Without a doubt people with disabilities are facing the greatest level of attack to their lives that we have ever seen. As the current government seeks to make major cuts in spending in all parts of the welfare state, people with disabilities face cuts in the income they receive through welfare benefits and in the support they need. Glibly the government talks of cuts of up to 20% in the payment of some benefits such as Disability Living Allowance and reductions of 14% in Housing Benefit from those who have committed the crime of having a spare bedroom in their house.

There seems to be no conception amongst those who make such decisions that there is a cumulative effect of these cuts. And on top of this, most people with disabilities are also facing exactly the same attacks that are hitting the rest of the population – wage freezes, health service reorganisation, job losses and cuts in a whole range of public services from library closures to cuts to the refuse collection.

At the heart of all we do is how we build the biggest alliance to challenge this approach. People with disabilities are part of the community both in their own lives and in their relations with others.

But I have concerns with the concept of ‘marketisation’. The process that has taken place is not the same as the privatisation of the NHS or of other public services. The level of private sector involvement in the provision of care for people with disabilities is much smaller than in elderly care sectors. The voluntary sector is the major provider of services and the ‘four legs good, two legs bad’ approach to state provision of social care is problematic.

The authors of the lead essay rightly note the long roots of discrimination and marginalisation of people with disabilities that began with the rise of capitalism. This is particularly important for people with learning disabilities who were particularly affected by this as their traditional occupations became mechanised and requiring greater skills levels.

However later in their analysis they see a particular attack on the welfare state of the post-war period by the politics of Labour and the Tories in the 1980s and 1990s.