Right, so I’ve made several videos now covering various independent candidates as a movement seems to be building across the country to challenge the traditional political party model in favour of local picked, locally supported candidates standing for what is right and what is needed on their patch. One of the latest people to announce their intention to stand as an independent is a chap called Jody McIntyre, who is planning on standing in Birmingham Yardley against Labour Friend of Israel Jess Phillips.
Jody is disabled, he has cerebral palsy, which is often characterised by muscle weakness, tremors and obviously has a knock on effect to other things that require muscle movement, especially fine motor skills, such as speech, but can also affect sight and touch and hearing. There can also be associated learning difficulties, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that people with the condition are any less switched on to the world around us, than those of us without this condition, so if Jody wants to be an MP, well, just listen to the guy and decide for yourself, but when we need more disabled representation in parliament, because the needs of the long term sick and disabled are not being met, are not being heard are not being listen to, we need more people like Jody prepared to stand not fewer, yet the abuse from online trolls he’s getting, just goes to prove what a pervading abuse issue ableism is and it doesn’t get talked about enough.
Right, so Jody McIntyre wants to stand against Jess Phillips as an independent for parliament and despite his disability there is absolutely no reason he can’t do that, but don’t take my word for it, listen to him:
Now you tell me he doesn’t know exactly what he’s talking about, isn’t saying stuff that so many of us are also saying, regarding Gaza, Israel, the Labour Party position on that and the absurdity that still, not one single member of Labour Friends of Israel has resigned from that group? His video there was heartfelt, it was meaningful, it was eloquent and certainly his speech difficulties were not holding him back one iota. He’s been to Gaza, he’s seen it with his own eyes and actually he’s seen a whole lot more than that, because not only has he faced abuse online in response to his video there and others he’s put out, he’s faced it here too.
In 2010, Jody McIntyre, was on an anti tuition fee protest, the Lib Dems big betrayal you might recall when he was pulled from his wheelchair by the police where he claimed he was hit by a police baton and dragged across a road. The complaint he made to the IPCC was only partially upheld, having taken as long at it had the watchdog agreed the police had used excessive force by dragging him across the road and that he might have been assaulted, but it was now too late to prosecute. It was claimed by the police that he was dragged from his wheelchair for his own safety, but on what planet can you possibly believe that taking a wheelchair user from their wheelchair is ever in their best interests?
McIntyre spoke to the Guardian at the time, here’s an excerpt:
‘"It was an angry and passionate demonstration," says McIntyre, "and it was also hugely tense and hugely hostile, because there were mounted police ready to charge into the crowd." He was at the front of a large group of protesters in Parliament Square when he was struck on the shoulder with a baton by a police officer, he says. "Then around four police officers pulled me out of my wheelchair and carried me away."
Not long after the protests, footage emerged of the second incident which, while grainy, shows McIntyre out of his wheelchair, being pulled along the ground by police, as voices in the crowd shout "What the [eff] are you doing?" and "You just tipped him over!" It's difficult to watch without mounting horror, and the thought: has it come to this? The police dragging a man with cerebral palsy through our streets?’
Of course there were insults slung his way over this incident too. The loathesome Daily Fail scribbler Richard Littlejohn compared McIntyre to Matt Lucas’ pretend disabled character Andy from Little Britain, I can only surmise he thought it funny to imply McIntyre wasn’t really disabled, but then he also thinks he’s a journalist. McIntyre for his part just referred to him as an idiot, and shrugged this off. The BBC conducted a rancid interview with McIntyre as well, the line of questioning upset many as it seemed to be very pro police and questioned McIntyre’s motivations, as he spoke out against government policy, was then and still is a political activist. Par for the course for the BBC, the interview is available online and I have to say McIntyre, then aged just 20 was brilliant then despite the line of questioning from Ben Brown and he’s no less switched on now. He’s put out a tweet in response to Aaron Bastani bringing that interview up, saying:
‘Yes, I remember my encounter with Ben Brown well! Hopefully we can have a rerun when I get elected in Birmingham Yardley.’
But for some people sadly, trolls will do as trolls do online, they’ve attacked his video taking Jess Phillips to task for her Labour Friends of Israel membership and for talking about his own experiences having gone to Gaza and it’d be remiss of me to not mention many of those trolls sporting the Israeli flag in their handles, I’ll not repeat them, but suffice to say they’ve targeted his disability as a reason to mock him, attack his views, belittle him, and degrade him and frankly there are a lot of comments that deserve to be reported and I’ve done so with several. To them McIntyre has simply said:
‘It has come to my attention that a post I made on the weekend received hundreds of weird and disturbing comments about my disability. This is a major barrier to disabled people entering the public sphere. These people are in serious need of education and I feel sorry for them.’
He’s a better man than me, I’d be a lot more sweary, therefore I daresay he’ll make a much better politician than I would, but a good politician I absolutely believe he’d make and Birmingham Yardley have the chance to have this guy instead of Jess bloody Phillips, that’s a bargain to my mind!
If you’d like to support Jody’s campaign, he is, like many independent candidates, crowdfunding to be able to do so, crowdfunding to be able to take down Jess Phillips, already nervous for her seat because of the massive Muslim population in her constituency and Labour’s position on Gaza and Israel is not doing her any favours not that she frankly deserves any. Jody McIntyre is not just a great advocate for Gaza, but for disability rights where there are few MPs standing up for that, but our civil rights and human rights as well. His crowdfunder is crowdfunder.co.uk/p/jodymcintyre and I sincerely wish him the very best of luck and damn anyone who says he can’t do it, because I really do think he can and we need more people like Jody as MPs giving a damn about all of us and what is important and not just themselves and showing the ignorant and small minded trolls, that they belong under their bridges and really should stay there.
I daresay canvassers in Birmingham Yardley for Jess Phillips had better have answers on Gaza and Israel to hand come the election, especially in light of the Labour leadership’s consistent acquiescence to the apartheid state, because they certainly didn’t have any to hand recently when put on the spot on the doorstep elsewhere caught hilariously on film too and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.