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Frances Ryan

Frances Ryan

The Guardian

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Starmer is courting Tory voters so hard it’s almost as though he wants to lose his own

More than 30 years ago, the Sun published the infamous front page that was said to swing the 1992 general election in favour of the Conservatives....

12.04.2024 100

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain today

There is a difference between being shocked and being surprised. I thought of that as I read the news that disabled children had been “erased”...

04.04.2024 100

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

What’s the point of Starmer’s Labour if it won’t stand up for poor, sick or disabled people?

If you have ever been bored and on the internet, you may have played a “who said it?” quiz, in which you are asked to consider two comically...

12.03.2024 100

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

The manifesto Britain needs After 14 years of Tory cruelty, here are three ways Labour could use the benefits system to bring about good

The legacy left to an incoming Labour government after 14 years of Tory rule is akin to a hated relative leaving a flooding basement and 12 parakeets...

05.03.2024 50

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

I’m glad the debate on assisted dying is forging ahead. But few understand why it frightens so many

Human beings are not good at talking about death. That includes politicians. It is ironic – though understandable – that the one life event we...

29.02.2024 50

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Sunak on the sofa and Starmer in soft focus: prepare for a PR war pretending to be an election

I don’t wish to alarm anyone, but the signs suggest that general election season is upon us. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is interviewed in the...

14.02.2024 30

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Here’s the moral of the victorious campaign to stop disabled people being warehoused: resistance is not futile

Following the news in Britain feels increasingly like living the Smiths’ lyric, “Good times for a change”. The onslaught of cost-cutting,...

09.02.2024 80

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people. What kind of nation is Britain becoming?

If you want a symbol of this country’s shredded safety net, look no further than Mark in Bristol. For the past 30 years Mark, who has cerebral...

25.01.2024 300

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

I believe taxation is a great public good, but I look at my tax return and ask: what are we paying for?

There is a scene in The Simpsons in which Ned Flanders enthuses about the joys of tax. Asked by his son what taxes pay for, he exclaims:...

11.01.2024 7

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Moments of hope A rainbow playsuit and a pink ramp? Wheelchair Barbie is like looking in a mirror

It is mid-November and I am browsing Christmas presents online for my niece. I scroll through a sea of dolls, small bricks and future landfill until I...

27.12.2023 40

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

The new Tory austerity will be like nothing we’ve seen before. Here is its human cost

When Vicky forgets to buy food, she doesn’t eat. Autism means she often can’t manage day-to-day tasks: from cleaning the house and remembering to...

08.12.2023 100

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Jeremy Hunt’s attack on people on benefits is a shameful act of performative cruelty

On social media, there is a trend known as “performative kindness”. Influencers will share a seemingly selfless act of compassion – say,...

23.11.2023 100

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

The Tories have created a new poverty – one so deep and vicious it requires Victorian vocabulary

It starts slowly at first. A food bank crops up inside your local mosque. You notice more sleeping bags on the walk to work. Over time, the signs seem...

24.10.2023 8

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Come with me to a Home Office centre for disabled asylum seekers. See Britain’s hidden shame

U nder the grey sky of an Essex seaside town sits a broken wheelchair, its front blue wheel shattered. Inside an office, a frame for a hoist...

01.10.2023 80

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

Covid’s back, you say? As disabled and vulnerable people know all too well, it never went away

I t is 1.35pm and I’m having to explain coronavirus transmission to a nurse. I am due an appointment at 2.30, and I’ve been phoned because I say...

10.09.2023 7

The Guardian

Frances Ryan

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