Brewers ‘final solution’?

COLIN BREWER HAS BEEN a councillor for over 25 years, and is now coming under pressure to resign his Cornish seat on the council.

What was it that Mr Brewer did to invite such a demand? He made remarks against disabled people at an equalities event at County Hall. His remarks were made to Theresa Court, who works for Disability Cornwall in October 2011; and were to the effect that all disabled people should be put down, as they are a cost liability on ever meagre council resources.

             Mr Brewer has apologised for his remarks in an interview he gave to BBC Radio Cornwell; and the reason he gives for his comments was that he had just come, hot under the collar, from a council meeting where it was discussing budget cuts. What Mr Brewer implies is that the meeting left him angry and agitated, and his remarks flowed from his lips as a consequence of the pressure the meeting put him under; and not from any ill-feeling toward the disabled.

            Of course, the fact that there is a council election in Mr Brewers constituency in May, could not have been part of his thinking when delivering his apology. If he had resigned following his comments, then his apology would have been far more convincing; but this he refuses to do. Which tells us that the apology has been made in order to save his political skin in next May’s council elections.

            Manufactured sincerity is an art form best practiced by politicians of whatever level of governance. Ms Court was right to report this councillor’s comments. For there is something about what Mr Brewer said, that he believes, in the recesses of his mind to be true; and allowed it to emerge under stress.

            I have no love of political correctness; it is an insidious feature of the modern age. But Mr Brewers un-politically correct comments on the disabled could only resonate with Nazi Germany: and the embattled Cornish councillor, judging by his photograph, is old enough to remember the gassing of the mentally disabled. But even Hitler never  sought our councillors solution to the physically disabled – especially the hundreds of thousands of German soldiers who returned home with disabilities.

            Who knows, Mr Brewer could find himself half paralysed by a stroke; or his loved ones suffering a physical disability brought about by an accident at work. His wife, if he is married, could fall victim to Alzheimer’s.  None of these different scenarios would I wish upon Mr Brewer or his family; but if, sadly, he or his family fell afoul of such tragedies, then surely he would want them to receive the very best in medical care and support, irrespective of cost.

I MYSELF  HAVE COST the taxpayer thousands of pounds in welfare and medical payments. I have a condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). It is a form of arthritis that effects every joint in the body, and is an hereditary condition. My neck and spine have been left rigid; each of my vertebra have become fused together; resulting in a curvature of the spine that leaves me looking at the ground and finding myself, almost on a daily basis, bumping into people. My pain is controlled by daily doses of up to eight Co-codamol and three Tramadol. I was once also prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs until they gave me a duodenal, as well as a gastric ulcer.

            I mention this, not for pity sake, but to remind councillor Brewer that when he suggests that those like myself should be put down to save taxpayers money; his prescriptions are no better than those formulated in Nazi Germany.

            Now I know that Mr Brewer is no Nazi; but he does believe in priorities, as does any politician in an age of austerity. But it puzzles me why the disabled are so high up on his list of priority. I fear that the councillor has his own priorities which he wishes to protect…but the disabled, despite his professed life-time support for them, are not, it seems, on his radar.

MR BREWER MUST RESIGN in order to verify the sincerity of his comments on BBC Cornwall. He must prove to the electorate that his apology is nothing more than a political tactic delivered to protect his seat on the council in the coming council elections. His refusal to resign only exacerbates the distrust and undermine the worthiness of his apology. Mr Brewer must resign; not for politically correct reasons; for if this was the case I would speak in his favour; but this has not been the case. Resignation would validate Mr Brewer’s apology and make it all the more convincing.

            However, without it, Mr Brewer’s apology will be seen cynically as an attempt to hold on to office, which he may well do. He may continue as a councillor in Cornwall after the May council elections; but he will only have the support of his paltry voters; for no-one else in the whole country will consider him an honourable man. Only by standing down can Mr Brewer’s honour remain intact. For it was a nasty observation he made against the most vulnerable of this country’s citizens.

            Disability comes in many forms. Like myself through an heredity condition; or through life’s experiences, as we have seen on the battle front in Afghanistan. Unfortunately human beings are never spared physical disability. So perhaps, like the Nazis, Mr Brewer had mental disabilities in mind when he made his dullard and pudden-head comments. If so, such stupidity in itself should forfeit his place on any democratic governing body.

            Mr Brewer unravelled his belief to Theresa Court in a fit of pique following a council meeting. But it was an inner belief that he allowed to surface. He believed in what he said and it slipped out. He was, like myself, tired of playing the politically correct role. If so, he would have had far better targets to aim at than the disabled.

            There are far greater demands on local government spending than the disabled. The flow of immigrants into the country, for instance, have proved a greater cost to local councils than the indigenous disabled: and this situation will only get worse, when, next January, the European Union allows Romanians and Bulgarians to have free excess to the UK, putting ever greater pressure on council spending.

            So Mr Brewer had better look further afield than the disabled to find his very own Final Solution. Immigration has proven to have provided the greatest pressure on public spending – not the disabled: and the pressure is set to increase next January when Romanian and Bulgarian citizens are to be given access to the whole of Europe.