PHIL FRIEND

Social care reform, the Assisted Dying Bill, and an economic argument nobody is making. Andy Burnham gave a big speech yesterday. He talked about 22 failed attempts to reform social care over 30 years. He promised a National Care Service, a fair pay deal for care workers, and a cross-party conversation. Good. All of it is genuinely good. But I want to add something to that conversation. Something that didn't make the speech. There are more than 400,000 people in England curre

AI-generated image Let's start with something most of us can agree on. Getting out of the house in the morning is a logistical challenge. Kids refusing to eat breakfast. School bags that vanished overnight. The dog who decides today is the day to throw up its breakfast. Life is complicated before 9 am. I know this. I'm a wheelchair user. I'm also a husband, a father and a grandfather. My morning complexity is the same as yours — plus a bit extra. This week, the extra arrived

It's been a grim week for disability news. Access to Work is in crisis. One disability organisation found that support hours for their clients dropped by 82% in three years. Inaccessible railway stations are locking millions of people out of travel, employment, and healthcare. Benefits reform is creating real fear for hundreds of thousands of families. If you've been following the headlines, you could be forgiven for feeling like disability is under attack. But step back for

What the Motability Scheme changed — and why the Budget risks turning the clock back My driving life began in a three-wheeled blue “Noddy car”. It had the turning circle of a shopping trolley and the crash protection of a biscuit tin. More than that, it announced “this driver is disabled” to the world at full volume. It got me around, but it never let me forget I was different. Then the Motability Scheme arrived — and everything changed. Suddenly, disabled people could drive