faced Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, last week: should he continue to sit on a government advisory panel, charged with scrutinising a policy that his charity believes to be inhumane? Or should he resign, publicising his anger at the coalition government’s refusal to listen to the charity’s concerns, and remove himself from the room where improvements are being discussed? Farmer chose to leave the panel responsible for monitoring the functioning of the work capability assessment (WCA), the new fitness-for-work test that determines who is eligible for sickness benefits, frustrated that the government was not paying attention to the growing chorus of alarm over the reliability of the test.
Despite the The Undateable’s sometimes patronising stance, there’s something truly impressive about the participants It would be naive to insist that love is blind. Just ask 37-year-old Richard, who is adamant that his dream woman is a blonde, or Penny, 23, who has a thing for towering policemen. Richard is an amateur radio buff who also has Asperger’s, while trainee teacher and circus performer Penny stands three feet tall.
