Times change, but the arrogance of those in power remains.

Back in 1989, as police, press and at least one politician appeared to be colluding to implicate Liverpool football fans as the culprits for the shocking deaths at Hillsborough, these people in positions of incredible power could never have guessed that in twenty-three years time they would finally face public outrage and condemnation for their wilful acts of wickedness.

Similarly, Jimmy Savile and the endless list of celebrities whose names have been associated with Operation Yew Tree, must have thought their luck would never run out, as they openly preyed on vulnerable children to satisfy their depraved sexual compulsions.

Throughout history, those in positions of wealth, authority and celebrity have been allowed to exploit others free from any fear that they would ever be challenged by their peers or brought to justice by those they wielded power over.

Times change, but the arrogance of rulers remains. 

In more recent times, MPs across the political spectrum, have been queuing up to feed their hateful comments about the poor and the disabled to certain sections of the media.  Their aim is always to try and turn vulnerable groups in society against each other; to encourage them to blame one another for the financial crisis which of course, was in fact brought about because of reckless gambling on the stock exchange by the politicians' chums, the wealthy bankers.

Since the coalition came to power in 2010, ministers have used the financial crisis as an excuse to launch attacks on those in society who rely on the state, for benefits, for housing, for healthcare and education; this is George Osborne's Austerity agenda, and it's backed by everyone in the government and the shadow cabinet alike. 

But we know these brutal government, opposition-supported, cuts are depriving vulnerable people of their life choices, their dignity and in a growing number of cases, their very lives.  More than 3,500 people forced to endure fitness for work assessments by ATOS, have lost their lives.  For many of these desperately ill benefit claimants, the stress of going through this brutal assessment, along with the worry of losing their allowance and the shame of being brandished shirkers and scroungers by MPs, will all have contributed to the damage of their physical and mental health.

In the past, problems associated with gathering strong evidence against powerful individuals such as Jimmy Savile, undoubtedly hampered attempts to bring persecutors to justice.  Thanks to the digital media age we all live in, this is no longer the case - in fact so arrogant and deluded are many politicians, they're more than happy to see their image all over the internet spouting their bigoted lies about poor people and their families.

I have no doubt cases will be brought against individuals in office to hold them responsible for the misery they are inflicting on others.  Not just the physical misery caused by their inhumane policies, but the mental cruelty their words inflict.  Victims' families could attempt to seek financial compensation - particularly in a case of suicide victims who had named the government generally or individual politicians as the reason they could go on no longer. 

Comments such as, "it was just the culture at the time," (frequently used by abusers in the historical child abuse cases) will offer no defence at all.  Sexual predators always know it's wrong to prey on innocent children and politicians know it's likely to damage someone's mental health to constantly portray them as a scrounger with no value to society.

Times do indeed change.  As Mark Steel brilliantly pointed out, in his speech at The People's Assembly meeting in June, twenty years ago, if you thought gay people should have the right to get married, you were considered an extremist.  Today, you're considered an extremist if you don't think gay people should have that right.

At some point, a politician from the left will come along and demand a very public debate about mental health, and how demonization by governments and the media causes significant damage to a person's psychological wellbeing and that of their family.  By that time, this current crop of MPs might well be nearing retirement or have moved away from politics, but this will not exempt them from being held publicly accountable for their hostile treatment of the vulnerable.  As much as many politicians must despise it, in overall terms, our culture becomes more compassionate with each decade.  Suggesting disabled people are lazy scroungers, including mentally disabled people, is completely unacceptable.

And as Mark Steel summed up his inspiring talk,

"One day, people will look back on the period of austerity and say, What the bloody hell were those maniacs doing?" Mark Steel, The People's Assembly.
Watch Mark Steel's full speech to The People's Assembly meeting - 22-06-13