A copy of the letter I wrote to David Cameron and posted but have yet to hear back...

Dear Mr Cameron,

I have one question that I would like to ask you.

I think; you fought to get Nick Clegg on your side by using some form of persuasion.  So my question to you is;

Why did you BULLY him in to siding with you?

Persuasion is just an educated form of bullying is it not?

(Courtesy of Oxford Dictionary)

(Persuade - induce someone to do something through reasoning or argument)

(Bully - a person who uses strength or influence to intimidate those who are weaker)

Your response would be along the line of; “to form a coalition, to help the Conservative party sort out all the mess left behind by Labour”

Why was siding with your party the best thing for Britain though?

According to the Conservatives website;

“David Cameron's philosophy has always been making sure people are in control and that politicians are their servants, not their masters”

That is the EXACT philosophy I wish for Britain but, I am afraid to say, I think the way you are going about it is completely WRONG!!!

We have just come out of a long decade of Labour control.  We have problems with the economy, unemployment, personal and national debt.  We are at war in so many countries all over the world to try to help their people have more control over their own country, which is a good concept, I can agree with that.  What I cannot agree with is the fact that we are constantly helping other countries while our country is set on self destruct!

Instead of UNDERSTANDING the working class and being a little bit more caring about ALL of the British population, you clamp down on benefits, cast aside people who have possibly had a hard time in life or have a disability and are probably frustrated that their bodies will not allow them to reach their full potential.  I understand that there are MANY people out there who do know how to work the ‘system’ and illegitimately claim benefits.  These types of people ruin a perfectly good concept of ‘system’.  We will always have people like this, unless we help them NOW!

The way to ‘help’ them, is not to force them to find a job so they can support their own family.  The only way, I think, is to help them work out what it is they want to do with their life first and then lead them in the right direction!

I know a LOT of people on benefits, in fact, I am one of them.  In my situation, I have MS which is not the easiest thing to live with and my body would not cope with a lot of stress.  Therefore, being told I have to work would result in me having a LOT more relapses and spending more time in hospital and needing more prescriptions on the NHS.  I really cannot see my body letting me be a reliable employee or any kind of asset to the country in monetary terms.

Most of the people I know that live on benefits; also live on anti-depressants.  They are frustrated that; they can’t find a job; the only jobs they are ‘qualified for’ are poorly paid; the job centre staff seem heartless (sometimes) and order people to get any job, whether it makes them happy or suicidal; their families have to suffer as a result of their failures in life, from school to employability; and so forth.

All we ever hear about on the news are new rules being made for benefits, more laws being passes, and more politicians shouting at each other to figure out what’s going to ‘fix’ Britain.  The statistics that we are all shown on fancy graphs generally ALL relate to MONEY!  Surely, our priorities should not be money but creating a good HAPPY place for British people to live.  We are only a little island, can just about see a dot to represent us on a small globe, so why are we so sure that our way of living is the best in the world?  Can we not learn from other countries and adopt some of their cultures to make Britain a better place?  We are, after all, now a multi-cultural society but all being forced to live by old fashioned rules and laws.

South African children do not start school until they are 7 years old.  Before this age they are taught the BASICS!  Their parents teach them how to do things for themselves so they are able to be as independent as they can.  An independent child still needs their parents to care for them but they generally grow up knowing what they want to do in life, whether it is academic or not.  I know many South African people, my closest and oldest friend is South African, and moved to Britain after beginning school so never had the experience of nursery before school as her mum was a stay-at-home mum to help bring her and her sisters up but her dad worked hard enough to provide for the whole family.  Since moving here, her mum still hasn’t worked but does not claim ANY benefits as the wages from her dad’s job is enough for them to get by, and they are happy! 

My friend now has 2 children under 5; the oldest is at nursery and could start school this year, age wise.  My friend, however, thinks he has not got the hang of being disciplined in a classroom situation.  He is at home but nursery is a different story because they are too strict with what they do and at what time.  He was never forced to have a strict routine at home as both his parents are very laid back and decide things like bed time and tea time by the kids mood rather than time of day.  They are not neglected in any form as they are the happiest children I have ever known.  Surely, that is the best thing for a child to be.  It really doesn’t matter if they are going to go on to be king or a cleaner, as long as they have a happy life.

If every person is different, then every child must be different.  Do you agree?  I hope so as a child IS a person.  Therefore, why are ALL children made to start school at 4 or 5?  I know children learn best under the age of 7 (I studied Psychology at University before becoming ill).  However, what gives Britain the right to force children to start school at 4 or 5?  Surely the things that children learn under the age of 7 should be the way to live a happy life, rather than how to read and write.  I know, in America, there are some children with very high IQs who graduate from University before they are even old enough for High school, they are a prime example of my point.  If they were forced to go through the British school system, their potential would have been lost because it is not ‘doing it by the book’.  What book?!  The rules the government set in order to make everybody reach their academic potential, not necessarily their happiest LIFE potential!

I do not think that every child starting at 7 would work either but why do we not allow the parents to have the control over when their child starts?  They know their own child better than any nursery teacher, politician or doctor.  By doing this, I think, there would be classes of mixed age groups, mixed cultures, mixes genders.  I also think this would make the children happier and feel less like a failure if they can’t do something because they are not as clever as class mates.  Every child has the potential to be ‘perfect’.  But whose version of ‘perfect’ is right?  Yours?  Mine?  A homeless teenager’s?  The Queen’s?  Whose?

I think the only people that can be ‘perfect’ are ones who are not prejudice at all!  Which neither you, nor any other of the political parties in Britain, can claim to be! 

Conservatives; discriminate against the population of Britain who are the product of generations being dragged up through our supposed ‘democratic’ system but not one that had the chance to reach their potential in an academic sense as they were not ready to learn when they started school so rebelled against teachers and authority from a young age, so don’t want to vote or even understand how to.

Labour; discriminate against the fortunate population in Britain to have a decent monetary worth in this country, and generally, voters for the Conservatives.  They try to encourage the working class they are just as important as the rest of the population.  I agree they are, if not of more importance.  Working class people NEED to work!  If they are lucky enough to have had an easy start to life and have the qualifications to get their ‘dream’ job, they are more important to the society than those with the job they were made to stick with.

Liberal Democrats; discriminate against every single person that voted FOR them in the last election by signing with yourselves instead of Labour.  I know you were the popular option because people were all against Labour but, in reality, the policies you both have are too different to lead to a happier place to live.

Here are some worrying statistics...

There are an estimated 50,000,000 adults in Britain, yet less than 30,000,000 people voted.  What about the rest of the population?  They either didn’t want to vote or didn’t understand the importance of voting.  Neither of which is the individuals fault!

After all the ‘scandal’ happening within parliament over the last few years, mainly the expenses fiasco, people who do understand the importance of voting couldn’t care less anymore because they say “politicians are all the same”.  They are right.  Every politician believes they know the answer to Britain’s problems.  But they don’t!  They might be well educated and from a long line of success, much like yourself.  Generally, I think, money rules what decisions are made by the government, we are always hearing about budgets and government cuts.  Why is money so important?!  It is the ‘root of all evil’ or so the saying says, not a weapon to use against others.

As for people who do not understand the importance of voting, they tend to be those without a good education.  Nothing they could control when growing up, as they were forced to do certain things at a certain age, instead of when they were mentally ready to start learning the academic side of life.  By academic, I don’t mean learning mathematics, science, history, and any other subject we are told we HAVE to study.  I simply mean the side of life that means they need to know the way certain things work in order to make their lives happy.  Being able to read, write and do basic maths is important to function in today’s world.  The internet is used more than anything else, so people need to know how to find out what they need to know. Put simply, a person without the skill to read, write and do basic maths will always feel like a failure because they will always feel cut off from society and the rest of the world.

I think we can all safely say that the current ‘system’ in Britain is not working!  The more you do as Prime Minister, stuck in your ways as a conservative leader, without any room for sympathy, will break the country more and we will end up killing each other!!

I think that the 3 main parties in Britain should put their ego aside and ALL join forces, EQUALLY!  There should be no prime minister.  Just three main advisors that democratically come up with new laws, rules and ‘traditions’ that will help ‘fix’ Britain without having to completely destroy it first!

Throughout this letter I have referred to our country as Britain.  It is actually Great Britain but I deliberately left out the ‘Great’ at each reference as I do not THINK this country is Great, but I do like my life in the UK.  Why can we not concentrate on being a United Kingdom, instead of everyone forced to be ‘Great’ British, and anyone that fails anywhere along the line either physically or mentally, will feel like complete failures and the only way out, as they cannot afford to leave the country, is death. 

By putting “suicide rates uk 2010” into Google, there is a long list of articles in newspapers, reporting an increase in suicide within Britain.  Adult statistics seem to always surround money; whether that is losing a job, getting in so much debt that they feel they have no other option, or living on benefits and feeling stupid just because they cannot get a ‘good’ job because of their education.  There is the other side of suicide, children and teenagers.  All the cases of suicide I know of; be it personally or through news programmes, are linked to some form of bullying.  This does not happen to be a coincidence.  Young people feel they have no control over their own life when they are being bullied, I know, I was bullied from 5 until 16 at school and then again when I got a ‘proper’ job because I wasn’t good at getting sales.

The only control we, as individuals, have over our life is whether we live or die.  I have been suicidal many times throughout my younger life.  However, I always talked myself out of it as I knew it would upset my mum as we were very close.  I could imagine what it would do to her so I just kept quiet, for her sake.

Instead of complaining to everybody I care for and being locked up in a mental hospital, or labelled as Schizophrenic, I decided to share my thought with the only man in this country that COULD actually do something about it. 

I can’t; I am a 26 year old MS, depression and anxiety sufferer who has tried my entire life to do the ‘right’ thing and my body gave up before I had the chance to get to where I was meant to be, my purpose in life!  Instead of giving up at many low points throughout my life, I kept going and I am now glad that I did as I am truly happy and the only thing that has made me happy is finally being honest with MYSELF in my head instead of just going along with things like we are expected to.  My head and heart are finally on the same page and I intend to use my new way of thinking as a positive thing instead of a negative.  This is what led to me writing this letter.

I would very much appreciate an HONEST reply from yourself with the option to reply with my opinion on the way you reply to me.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, we have got the right to freedom of speech, I just wanted my opinion to be told to the man at the top, rather than driving my nearest and dearest mad with my constant talking about things I know can be changed.

disabled people are not useless!

I have grown up quite happily in Britain.  I might not have had the best of starts in life but I reckon I've turned out pretty good! Apart from the small issue of having MS and needing help with things around the house!

It really frustrates me when I can't do something! At the moment, my hip is playing up quite a lot.  I refuse to let this dictate to me how I should live my life, despite the dribble of money that the Government expects me to live on. The only good thing to come out of my illness, well two things really. My car, which makes my life SO much easier; and my now ex-fiancée. We both have unusual forms of MS and met through a mutual friend, who suffers with the debilitating illness NMO (Neuromyelitis Optica/Devic's Disease). You probably have never heard of this before in your life so if you can be bothered, Google it; if not, it's pretty horrible! Can end up blind and it can also be fatal.

My ex and I started to email each other, she was a shoulder to cry on when I was so frustrated about my body not managing to talk to my head properly! I would say one thing in my head and my body just decided to ignore my head! I know I probably sound mad, I'm not! I just had to let off steam when things were getting on top of me, which seemed to be happening a LOT at that point in time!

Anyway, long story short, about 6 or 7 months later, she told me she loved me in more than a friends type of way.  I was flattered and realised I felt the same way so we decided to make a go of it! About 8 months later we were engaged, living together and flying high...or so I thought!

It took me until I was with her to realise I needed anti-depressants. My head was so muddled up after all the hassle I had been through since falling ill! My neurologist kept putting me on weird treatments, like Cyclophosphamide (a form of chemotherapy) and was even looking at more complex treatments to try and 'help' me! I felt like a guinea pig! It made me more determined to beat whatever it was that was making me ill and live 'happily ever after'.

I smoke cannabis for the pain caused by whatever illness was causing me to have a complicated life! I got a fact pack thing from the hospital about MS because that was the way they were starting to look. My particular neurologist was the MS specialist for the region in my area so I thought he is probably the best one to trust! How wrong was I?! I soon realised (well 4 years later), that I was just going along with every medication he chose to 'try' me on. I didn't read side effects on ANY tablet I was put on because then I would never have left the house because the smallest thing that happened, I would be at doctors trying to get another drug to 'help' that side effect.

After meeting my ex, we smoked a LOT more cannabis because it was the only thing that we could both agree would help our pain, anxiety and mental state of mind! It was the BEST escape I had ever experienced! For those few hours every night I felt like I could do cartwheels if I wanted to. Generally, all I did was sit on the sofa, making stupid videos and watching stupid movies. For those few hours, I was so happy!!

My ex started wanting to smoke it all day every day. Sometimes, I let her but I had to drive so thought it was probably best not to smoke it until after our night time meal so we could actually have a life that didn't rotate around an expensive class B drug! I had my sensible head on sometimes! Haha

When you smoke too much cannabis, it makes you sick! I spent a week of just drinking water and throwing up, couldn't take tablets, do my injection for my MS or anything. But I didn't care. My head felt like it was about to explode! I started writing things down. Might have gone through a mini nervous breakdown, but in my head, I had never been clearer! Everything in my life had finally made sense! Was weird. In fact, I'm not sure how my ex managed to stay all the way through it without calling the looney bin! I don't blame her for leaving me.

Now though, I have a much clearer head and can see how to solve my life problems! I might have MS and be 'disabled' but it doesn't mean my head is stupid! I can still use a computer so life will be just fine! It's a lot less stressful to be disabled in Britain than be Prime Minister!

I do, however, think that the government need to look after disabled people a bit better.  Just because I got ill at a young age and don't use a wheelchair, I have been pretty much told that if I don't return to work then I am useless! I have tried MANY times to better myself.  I got struck down with MS just before 2nd year at Uni was about to start.  I had 18 months off and then returned, part time though.  I was happy to be back learning but, after 6 months or so, I was forced to give up for good because the stress was causing my legs to start getting worse again quite rapidly. It was a choice between body and mind really. I realised that I didn't have to be in University to learn things so decided it was more important to me that I was able to walk and have as 'normal' an existence as I could manage.

So, with my body not being able to handle the pressures of University, I was forced to give in and admit I have MS and would probably never cope with a job as my body is unable to handle stress! I claim benefits. Most people would probably say that's acceptable, well, most NORMAL people! Not the government! I was told to go to a centre to help me get around to going back to work. Nobody in the 'system' understood that to me, and many other disabled people in a similar boat, work was too physically and mentally tiring to manage on top of everything else we cope with on a daily basis!

I would LOVE to work, I have always wanted to be a primary school teacher! Instead of being depressed about the fact that I cannot fulfil my childhood dream, I now spend more time with the children in my family. It helps me forget for a few hours that I am so sore. Instead of doing lots of things that cost money, I tend to have them to stay with me for a night to give their parents a break and watch dvds and play games in the house. I also spend time with my best friend's two little ones too. My friend and I are in similar financial situations, we both have to live on benefits, so finding cheaper things to do is not as hard as I would have guessed. Today, for example, we went swimming. It does cost money but it is a great way to tire the little ones out and, as it is in water, it serves a dual purpose of helping me exercise without too much pain. Other days though, when I am not too sore, we take them to the park, or do craft things indoors, or just go for a drive and little walk somewhere.

Having my car, courtesy of the Motability charity, has made life a LOT easier. I used to rely on taxis to take me places. I live on a steep hill so trying to walk down or up the hill is painful, even when my hip is not as bad as it is now. There is an hourly bus service, which I tried to use as much as I could. However, I suffer with a form of Acrophobia so, being forced to stay out longer than I need to be in a busy place is my form of hell! My Acrophobia has only developed since I got ill, I was always a VERY sociable person, from a young age. My friends that are around the same age as me like to go out to pubs and clubs which is classed as 'normal' in this country and I never used to complain! :-) Since getting ill though, I have a panic attack style reaction to being in busy pubs, let alone a club! People are also very rude so it puts me off because drunk people are worse!

When I first got ill, I walked with one elbow crutch so people could see I was disabled but, through hard work at physio, and at home, I got off my crutch and was walking unaided after about a year or so. I am a bigger person so people can't miss me! I am also 26 and don't dress in a grown up 26 year old way because baggy jeans and hoody makes my life easier for getting dressed and going out so I choose to wear them. It is like I am completely invisible to EVERYONE! In a pub, people would walk in to me, barge past me, knock one of my legs or hit me in the back, not on purpose though.  In shops, the same things happened! Anywhere that was busy really. The thing that got me was that the same people would at least have said sorry if I had my crutch but I refuse to use an aid to walk when I don't have to! I know it would make people realise I wasn't just being grumpy when they walked in to me but I don't want to make my body get lazy and get a lot worse just because I was trying to show people I am disabled! I know MS sufferers tend to end up in wheelchairs but I don't want to encourage it to happen to my body faster than it has to, if at all!

Now the new Sativex drug for MS patient has been licensed, I thought I could get that and stop smoking cannabis as it is a cannabis based medication. I was wrong. I tried talking to my MS nurse about it and she said to try another drug first, as the rules said that a patient had to have been tried, and failed, on 2 antispasmatic medications. I never understood that rule seen as I had PROOF that cannabis helped me! None the less, I was happy to go along with it. When the nurse discussed it with my consultant, he said no and told me to go to physio again! It felt like I was just going in circles so...I wrote him a letter!

It was really long, telling him EXACTLY what I thought about him and that I would stop taking all of my prescription medications, including my MS injection, if he didn't at least consider letting me do a TRIAL on the drug. His response made me laugh. He didn't like my 'tone' of letter so I now have a new consultant! RESULT!!! haha. I haven't seen him yet but, when I do, he is going to discuss Sativex. Why do doctors play God with people's quality of life?! Nobody, apart from me, can tell me what to do with MY body!

So, after my letter to my consultant got him to LISTEN for once...I wrote one to David Cameron telling him my opinion too!! It was a loooooooooooong letter! Not in an offensive way though, that doesn't get anybody to listen!! I also wrote another letter, justifying my opinion using life experiences of me and close friends and family! I have still not heard from him! I do not want to blackmail him, or even claim credit for my opinion, I simply want him to realise that people who CANNOT work, are not useless, and treat us better!

Motability is a great charity! I would be lost without my batmobile (I have batman logo on bonnet). I agree with the government stopping rises in petrol prices, it's about time! However, they set VAT to 20% so prices on most other stuff has jumped up! I understand that the government have lots of hard decisions to make about budgets etc but they NEVER take pay cuts! Why can't they be paid a lower salary and give people who deserve the money a little bit more to live on! I'm not suggesting minimum wage, although that would make me happy too, I am simply saying they should not be paid large salaries for being a politician, if they really wanted to be in politics for the RIGHT reasons they couldn't possibly object to such a suggestion! All politicians should be more interested in creating a more peaceful country to live in for EVERYONE than about how much money they can con out of the tax payer by claiming expenses for the STUPIDEST things! Even now, there was a report not long ago about the new things politicians would be able to claim! WHAT?!! They don't get enough already?! If their expense claims were done as strictly as a shop or a bank, the country wouldn't be as money orientated as it is because our supposed 'leaders' wouldn't be showing the population that claiming falsely is acceptable!

Why did it not cross ANY of the people's minds that were claiming fraudulent expenses that what they were doing was wrong? Why did nobody feel bad about claiming money for staff or rent on a house they didn't even LIVE in? Why are such idiots in charge of the budgets for NHS and councils? That's a scary thought!!! Every party was guilty of it so why should we trust ANY of them?

Why does every person that isn't 'perfect' have to feel like a failure? Why are we so obsessed with 'perfection'? There is no such thing! Every single person in the world has their own flaw! It is NORMAL! Anybody that cannot admit their own flaw, is a liar! So the only way to appear 'perfect' is to lie?

My flaw is that I can't work! But, in order to get the benefits to live in this country, disabled people have to use their 'worst' day as a reference when filling out forms. My worst day is not leaving house because I am too sore to walk about in my flat, let alone go outside on to the uneven pavements or roads! However, if I am out and about people will say "you look well" or something as obviously stupid. Nobody sees me on a 'bad' day though, not even my mum! Writing stuff on the form is harder because I hate the feeling that I am lying but I'm not!

Disabled people are not benefit cheats but, without a wheelchair or crutch, people are so judgemental and prejudice that they assume they are a 'bum' that doesn't want to work! I would LOVE to have a degree and be teaching or at least training but MS is not a very easy illness to live with on a daily basis with all the 'invisible' symptoms so my dream will possibly NEVER come true but I am happy trying to just live life to the full and get on with the life I have got while I have it.

I hope David Cameron does reply soon, I will write him a new letter every month until he does if I have to, or every week! I just want him to consider someone else's perspective on life in Britain!