This letter was prompted by an interview by Samantha Cameron in The Mail on Sunday, and printed in The National on April 9
DEAR Sam Cam,
I don’t usually read the Mail but I was compelled to read your interview. Just to say I did not pay for it. You try to portray a tale of everyday normality and the oxymoron which is “caring conservatism”.
According to you there should be a “safety net” which none can slip through and you spoke movingly of life with your disabled child Ivan and how much he taught you. You struggled to get Ivan into a specialist school. Many of us share your concerns but we worry about how your husband’s government’s policies are impacting on our lives.
Cuts to Disability Living allowance for vulnerable children, the closure of essential services, and cutbacks in the NHS are having a huge impact on us. Many more families are at breaking point. I know of families on “high priority” for respite who have been waiting years to get a service, while they care for their loved ones at home with no support.
The thing that surprises me is you genuinely don’t seem to know about these cases. Why are you so misinformed? Is it a form of Stockholm syndrome where you are only told the facts they want you to hear, or do you see the world through Tory-tinted glasses?
You want your husband to serve another five years. The very thought fills me with dread, especially when I speculate who some of his coalition partners might be.
I ask you as a mum to come and meet some of my friends and find out the impact of Tory policies on our already-fragile lives. Your life in your No 10 flat is a million miles away from our ordinary lives. So come and speak to us, not a government adviser or someone paid to represent carers. Come and explain to us why your husband’s policies are Christian and still have a safety net. I tell you this is not the case.This crucial safety net is being dragged away from under our feet.
I hope you have learned from little Ivan. My boys have taught me so much but have also made me feel compassion for others. I know too I can call on my friends for help: they have my back. I don’t think you can understand this or why many have so much contempt for your husband’s policies. People are waking up to the truth now though.
So please come and meet us and hear what is happening directly from us.
Sandra Webster
Renfrewshire
Sandra Webster is the Scottish Socialist Party national co-spokesperson and SSP candidate for Paisley and Renfrewshire South