Ah, the land of milk and honey. All the benefits I could ever want. The riches fall like rain from the sky. At least, according to Kemi Badenoch they do. However, once again, a Conservative leader or leadership contender has shown themselves to live in the realms of fantasy. This time, it’s Badenoch and this time, she appears to be attacking people on the autism spectrum. People like me. What sort of barrel-scraping activities must the Conservative Party engage in to produce such clownish characters all the time? Well, let me tell you Kemi Bdenoch. Let me tell you, not for the last time I assume, why you’re wrong.
Kemi Badenoch’s stance on autism
In a 36-page essay published by her campaign team at the Conservative Party conference, Badenoch said that autistic people receive “better treatment” as well as “economic privileges and protections”. She also said in her stigmatising remarks against neurodiverse people that conditions such as autism as well as anxiety had gone from something that “people should work on themselves as individuals” to something that “society, schools and employers have to adapt around”.
Despite it not being written solely by her, it carries her branding and was promoted by her at her party conference’s fringe events.
It’s personal
Well, where to begin? Badenoch truly does live in the realms of fantasy so perhaps a few home truths should bring her a smidge close to reality. Hopefully. As close to reality as a Conservative politician can get, anyway.
My autism diagnosis was a long and drawn-out process. Living directly on the border with England and Scotland as a teenager, the relevant services viewed me as someone else’s problem. The Scots deemed I wasn’t their problem because I lived in England and the English didn’t want me because I was Scottish-born. As an apparent product of the UK’s no man’s land, I was tossed too and fro across the border for months, maybe over a year I can’t remember, as the ‘border’ regions between two of the same nation didn’t want the hassle of me. As a result, my high school education suffered.
When diagnosed, life got no easier. I get next to no help because the state doesn’t deem me autistic enough. My anxiety goes undiagnosed because I can’t get the time of day with a doctor. There are benefits I don’t qualify for, and rightly so, and nor do I want them. But to get help that I do need, help that is lesser than those benefits but still goes a long way for someone like me, I need to be on those benefits first. Nobody will listen to my case if I don’t have financial help that I don’t need first. Once again, money talks.
The last time I approached the doctor with mental health issues, I was brushed aside, given what he thought I wanted when my words fell on deaf ears. As a result, I struggle. I struggle at work sometimes and I struggle in politics; things that I love. Thankfully, people are there for me. But make no mistake, they are not people of the state. They are friends, family, co-workers and others but nobody in a government capacity. The government views me as too fit, judging the book by its cover and not what’s within its pages.
‘Everyone else’s problem’
My personal problems aside, the real anger begins. For the majority of people I know or have met are suffering in some way, shape or form. It seems the spectrum is alive with people, but these people are not getting the help they need or can’t even get a diagnosis. I was lucky, for some have been waiting just shy of half a decade. Waiting for services that the Conservative Party brutally decimated over the last 14 years. May the public remember that for as long as they live.
We, as people on the autism spectrum, people who suffer anxiety, people who are neurodiverse are not what Kemi Badenoch would have you believe. I can’t speak on behalf of everyone but everyone I know who carries these issues does not receive the appropriate amount of help needed. We get sticking plasters on battlefield wounds. We get no protections. No economic privileges. I struggle financially, as does the world around me. At least my world, but then I don’t live in the top 1%. Society adapts around us, does it? Well, someone must have missed that memo with me! And many others I know in my situation!
Badenoch is one of a choice between bad and bad for Conservative Party leadership. Not that this country ever benefits from such things regardless of who takes it on. But her comments about neurodiverse people, people with anxiety and people on the autism spectrum show just how ignorant and out of touch she is. Ignorance isn’t just bliss; however, it can be dangerous too. Especially from people like her. So, Kemi, do your research before opening your mouth. As for the rest of us, we must not let Badenoch or her dangerous ignorance about mental health anywhere near Downing Street.
