http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/What SF is for, for you. The purpose of Spectrum Fairness is and has been to provide an outlet for exposing personally unjust experiences with other websites or groups, to do with what are presently called autistic spectrum conditions. Acknowledging that some spectrumite folks are against the term "autistic" because of its narrower and more severe original meaning, "neurodiverse spectrum" is a popular alternative. SF is not then a one-person site. NB - use the "tags", at the right of screen just below this intro. They work just like the menus on the old site.Despite the blog format, it is important to appreciate that the site's whole content is current, not like the usual blog idea of recent and older entries. SF began in 2004 as an org.uk site, an experiment in creating a democratic check on how the Asperger's/ADHD/HFA scene on the web works. It doesn't matter whether there are many or few items on SF, the idea was to see over time whether its existence made a difference - and it did.Experiences of personal injustice, being turned on by groups, backstabbings, vendettas, bannings, can happen too easily, and the victim is left emotionally hurt without even sufficient means to avenge the experience effectively or to put right an unjust balance of power in the group. The big "autistic spectrum" organisations have tended to make cynical business choices not to expose these goings on or to warn the public away from abusive groups. This is particularly wrong in the spectrumite scene, which is supposed to be supportive of folk who lack easy instincts at communication and social relations. It is unsustainable after the crisis SF passed through with Aspies For Freedom in 2005, which constitutes the ultimate legal proof of the automatic duty of the national organisations to take part in protecting spectrumites from across-web hate campaigns and stalking. SF had to go through an emergency move of site on 4-5 Oct 2005: away from domain hosting by 1and1 (Schlund) who treat their clients illegally and in breach of contract and of Section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act, by not defending them against malicious third parties. The world must be warned against their unethicality and authoritarian behaviour - those are statements of clear legal fact about them, shown by these events. An agenda for a small media class to bring the internet's content under arbitrary control, is shown to public concern. Bookmark SF's case with 1and1 and refer to it as a watermark of whether the web is still a free enough place to be usable by ordinary people in resisting the drift towards police states. Now, the blog format for SF is an alternative means of direct access. If you have experienced any social injustice from any group, website, or forum, concerned with any spectrum condition, ADHD included, and you are able to write a factual account of it, you can contribute it as a comment at a convenient spot from where it can be turned into a separate item. Like any participative site, there has to be a legal disclaimer. All contributions will be on the basis that contributors are responsible for their content being correct. SF also dissociates from any pop-up ads for pharmaceutical cures for autism, if any should appear: don't go chasing after them just believing anything they say pushing strong pharmaceuticals at independent people of normal intelligence. SF is determined to continue its service for publicly airing bad experiences, because this is a proven democratic necessity in the ASD scene. There is a will in the nicer parts of the community, for avoiding and discouraging and preventing a dominance of: sites that backstab and purge members easily. Any contribution's content here is personal and does not reflect SF's views. Right to reply: Sites and groups that are criticised may have their own challenges to what is written, put on site as well provided they are motivated to repair personal breaches and not to defend any powers of personal rejection. Of course Logically this means admitting that personal fairness is a perpetual automatic right. Original contributors will be entitled to reply further to such replies, etc. Of course the blog format now makes all this easier, but this right to reply has always been there throughout SF's history. Another scare tactic by cynical defenders of sites' right to behave unfairly, is to call it obsessive to care about personal fairness to this extent. Anyone who argues that is on dangerous ground, because they are saying they don't want any safety from bullying to exist for spectrumites for whom smooth faultless social relations don't come naturally.en-UKMokoFeed10http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/http://data5.blog.de/design/preview/4f/f4d119a3c4445c78012e8464c853df_160x200.jpghttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/10/09/a-group-s-members-must-never-be-censored-from-sending-each-other-messages-about-any-fairness-problem-7133284/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2009-10-09:/2009/10/09/a-group-s-members-must-never-be-censored-from-sending-each-other-messages-about-any-fairness-problem-7133284/Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:29:10 +0200 <p>It is common sense to the ethic of support, in any supportive group set up as caring for our needs and problems, that any member of a group can raise with the others, for their thoughts, any problem with how fairly the group is working. This includes raising it personally with anyone on a contact list and/or who you are on confident enough terms with for it. I'm concerned with aspie local groups in real life, here, and what it means for them to work properly.</p> <p>Imagine if members were banned from spontaneously raising issues with each other about the group, telling each other there is any problem. Then the group's leadership, one person even, could cover up anything they liked about their reaction to any problem raised by any member. That would not be an ethical way to run a group, it would be a dictatorship. Also, when a group compiles a policy or code about how it is going to cope with any sorts of difficulty, it needs to gather views from its members on what needs they need the code to reflect. That is responsible. It works in the Elas group in Edinburgh. Otherwise the policy can expect to run into unforseen problems and clashes. You can't have one centralised leader simply announce that she alone is going to write "a strict code of conduct" to suit herself and slap it on everyone.</p> <p>As of yesterday there is an actual case of this, in Scotland. It illustrates, worldwide, why it is important to any aspie group's ethicality, its medical fairness to hearing all its members' needs, that a group must never be constituted as owned by one person who is the leader, who has final say over everything and can decree new policies.</p> <p>Constraint on the way we can talk about problems, so that it does not itself turn into personal bullying, is sensible. But a group should discuss its constraints and make sure they don't amount to censorship of the expression of any problem at all. It's right that you should not be allowed to identify a person and make attacks, same as here. It's right that you should have to try, firstly, to get a personal problem solved in the gentlest and least disruptive way. But what happens when the "proper channels" for this don't work? e.g. because they let you down and don't solve or recognise the problem? This is a possibility anywhere, throughout life, it is why one of the safeguards of freedom is entitlement to speak out about it, as a failing of the system. It's why free speech matters instead of offices of the astate deciding everything and what is ever heard about it.</p> <p>You must be allowed to describe the nature of the problem, keeping names anonymous, and the nature of how you think the system for solving it has let you down, and consequent ideas for change. Anything you can support factually you must be allowed to say, not gagged on the excuse that it is a libel risk - the whole point of speaking factually verified is it's not libel. This is basic to the freedom and uncorruption of any group, to keeping leadership cover-ups impossible, hence to any group's sheer medical ethicality. This is a standard for local groups' ethicality that needs campaigning for.</p> <p>Suppose your group leadership then expects you to take part in group praise of work in support roles, done by a member who has abused you by setting you up for a horrible rejection experience and turned his back on you when it happens. You are then in an emotionally bullied position. Suppose there is a generous supply of private "proper channels", to raise it through, including a bigger support organisation that assists the group, but all you get is noncommittality that by default changes nothing, evasion of direct comment on the case at all, and libel scares against describing it as the crime of vulnerable adult abuse it is. Suppose you email other members in the group's contact list, keeping it all anonymous and raising as a system failiure that this injustice was happening. Don't be so naive as to ask them to care to do anything for you at all, of course. So suppose you just set out the situation and the proper moral non-abusive solution that would keep the group running properly and keep everyone safe, and you tell folks they need do nothing at all, for you have put the solution in place just by writing the message, unless anyone actively says otherwise, and why they will be in the wrong if they do. You say, read the message then comfortably move on from it and everything will be fine.</p> <p>This is common sense, and an act of discussing with the other members how to deal with a problem in the group - anyone in any group must naturally be willing for that. If the one overcentralised leader rules this a misuse of members' contact details and likely to upset folks, and just announces her own rules about it, she is seizing back the power to keep the final decision on all problems and to censor members from discussing with other members when there is anything wrong with the group. Then the wrong outcome, even on an abuse issue, could be imposed by leader decision and all talking about it would be banned! Ever mentioning any problem to anyone except through the leader, even anyone you closely trust, will be banned in the code and will count as subjecting them to upset and misusing the contact list. This would be like communism and AFF. I won't stay in a group that requires submitting to this, I won't class msyself or anyone else as safely protected under such a regime. This needs the scene to campaign on as a principle to watch out for everywhere.</p> <p>It's like saying: <em>the country needs placing under some strict codes to stop disorder upsetting folks, in which our leader must keep us feeling safe by never being told otherwise, so let's abolish parliament and ban news of anything the government disfavours. </em> On occasions in history this solution really has been popular. It has never turned out well.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/10/09/a-group-s-members-must-never-be-censored-from-sending-each-other-messages-about-any-fairness-problem-7133284/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>abusedictatorshipasaspie-groupshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/10/09/a-group-s-members-must-never-be-censored-from-sending-each-other-messages-about-any-fairness-problem-7133284/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/08/06/have-your-mood-dictated-by-your-doctor-6662994/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2009-08-06:/2009/08/06/have-your-mood-dictated-by-your-doctor-6662994/Thu, 06 Aug 2009 11:33:52 +0200 <p>From Mind Freedom News, copying an article in Psychology Today.</p> <p>The American Psychiatric Association's convention held a serious debate on classing bitterness as a mental illness. </p> <p><a href="http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/diagnostics/dsm-bitterness"><br> <a href="http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/diagnostics/dsm-bitterness">www.mindfreedom.org/kb/diagnostics/dsm-bitterness</a> </a></p> <p>At least thasnkfully "Part of the incredulity the APA discussion has generated in the media and blogosphere is doubtless because bitterness strikes the person feeling it as a justified response to a social ill or personal wrong." Obviously this is about Orwellian docility conditioning. Force everyone to be happy with their lot in life or else drug them, yet pretend there is still democracy. Anti-bitterness propaganda has been used by religion and psychology for 3000 years as a trick for telling the unheard working majority to be more accepting and less critical of society.</p> <p>"Now I grant that there's a lot of anger and bitterness out there. Part of it, I'd wager, is targeted appropriately at a Republican administration that managed in eight years to bring a largely healthy economy to its knees.</p> <p>Do we need to give additional reasons for bitterness at that outcome? The Bush administration managed to lead the country into a protracted, illegal war, based on trumped-up evidence; ignored memos that said the country faced credible terrorist threats; locked up large numbers of suspects afterwards without trial or due process; lied to its citizens about the widespread use of torture; eliminated every sensible, necessary check on financial regulation to prevent a fiscal meltdown; mocked the facts of climate change; and dithered as Hurricane Katrina devastated a large city.</p> <p>Heaven knows, there are reasons enough to be bitter about the untold number of opportunities squandered, the problems that have escalated in their place, and the crises now with us that were once entirely avoidable.</p> <p>But when justified anger at such incompetence is discussed as a sign of mental illness, it's borderline insulting, especially because half the reason for the discussion is to ensure that drug companies—anxious to prod their faltering revenues—can promise relief from the alleged disorder with yet more pharmaceuticals. "</p> <p>... " Just one of the many reasons for alarm here is the thought of the DSM, of all documents, trying with a few vague, open-ended criteria to legislate what is reasonable bitterness and what is not. If you knew that "fear of eating alone in restaurants" and "avoidance of public restrooms" were both official symptoms of social anxiety disorder, among the most widely diagnosed of mental illnesses in the United States, you would share my concern. "</p> I share his concern. <p>You don't need to be a genius to realise, fo instance, that when President Obama says no prosecutions of CIA torturers from the Bush era because "America should look forward nor back", the propaganda of letting go and anti-bitterness serves totally consciously as a tool for state perpetrators of atrocities to escape justice. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/08/06/have-your-mood-dictated-by-your-doctor-6662994/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>bullyingus-mental-screening-of-teenagerspsychiatryhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/08/06/have-your-mood-dictated-by-your-doctor-6662994/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/03/04/state-circulating-inaccurate-info-on-your-condition-5692317/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2009-03-04:/2009/03/04/state-circulating-inaccurate-info-on-your-condition-5692317/Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:44:00 +0100 <p>This comes from Unlock Democracy.</p> <p>Modern Liberty - what's next?<br> The Convention on Modern Liberty took place this weekend across the UK. Thousands of people participated in person and online. The media have hailed it as a tremendous success.</p> <p>The big question is "what's next?" </p> <p>DO THIS TODAY: STOP CLAUSE 152! </p> <p>The Coroners and Justice Bill is currently going through Parliament. The most outrageous part in this Bill is Clause 152, which would allow any Minister by order to take any information gathered for one purpose from anywhere, and use it for any other purpose.</p> <p>Your information, your family's information, arbitrarily used without your consent or even knowledge. This is the very reverse of 'Data Protection'.</p> <p>An 'Information Sharing Order', as defined in Clause 152, would permit your information to be trafficked and abused, not only all across government and the public sector - it would also reach into the private sector. And it would even allow transfer of information across international borders.</p> <p>Write to your MP - <a href="http://www.WriteToThem.com">www.WriteToThem.com</a> makes it very easy - and tell him or her that you 'refuse consent to having your information shared under any information sharing order', and ask him or her to vote to have Clause 152 removed entirely from the Coroners and Justice Bill.</p> <p>For more information see the Stop 152 page on our website. <a href="http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk">www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk</a></p> Spectrumites' angle - This concern can be linked to the government's announcement on Feb 23, of a duty upon local government to share with "other agencies" information on autistic adults and all forms of disabled children, living locally. That is without permission, behind the folks' backs.</p> <p>Yet, Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the NAS is not acknowledging that side of it at all. He said: "The failure of many local authorities to recognise the needs of people with autism made it absolutely necessary to try and create an autism law. Today, thanks to the overwhelming level of support galvanised by Cheryl Gillan MP's Autism Bill from our campaigners, across all the political parties and the 15 other autism charities we have been working with; we have achieved our major political goals. This is a landmark victory which could also have a far wider reaching impact on others in the disabled community. We warmly welcome the announcement and look forward to hearing the Government categorically reaffirm their commitment to transforming the lives of people affected by autism when the bill is debated in Parliament on Feb 27." </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/03/04/state-circulating-inaccurate-info-on-your-condition-5692317/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>psychiatryconstitutional-rights-to-publish-thingslabourparliamentarynational-autistic-societyhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2009/03/04/state-circulating-inaccurate-info-on-your-condition-5692317/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/11/12/campaign-for-an-electric-shock-therapy-victim-5024927/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2008-11-12:/2008/11/12/campaign-for-an-electric-shock-therapy-victim-5024927/Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:39:55 +0100 <p>MindFreedom International - 12 November 2008<br> Human Rights Update: Please Forward<br> <a href="http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/pawlenty-electroshock">http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/pawlenty-electroshock</a></p> <p> MindFreedom International Launches Phone-In Campaign!</p> <p> Where does Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty<br> stand on forced outpatient electroshock?</p> <p> If it's Wednesday, then it is time to phone up<br> the Governor of Minnesota and ask some questions.</p> <p>A MindFreedom investigation revealed that every Wednesday morning,<br> Ray Sandford, 54, is escorted from his supported living home in<br> Columbia Heights, Minnesota to Mercy Hospital for another course of<br> electroshock over his objection.</p> <p>Each and every Wednesday, Ray gets electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)<br> against his expressed wishes as an outpatient using court orders and<br> special Minnesota laws.</p> <p>And MindFreedom found out Ray is not the only one.</p> <p>Join in a new MindFreedom international phone-in campaign!</p> ~~~~~~~~~~~~ * * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * * <p>Telephone Governor Pawlenty's office!</p> <p>From anywhere in the world phone (651) 296-3391.</p> <p>From inside Minnesota phone toll Free: (800) 657-3717.</p> <p>You can leave a message at any time. You can reach staff any non-<br> holiday weekday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Central Time.</p> <p>Call any day, but especially call on Wednesdays.</p> <p>Be polite but be firm and persistent.</p> <p>Ask one or more of these questions:</p> <p> **Does the Governor support Minnesota laws allowing involuntary<br> outpatient electroshock?</p> <p> ** Is the Governor aware that some Minnesota citizens are being<br> escorted from their homes using court orders to receive involuntary<br> electroshock?</p> <p> ** How many Minnesota residents receive electroshock against their<br> wishes, as either an inpatient our outpatient? Who collects this<br> data? How is this data reported to the public?</p> <p> ** Why is the Governor's human rights department not returning<br> MindFreedom's calls about involuntary electroshock?</p> <p> ** And if you have any doubts about this campaign, go ahead and<br> ask, "Are reports on the Internet true that some Minnesota residents<br> receive electroshock involuntarily on an outpatient basis?"</p> <p>You may be directed to another department such as Human Rights.</p> <p>Do not give up. Keep asking. If you do not get a return call soon,<br> call back to complain.</p> <p>If you do receive any helpful information, e-mail it to<br> <a href="mailto:news@mindfreedom.org.">news@mindfreedom.org.</a></p> ~~~~~~~~~~~~ <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/11/12/campaign-for-an-electric-shock-therapy-victim-5024927/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>mind-freedomhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/11/12/campaign-for-an-electric-shock-therapy-victim-5024927/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/09/03/wikipediaand-wikinews-4677157/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2008-09-03:/2008/09/03/wikipediaand-wikinews-4677157/Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:23:53 +0200 <p>News that it's more of the same at Wikipedia. Copied into a main item, from a comment on "a gem of Wikipedia corruption." - Site.</p> <p>Wikipedia and wikinews is absolute corrupt. I have documented double<br> standards and corruption by it's editors and administrators. When I<br> posted a letter of complaint, Blackpearl14 went into my letter deleted<br> portions of it, changing it. They also blocked me. Thus they generate<br> bogus excuse after excuse. They spam google. If you want proof, check<br> out the "history" pages and see how certain pages of even TALK &<br> DISCUSSION are altered or outright deleted by Wikipedia's so-called<br> volunteers. They also have their own business agenda, which I have documented in<br> their own history, yet they accuse me of going into their own bios<br> (which is impossible to do) and creating it. Wikinews also deleted a<br> story about this "Wikipedia Corrupt" from their site within 5 minutes.<br> Also editors/administrators go back and forth. I will be happy to provide<br> photos "screen shots" of their corruption, double standards and<br> reckless abuse. The full letter was placed in TALK / Discussion yet it w<br> as either repeatedly deleted or as now has been edited by<br> Blackpearl14, who deleted various portions of it especially involving her<br> corruption and bias (check the history). Then I was blocked, banned etc... </p> <p>Here is a portion of my letter (A full copy is available upon request)</p> <p> -<em> Attn:</em> Wikipedia community & Mr. Wales - Through certain editors &<br> administrators, Wikipedia continues to uphold double standards including<br> to not follow it's own policy of communications over issues. Thus the<br> editors/administrators have total control, with a set of ever changing<br> policies and double standards, including deleting anything that<br> challenges their abuse of power and their own violations of wikipedia's<br> written policies. This site continues to solicit itself as a free public<br> forum that anyone can contribute and anyone can communicate as detailed<br> by wikipedia's own written policies. Yet based on the continuing<br> actions of particular editors and administrators, they have made wikipedia<br> their own private forum and have taken away all of those things.<br> Meanwhile Wikipedia is generating hits, ranking status, income and clout from<br> their various statements, and thus wikipedia is committing at the very<br> least fraud upon the public with it's continuous promotions, solic<br> itations and statements.</p> <p>Other editors and administrators who have proven their practice of bias<br> and manipulative and outright double standards practices include<br> “SVTCobra” and “Whoville” and “Chris Mann”. We have documented that they<br> say one thing, yet practice another. We have documented that they<br> enforce one set of wikipedia polices yet discard and ignore those same<br> policies when it applies to themselves or their selective circle of peers.<br> We contributing writers also wonder just how many editors and<br> administrators have a conflict of interest to various articles. </p> <p>Here is a collection, from 2007 through August 2008, of some of<br> BLACKPEARL14 (uses various alias wikipedia names) self published bias quotes.<br> She has outright stated her bias purpose, her own bias causes and her<br> own bias business. “I am Pirate Lord-ess of the Caribbean Sea along<br> with my mate Jack Sparrow.” “I am the first Pirates of the Caribbean<br> fan in the universe.” “I manage and contribute to my obsession Pirates<br> of the Caribbean.” (Lists many pirates of the caribbean articles in<br> wikipedia) “I am working my way into managing all Pirates of the Caribbean<br> articles in the future that I can.” “I am the biggest Pirates of the<br> Caribbean fan of all time!” “I have proof of it as well.” “I’m<br> writing a book”. “I’m also a Pirates of the Caribbean consultant, if you<br> have any questions, I own Bring me that Horizon forum.” “I am a big fan<br> of Johnny Depp” “I am a big fan of Pirates of the Caribbean movies”. I<br> have a “Pirates of the Caribbean obsession page - I’d advise you to<br> keep your hat on and not vandalize the pages or you won’t be happy.<br> Seriously.” “I am principal contributor of Pirates of the Caribbean<br> articles.” “My knowledge on pirates spans from my favorite films Pirates<br> of the Caribbean 1-3. Hence I am a Pirates of the Caribbean<br> consultant.” “My Harry Potter obsession pages...” and much more.</p> <p>Meanwhile like Blackpearl14, Whoville and SVTCobra both continue to<br> delete any critical fact or information, stating that it doesn’t meet<br> their requirements, claiming it’s not newsworthy, not being current, or<br> some other bogus excuse. But these reasons are actually double<br> standards, because other information in the same article which does not meet<br> those always changing requirements are allowed. Even if your<br> contribution is neutral and has been in the news, both Whoville and SVTCobra will<br> generate yet another reason to delete it. Yet they don’t delete other<br> critical facts or information using the same standards. Instead those<br> are allowed. Hence Whoville and SVTCobra continue to apply double<br> standards. When challenged, they bring in their peer who immediately<br> deletes, and bans IP addresses etc..</p> <p>Royce </p> <p>2 Sep 2008</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/09/03/wikipediaand-wikinews-4677157/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>wikipedia-reported-wikipediahttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/09/03/wikipediaand-wikinews-4677157/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/08/09/simple-question-on-trusting-a-jackson-fo-4562924/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2008-08-09:/2008/08/09/simple-question-on-trusting-a-jackson-fo-4562924/Sat, 09 Aug 2008 10:32:11 +0200 <p><em>2 of the original</em> cases of medical abuse, exposed when SF began, were by the groups GFCF-Kids-UK and HE-Special-UK advertised in the Jacksons' books. The totally un-aspie vicious group psychology and thought control in those groups, which can still be read about on SF, made lies of all the social ideals for aspies that the Jacksons had been writing about, but the Jacksons were entirely free to make the right moral choice, to disown those groups and have them urgently removed from their books. If they had done that, they would have come out entirely clean, not tainted at all by the groups' hate violations. But they never did. For 5 years now, they have maintained an arrogant cynical ignorement of the problem, exploiting the public and leaving them vulnerable to hate abuse in places claimed to be supportive.</p> <p>Now, Luke Jackson is proposing to open a forum on his own website, as if there weren't enough forums already - but seems to be lacking in support so is having to spend time inviting notifications of interest first. Anyone wise will ask for a watertight commitment in the forum's legal terms, to tie itself to the same standard of personal fairness as is expressed in SF's introduction, and not to have the same standards and GFCF-Kids-UK and HE-special-UK. This necessarily means taking an absolute committal position to explicitly denounce as a medical wrong those groups' actions. </p> <p>Because of the history of association with those 2 groups, this simple caring action is what Luke needs to do to make his own forum ethical and emotionally safe for anyone who thinks of joining it. If he chooses to do it, it will show it would never have hurt to do it sooner, at any time in the last 5 years !! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/08/09/simple-question-on-trusting-a-jackson-fo-4562924/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>as-sitesjacksonsasbullyinghttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/08/09/simple-question-on-trusting-a-jackson-fo-4562924/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/03/27/petition-about-autism-speaks-3949729/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2008-03-27:/2008/03/27/petition-about-autism-speaks-3949729/Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:36:47 +0100 <p>The Autism Speaks: Don't Speak For Me petition</p> <p><a href="http://www.autism-hub.co.uk/autism-speaks-dont-speak-for-me/index.php">www.autism-hub.co.uk/autism-speaks-dont-speak-for-me/index.php</a></p> <p>We, the undersigned:</p> <ul> <li>Utterly repudiate the notion of murder being an acceptable response to disability </li> <li>Vehemently deny that most parents of autistic — or otherwise disabled — children harbour thoughts of murder </li> <li>Testify that the false 'reality' concocted by Autism Speaks film 'Autism Every Day' is not a true reflection of the reality of parenting an autistic child </li> <li>Call for a public apology from Lauren Thierry for increasing ignorance regarding autism </li> </ul> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/03/27/petition-about-autism-speaks-3949729/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>psychologyasautism-speakshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/03/27/petition-about-autism-speaks-3949729/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/03/02/youtube-group-for-exposing-wikipedia-3805946/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2008-03-02:/2008/03/02/youtube-group-for-exposing-wikipedia-3805946/Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:23:49 +0100 <p>Site: Nadir Ali Rahman, one of thousands who have experienced the corruption of power and aggressiveness at the core of Wikipedia's admin system, has circulated a notice of a project to spread the alert against Wikipedia through Youtube. His heading, on the page linked to, contains an anti-Zionist personal view, but the resistance to Wikipedia should be nothing to do with whether you support Zionism or not.</p> <a href="http://youtube.com/group/stopwikipedia">youtube.com/group/stopwikipedia</a> <p>Get a youtube account and select the link where it says join this group.</p> <p>If you find any anti-Wikipedia videos you can just add it to our group page for everyone to see.<br> All the best & hope you & your friends join.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/03/02/youtube-group-for-exposing-wikipedia-3805946/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>wikipedialinkshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2008/03/02/youtube-group-for-exposing-wikipedia-3805946/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/12/22/david_cunningham_on_simon_baron_cohen~3477963/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-12-22:/2007/12/22/david_cunningham_on_simon_baron_cohen~3477963/Sat, 22 Dec 2007 12:12:43 +0100 Site: David Cunningham, the angry parent in Fife, perceives Simon Baron-Cohen to be too pro-government in his writing in <a href="http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article3051335.ece ">the Times, 15 Dec 2007,</a> and asked for his grounds for saying that to be circulated. <p>PM Brown is my MP and although he has ignored and dumped my son due to the embarrassment of his party's policies in Scotland he knows that my son is typical of the bulk of people with Autism where my son has received no quality, competent Education for nearly 4 years, locked in the house with only his parents for support. </p> <p>In the last 18 months, after fighting Gordon Brown's Fife Social Services for over 10 years they gave my son 16 hours per week of support. The fact that my son's Psychiatrist Dr Rosemary Logan, son's Senior Social Work Mangers Janice McCrimmond, Dave Lister, Donald Ramsay and Senior Social Worker Arlene Honeyman have all stated that my son's needs are 24 hour 7 day has had no impact on a system that is now bankrupt. </p> <p>On Friday the 14th December 2007 (my son's adult birthday) my son was totally dumped by the PM's Constituency for Xmas and New Year. All professionals in the PMs constituency know the situation and despite the fact that the 16 hour per week funding ran out on the 16th October 2007 I received a communication from Senior Managers within the Prime Minister's Constituency that the Social Service Committee set up and reporting to Mr Stephen Moore Director of Prime Ministers Fife Social Services had again rejected the package for my son. BUT IT IS WORSE THAN THAT. SENIOR SOCIAL WORK MANAGERS JANICE MCCRIMMOND, AND DAVE LISTER HAVE ASSESSED MY SON AS REQUIRING 24 HOUR 7 DAY PER WEEK SERVICES. YET THEY HAVE BEEN TOLD BY THEIR BOSS'S TO ONLY APPLY FOR 33% OF 24/7. SO MR STEPHEN MOORE DIRECTOR OF FIFE SOCIAL SERVICES NOT ONLY KNOW'S THAT 66% OF MY SON'S NEEDS WERE REMOVED BUT WORSE MR MOORE EVEN REFUSED TO APPROVE THE 33%.</p> <p>SO SINCE THE 14TH OF OCTOBER 2007 ALL FUNDING FOR MY SON RAN OUT. BUT IN A DESPERATE EFFORT TO COVER UP MR MOORE KNOWS THAT ONE OF HIS MANAGERS MR JIM BURKE IS REFUSING TO HAND OVER £7,803-40p OF FUNDING THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN SPENT. THE CORRUPT PM'S CONSTITUENCY WANT TO MAKE OUT THAT FUNDING IS STILL LEFT EVEN ALTHOUGH THE SERVICE PROVIDERS HAVE ALREADY SPENT THE MONEY PRE 14TH OCTOBER 2007. SO PROFESSOR BARON-COHEN THIS IS THE REALITY THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY PUBLIC SERVICES ARE LYING THROUGH THEIR BACK TEETH TO PAINT A LOVELY XMAS SCENE. ...</p> <p>NHS Fife have also refused to support the bulk of my son’s needs over the last 4 years Professor James McGoldrick and Dr Francis Elliot have stolen over £27k of my son's health budget. A budget that instead had to be fund raised through Car Boot Sales and Jumble Sales. Dr Elliot Director of NHS Fife Services has also personally intervened with our GP. </p> <p>So in conlusion please will the 2400 on my distribution list pass this e-mail round the world. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/12/22/david_cunningham_on_simon_baron_cohen~3477963/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>national-autistic-societydavid-cunningham-classical-autismhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/12/22/david_cunningham_on_simon_baron_cohen~3477963/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/10/28/how_your_autistic_brothers_and_sisters_a~3207936/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-10-28:/2007/10/28/how_your_autistic_brothers_and_sisters_a~3207936/Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:38:53 +0100 <p>Read the parts that are bolded.</p> <p>Tom Taylor<br> 28 Oct 2007</p> <p><a href="http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/articl___##0##___ e2732991.ece">women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article2732991.ece</a></p> Shock tactics <p>Hundreds of children no other school wants — from the autistic to the merely troubled — attend a centre in America where electric shocks are administered for even the smallest misdemeanour. Forced to wear 10lb backpacks with electrodes attached to their skin, they never know when their teachers will deliver this `behaviour-modification' therapy. Why hasn't the school been closed down?</p> <p>Rob Santana awoke terrified. He'd had that dream again, the one where silver wires ran under his shirt and into his pants, connecting to electrodes attached to his limbs and torso. Adults armed with surveillance cameras and remote-control activators watched his every move. One press of a button, and there was no telling where the shock would hit – his arm or leg or, worse, his stomach. All Rob knew was that the pain would be intense. Every time he woke from this dream, it took him a few moments to remember that he was in his own bed, that there weren't electrodes locked to his skin, that he wasn't about to be shocked. It was no mystery to him where this recurring nightmare came from – not A Clockwork Orange or 1984, but the years he spent confined in America's most controversial "behaviour-modification" institution. </p> <p>In 1999, when Rob was 13, his parents sent him to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, in Massachusetts, 20 miles outside Boston. The institution, which calls itself a "special-needs school", takes in all kinds of troubled kids – autistic, mentally retarded, schizophrenic, bipolar, emotionally disturbed – and attempts to change their behaviour with a complex system of rewards and punishments, including painful electric shocks to the torso and limbs. Of the 230 residents, about half are wired to receive shocks. Eight states send students to this institution, with New York providing the most. The price tag for a year there is $220,000; states and school districts pick up the tab. </p> <p>The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center is the only institution in the US that disciplines students by giving them electric shocks, a form of punishment not inflicted on serial killers or child molesters, or any of more than 2.2m inmates in US jails and prisons. Over its 36-year history, there have been numerous lawsuits and government investigations. Last year, New York-state investigators filed a blistering report that made the place sound like a high-school version of Abu Ghraib. Yet the programme continues to thrive – in large part because nobody, except desperate parents and a few legislators, seems to care about what happens to the hundreds of kids who pass through its gates. </p> <p>In Rob Santana's case, he freely admits he was an out-of-control kid with "serious behavioural problems". At birth he was abandoned at the hospital, traces of cocaine, heroin and alcohol in his body. A middle-class couple adopted him when he was 11 months old, but his troubles continued. He started fires; he got kicked out of preschool for opening the back door of a moving school bus; he cut himself with a razor when he was six. His mother took him to specialists, who diagnosed him with a slew of psychiatric problems: ADHD, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder. </p> <p>Rob remained at the Rotenberg Center for about 3 1/2 years. From the start, he cursed, hollered and fought with employees. Eventually the staff obtained permission from his mother and a court to use electric shock. Rob was forced to wear a backpack containing five 2lb battery-operated devices, each connected to an electrode attached to his skin. "I felt humiliated," he says. "You have a bunch of wires coming out of your shirt and pants." </p> <p>Rob remained hooked up to the apparatus 24 hours a day. He wore it while jogging on the treadmill and playing basketball, though it wasn't easy to sink a jump-shot with a 10lb backpack on. At night, he slept with the backpack next to him, under the gaze of a surveillance camera. </p> <p>Employees shocked him for aggressive behaviour, he says, but also for minor misdeeds, like yelling or cursing. Each shock lasts two seconds. "It hurts like hell," Rob says. (The school's staff claims it is no more painful than a bee sting; when I tried the shock, it felt like a horde of wasps attacking me all at once. Two seconds never felt so long.) </p> <p>On several occasions, Rob was tied face down to a four-point restraint board and shocked again and again by a person he could not see. The constant threat of being zapped did persuade him to act less aggressively, but at a high cost. </p> <p>"I thought of killing myself a few times," he says. </p> <p>Rob's mother, Jo-Anne deLeon, had sent him to the Rotenberg Center at the suggestion of his school district in New York, which, she says, told her that the programme had everything that Rob needed. She believed he would receive regular psychiatric counselling – though the school does not provide this. As the months passed, Rob's mother became increasingly unhappy. "My whole dispute with them was, `When is he going to get psychiatric treatment?' " she says. "I think they had to get to the root of his problems – like why was he so angry?" </p> <p>She didn't think the shocks were helping, and in 2002 she sent a furious fax demanding that Rob's electrodes be removed before she came up for parents' day. She says she got a call the next day from the executive director, Matthew Israel, who told her: "You don't want to stick with our treatment plan? Pick him up." (Israel says he doesn't remember this conversation, but adds: </p> <p>"If a parent doesn't want the use of the skin shock and wants psychiatric treatment, this isn't the right programme for them.") </p> <p>After Rob left the centre he moved back in with his parents. At first glance, he seems like any other 21-year-old: baggy jeans, black T-shirt, powder-blue Nikes. But when asked to recount his years at the Rotenberg Center, he speaks for nearly two hours in astonishing detail, recalling names and specific events from seven or eight years earlier. When he describes his recurring nightmares, he rubs his forehead with his palms. </p> <p>Despite spending more than three years at this behaviour-modification institution, Rob still has problems controlling his actions. In 2005 he was arrested for attempted assault and sent to jail. (This year he was arrested again, for drugs and assault.) Being locked up gave him plenty of time to reflect on his childhood, and he has gained a new perspective on the Rotenberg Center. </p> <p>"It's worse than jail," he told me. "That place is the worst place on Earth." </p> <p>The story of the Rotenberg Center is in many ways a tale of 2 schools. Slightly more than half the residents are what the school calls "high functioning": kids like Rob and Antwone, who have diagnoses like attention-deficit disorder (ADD), bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The other group is even more troubled. Referred to as "low functioning", it includes kids with severe autism and mental retardation: most cannot speak or have very limited verbal abilities. Some have behaviours so extreme they can be life-threatening – chomping on their hands, running into walls, nearly blinding themselves by banging their head on the floor again and again. </p> <p>The Rotenberg Center has long been known as the school of last resort – a place that will take any kid, no matter how extreme his or her problems are. Residents range in age from as young as 9 or 10 up to their forties. For desperate parents, the institution can seem like a godsend. Just ask Louisa Goldberg, the mother of 25-year-old Andrew, who has severe mental retardation. Andrew's last residential school kicked him out after he kept assaulting staff members; the Rotenberg Center was the only place willing to accept him. According to Louisa, Andrew's quality of life has improved dramatically since 2000, when he was hooked up to the shock device known as the graduated electronic decelerator (GED). </p> <p>Louisa and many other parents like the Rotenberg Center's policy of not giving psychiatric drugs to students. At Andrew's last school, Louisa says: "He had so many medicines in him he'd take a two-hour nap in the morning, he'd take a two-hour nap in the afternoon. They'd have him in bed at eight o'clock at night. He was sleeping his life away." These days, Louisa says she is no longer afraid when her son comes home to visit. "[For him] to have an electrode on and to receive a GED is to me a much more favourable way of dealing with this," she says. "He's not sending people to the hospital [with injuries]." </p> <p>Marguerite Famolare brought her son Michael to the Rotenberg Center 6 years ago, after he attacked her so aggressively she had to call the police and, in a separate incident, flipped over the kitchen table onto a tutor. Michael, now 19, suffers from mental retardation and severe autism. These days, when he comes home for a visit, Marguerite carries his shock activator in her purse. All she has to do, she says, is show it to him: "He'll automatically comply to whatever my signal command may be, whether it is `Put on your seat belt' or `Sit appropriately and eat your food.' It's made him a civilised human being." </p> <p>State officials have twice tried to shut down the Rotenberg Center – in the 80s and again in the 90s. Both times parents rallied to its defence, and both times it prevailed in court. The name of the centre ensures nobody forgets these victories; it was Judge Ernest Rotenberg who, in the mid-1980s, ruled that the institution could continue using "aversives" – painful punishments designed to change behaviour – so long as it obtained authorisation from a local court in each student's case. These days, the court rarely, if ever, bars the Rotenberg Center from adding shock to a student's treatment plan. </p> <p>Whenever the Rotenberg Center faces criticism, it relies on the testimonials of parents like Louisa Goldberg and Marguerite Famolare to defend itself. Not surprisingly, the most vocal parent-supporters tend to be those with the sickest children, since they are the ones with the fewest options. But at the Rotenberg Center, the same methods of "behaviour modification" are applied to all kids, no matter what their behaviour problems. And so, while Rob would seem to have little in common with mentally retarded students like Michael and Andrew, they all shared a similar fate once their parents placed them under the care of the same psychologist: a radical behaviourist known as Dr Israel. </p> <p>In 1950, Matt Israel was a freshman at Harvard looking to fill his science requirement. He knew little about B F Skinner when he signed up for his course, Human Behaviour. But he became fascinated with Skinner's scientific approach to the study of behaviour, and he picked up Walden Two, Skinner's controversial novel about an experimental community based on the principles of behaviourism. The book changed Israel's life. "I decided my mission was to start a utopian community," he says. </p> <p>Israel got a PhD in psychology in 1960 from Harvard, and started two communal houses outside Boston. In one of these houses, Israel lived with a three-year-old named Andrea, the daughter of a roommate. He recalls she was out of control: "Wild and screaming… When company would come over, she would walk around with a toy broom and whack people over the head." Through experiments with rats and pigeons, Skinner had demonstrated how animals learn from the consequences of their actions. With permission from Andrea's mother, Israel decided to try out Skinner's ideas. When Andrea was well behaved, Israel took her for walks. When she misbehaved, he snapped his finger against her cheek. Israel says his methods worked: "Instead of being an annoyance, she became a charming addition to the house." </p> <p>Israel's success with Andrea convinced him to start a school. In 1971, he founded the Behavior Research Institute, an institution that would later become known as the Rotenberg Center. Israel took in the children nobody else wanted – severely autistic and mentally retarded kids who did dangerous things to themselves and others. To change their behaviour, he developed a large repertoire of punishments: spraying kids in the face with water, shoving ammonia under their noses, pinching the soles of their feet, smacking them with a spatula, forcing them to wear a "white-noise helmet" that assaulted them with static. After nearly 20 years, Israel began to move away from these methods and towards another one: electric shock. From his perspective, shock offered many advantages: "To give a spank, a muscle squeeze or a pinch, you had to control the student physically, and that could lead to a struggle. A lot of injuries were occurring." By using electric shock, which requires just pushing a button, he could eliminate the need for employees to wrestle a kid to the ground. </p> <p>Israel purchased a shock device then on the market known as Sibis – Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System – that had been invented by the parents of an autistic girl. It delivered a mild, two-second shock. Between 1988 and 1990, Israel used Sibis on 29 students, including one of his most challenging, Brandon, then 12, who would bite off chunks of his tongue, regurgitate entire meals, and pound himself on the head. At times Brandon was required to keep his hands on a paddle; if he removed them, he'd get shocks, one per second. One infamous day, Brandon received more than 5000 shocks. "You have to realise," Israel says, "I thought his life was in the balance. He was vomiting, losing weight. He was down to 52lb. I knew it was risky to use the shock in large numbers, but if I persevered that day, I thought maybe it would eventually work." </p> <p>This day was a turning point in the history of Israel's operation: that's when he decided to ratchet up the pain. The problem, he decided, was that the shock Sibis emitted was not strong enough. "So we had to redesign the device ourselves," he says. He created his own, much more powerful shock device: the GED. </p> <p>30 years earlier, O Ivar Lovaas, a psychology professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), had pioneered the use of electric jolts to try to normalise the behaviour of autistic children. But eventually Lovaas abandoned these methods, telling a reporter in 1993 that shock was "only a temporary suppression" because patients become inured to the pain. "These people are so used to pain that they can adapt to almost any kind of aversive you give them," he said. Israel encountered this same sort of adaptation in his students, but his solution was markedly different: he decided to increase the pain once again. Today, there are two shock devices in use at the Rotenberg Center: the GED and the GED-4. They both administer a two-second shock, but the GED-4 is nearly three times more powerful – and the pain it inflicts is much more severe. </p> <p>The Rotenberg Center is a bit like a carnival fun house, I found, during a two-day visit last autumn. Giant silver stars dangle from the lobby ceiling; the walls and chairs in the front offices are turquoise, lime green and lavender. Israel, 74, still holds the title of executive director, and when he first greets me, he appears utterly unimposing: short and slender with soft hands, rounded shoulders, curly white hair, paisley tie. Then he sits down beside me and, unprompted, starts talking about shocking children. "The treatment is so powerful it's hard not to use if you have seen how effective it is," he says. "It's brief. It's painful. But there are no side effects. It's two seconds of discomfort." His tone is neither defensive nor apologetic: it's calm. It's the sort of demeanour a mother might find comforting if she were about to hand over her child. </p> <p>Before we set off on our tour of the institution, there's something Israel wants me to see: Before & After, a home-made movie featuring six of his most severe cases. He has been using some of the same grainy footage for more than two decades, showing it to parents of prospective students as well as reporters. It shows how in 1977, an 11-year-old girl, Caroline, arrives at the school strapped on a stretcher, her head encased in a helmet. Next, free from restraints, she tries to smash her helmeted head against the floor. In 1981 it shows Janine, also 11, who shrieks and slams her head against the ground, a table, the door. Bald spots testify to the severity of her troubles; she's yanked out so much hair it's half gone. Compared with these scenes, the "after" footage looks almost unbelievable: Janine splashes in a pool; Caroline grins as she sits in a chair at a beauty salon. </p> <p>"These are children for whom positive-only procedures did not work, drugs did not work," says Israel. "And if it wasn't for this treatment, some of these people would not be alive." The video is very persuasive: the girls' self-abuse is so violent and so frightening it almost makes me want to grab a GED remote and push the button myself. Of course, this is precisely the point. </p> <p>Considering how compelling the after-footage is, I am surprised to learn that 5 of the 6 children featured in it are still here. "This is Caroline," one of my escorts says later as we walk down a corridor. Without an introduction, I would not have known. Caroline, 39, slumps forward in a wheelchair, her fists balled up, head covered by a red helmet. "Blow me a kiss, Caroline," Israel says. She doesn't respond. </p> <p>A few minutes later, I meet 36-year-old Janine, who appears in much better shape. She's not wearing a helmet and has a full head of black hair. She's also got a backpack on her shoulders and canvas straps hanging from her legs, the telltale sign that electrodes are attached to both calves. For 16 years – nearly half her life – Janine has been hooked up to Israel's shock device. A few years ago, when the shocks began to lose their effect, the staff switched the devices inside her backpack to the much more painful GED-4. </p> <p>In 1994, Israel had just 64 students. Today he has 230. This astonishing rate of growth is largely the result of a dramatic change in the types of students he takes in. Until recently, nearly all were "low functioning" autistic and mentally retarded people. But today slightly more than 50% are "high functioning", with diagnoses like ADD, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. New York supplies most of these students, many of whom grew up in the poorest parts of New York City. Yet despite this change in his population, Israel's methods have remained essentially the same. </p> <p>Students spend their days in classrooms, staring at a computer screen, their backs to the teacher. An elaborate system of rewards and punishments governs all interactions. Teachers and aides watch them all day, tallying their misbehaviours. Well-behaved kids can watch TV, go for a pizza, play basketball. Among the most prized rewards is a visit to the Big Reward Store, an arcade with pinball machines, video games, and flat-screen TVs hooked up to Xbox 360s. Each time a student curses or yells or disobeys the rules, a staffer marks it down on the student's "recording sheet". Staff then use the sheet to calculate what level of punishment is required – when to just say no and when to shock. They carry students' shock activators at all times, hooked on to their belts. Each activator is contained in a plastic case, or "sled", and each sled has a photo on it to ensure employees don't zap the wrong kid. </p> <p>Employees shock students for a wide range of behaviours, from violent actions to less serious offences, like getting out of their seats without permission. Every time they shock a child, they are encouraged to use the element of surprise. "Attempt to be as discreet as possible and hold the transmitter out of view of the student," states the employee manual. This way, students cannot do anything to minimise the pain, like flipping over their electrodes or tensing their muscles. "We hear the sound of [a staffer] picking up a sled," says Isabel Cedeno, a former student. "Then we see the person jump out of their seat." </p> <p>When they talk about why they use the shock device, Israel and his employees like to use the word "treatment", but it might be more accurate to use words like "convenience" or "control". "The GED – it's two seconds and it's done," says Patricia Rivera, a psychologist who serves as assistant director of clinical services. "Then it's right back to work." By contrast, it can take eight or 10 employees half an hour or more to restrain a strong male student: to pin him to the floor, wait for him to stop struggling, then move his body onto a restraint board and tie down each limb. </p> <p>Even with the GED, the stories both students and employees tell make the place sound at times like a war zone: a teenage boy sliced the gym teacher across the face with a CD; a girl stabbed a staffer in the stomach with a pencil. While staff have been contending with injuries since Israel opened his institution, the recent influx of high-functioning students, some with criminal backgrounds, has brought a new fear: that students will join forces and riot. Tellingly, among high-functioning kids most of the violence is directed at the staff, not each other. </p> <p>Rotenberg staff place the more troubled (or troublesome) residents on one-to-one status, meaning that an aide monitors them everywhere they go. For extremely violent students, the ratio is two to one. Before I set off on my tour, a small crowd gathered: it seemed that almost the entire hierarchy of the Rotenberg Center was going to follow me. That's when I realised that I'd been put on 5 to 1. As I roamed the school with my escorts, my every move monitored by surveillance cameras, I realised that it would be impossible to have a private talk with any student. </p> <p>In the world of the Rotenberg Center, Katie Spartichino is a star. A former student, she left the institution in 2006 and now attends community college in Boston. Around noon, a staff member brings her back to the institution to talk to me. We sit at an outdoor table away from the surveillance cameras, but there's no privacy: Israel and Karen LaChance, the assistant to the executive director for admissions, sit with us. Katie, 19, tells me she overdosed on pills at 9, spent her early adolescence in and out of psychiatric wards, was hooked up to the GED at 16, and stayed on the device for 2 years. "This is a great place," she says. "It took me off all my medicine. I was close to 200lb and I'm 160 now." But when she first had to wear the electrodes, she says: "I cried. I kind of felt like I was walking on eggshells; I had to watch everything I said. Sometimes a curse word would just come out of my mouth. So being on the GEDs and knowing that swearing was a targeted behaviour where I'd receive a [GED] application, it really got me to think twice before I said something rude." </p> <p>As Katie speaks, LaChance runs her fingers through Katie's hair again and again. The gesture is so deliberate it draws my attention. I wonder if it's just an expression of affection – or something more, like a reward. </p> <p>"Do you swear any more?" I ask. </p> <p>"Oh, God, all the time," Katie says. "I've learnt to control it, but I'm not going to lie. When I'm on the phone, curse words come out." The hair-stroking stops. LaChance turns to Katie. "I hope you're not going to tell me you're aggressive." </p> <p>"Oh, no, that's gone," Katie says. "No, no, no. The worst thing I do sometimes is me and my mom get into little arguments." </p> <p>For Israel, of course, one drawback of having so many high-functioning students is that he cannot control everything they say. One afternoon, when I walk into a classroom, a 15-year-old girl catches my eye, smiles, and holds up a sheet of paper with a message written in pink marker: "Help us." She shuffles it into her stack of papers before anyone else sees. When I move closer, she tells me her name is Raquel, she is from the Bronx, and she wants to go home. </p> <p>My escorts allow me to interview Raquel while 2 of them sit nearby. Raquel is not hooked up to the GED, but she has many complaints, including that she has just witnessed one of her housemates get shocked. "She was screaming," Raquel says. "They told her to step up to be searched; she didn't want to, so they gave her one." After 20 minutes, my escorts cut us off. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/10/28/how_your_autistic_brothers_and_sisters_a~3207936/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>psychiatryasus-mental-screening-of-teenagershttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/10/28/how_your_autistic_brothers_and_sisters_a~3207936/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/10/18/faculties_not_gifts~3155654/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-10-18:/2007/10/18/faculties_not_gifts~3155654/Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:04:33 +0200 <p><a href="http://www.scottishautismnetwork.org.uk/FacultiesNotGifts.doc"><br> <a href="http://www.scottishautismnetwork.org.uk/FacultiesNotGifts.doc">www.scottishautismnetwork.org.uk/FacultiesNotGifts.doc</a></a></p> <p>A write-up against homework + on how ASD has finally totally discredited the gifted children movement. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/10/18/faculties_not_gifts~3155654/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/10/18/faculties_not_gifts~3155654/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/07/09/adders_a_new_cull~2600740/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-07-09:/2007/07/09/adders_a_new_cull~2600740/Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:06:31 +0200 <p> Site: A report of yet more purges on the Adders ADHD site has been added to the post of March 1 titled "Adders again", which may be found below, as it is a natural extension of it and continuation of the argument around it.</p> <p>7 Jul 2007. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/07/09/adders_a_new_cull~2600740/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>adhd-site-addersadhdhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/07/09/adders_a_new_cull~2600740/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/04/27/david_cunningham_gordon_brown_s_constitu~2171311/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-04-27:/2007/04/27/david_cunningham_gordon_brown_s_constitu~2171311/Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:48:20 +0200 <p>Site: Passed on at his invitation.</p> <p>Senior NHS Management in Gordon Brown's Constituency of Fife have for the last 3 1/2 years maximised the systematic abuse on a severely Autistic boy by playing politics with his health while breaking Health & Safety Legislation.</p> <p>Nearly 3 1/2 years ago a severely disabled, vulnerable Autistic boy was identified by his Psychiatrist Dr Rosemary Logan as in desperate need of support for his "health and Well Being". The Clinical Advisory Panel (CAP) in Fife approved the health package as being desperate and indeed not to deliver it was agreed by all in CAP as breeching Health and Safety Legislation.</p> But what followed next highlighted just how bad things are in Gordon Brown's Constituency. <p>Dr Francis Elliot stated that while the service was going to have a significant impact on quote "the Autistic boy's health and well being" it was not within NHS Fife's competency remit to deliver the service because it was not what she called (Dr Elliot is now Director of health services Fife) "Direct Health Services". So she with the full support of Mr Brechin Senior Finance Manager and Professor James McGoldrick Chairman NHS Fife refused to release the funding to the service providers used by the parents. Instead CAP said it would only be paid when Fife Council delivered it. The reality was that Fife Council did not have the competence or the service to deliver so the the parents and family were forced to pay for the Service. The parents had no choice to pay for the service because for them not to would in the words of CAP and the Psychiatrist severely damage the child's health.</p> Please pass this round. <p>GORDON BROWN'S CONSTITUENCY OF NHS FIFE ARE PLAYING POLITICS WITH DISABLED , VULNERABLE PEOPLE WITH AUTISM WHILE FORCING FAMILIES AND FRIENDS TO BUY IN HEALTH SERVICES BECAUSE OF THE CHANCELLOR'S AND JACK MCCONNELL'S POLICIES THAT ALMOST GUARANTEE THE SYSTEMATIC ABUSE OF PEOPLE WITH AUTISM. WHILE NHS FIFE HAVE STARTED TO PAY SOME OF THE FUNDING IN THE LAST 2 OR 3 MONTHS THEY STILL REFUSE TO PAY IT TO THE PARENTS WHO ARE STILL EMPLOYING AND PAYING FOR THE SERVICE. THEY ARE ALSO REFUSING TO PAY THE PARENTS FOR THE 3 PLUS YEARS THAT THE PARENTS WERE LEFT TO PAY FOR THE SERVICE, EVIL OR WHAT!</p> <p>WHEN WILL GORDON BROWN'S LABOUR PARTY START DELIVERING THE BILLION'S OF POUNDS REQUIRED. FOR TOO LONG THIS UNCARING IMMORAL PARTY HAS DELIBERATELY TARGETED AND SYSTEMATICALLY ABUSED PEOPLE WITH AUTISM.</p> <p>THE ABUSE HAS GOT TO STOP. </p> <p>FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE LOCAL PAPERS GORDON BROWN'S LAST VISIT TO AN AUTISTIC CENTRE IN HIS CONSTITUENCY RESULTED IN HIM SAYING THAT "THE USE OF REDUNDANT NCB COAL BUILDINGS WERE AN EXCELLENT USE IN A SOCIALLY DEPRIVED AREA". HE TOTALLY MISSED THE POINT THAT THE REASON THE DISABLED AND VULNERABLE ARE FORCED TO USE OLD RUN DOWN BUILDINGS WAS BECAUSE THE LABOUR PARTY HAD SLASHED YEAR ON YEAR THE AVERAGE ANNUAL SPEND ON A PERSON WITH AUTISM.</p> <p>Dave Cunningham who's severely Autistic son has and still is being Systematically abused by Gordon Brown's Labour Party.<br> 25 Apr 2007</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/04/27/david_cunningham_gordon_brown_s_constitu~2171311/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>david-cunningham-classical-autismparliamentarylabourhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/04/27/david_cunningham_gordon_brown_s_constitu~2171311/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/02/23/david_cunningham_on_systematic_abuse_of_~1792229/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-02-23:/2007/02/23/david_cunningham_on_systematic_abuse_of_~1792229/Fri, 23 Feb 2007 16:12:50 +0100 <p>Site: Passed on at his invitation.</p> <p>Firstly a big Welcome to those 'Decision Makers' who have joined my 1700 distribution list. As a reminder the primary aim is to highlight the Labour Party's systematic abuse Of the disabled, particularly people with autism. Gordon Brown is my MP but with Ming Campbell also being in Fife you will get first hand how their constituency Of Fife is equal to if not worse than any other area of the country in perfecting the systematic abuse Of the disabled, particularly people with autism.</p> <p>Back to the farce of the so called £25 million for carers. The facts are:</p> <p>1. Education. The Labour Party gave teachers £2 billion in Scotland and not one penny was to improve services to normal children far less the disabled and people with autism. In addition Gordon Brown and Ming Campbell's Education Authority like the rest of the country get rewarded whether they deliver one second of education or not. Take my severely autistic son the Labour Party and Executive has allowed Fife education to effectively steal over £200k of my son's education funding for doing nothing. This is because like the £25 million proposed for carers there are no measures or requirements to prove that the money gets to the child. Indeed it is estimated that in Scotland alone that at least £75 million pounds per annum that was supposedly identified for disabled/special needs children is routinely stolen by the councils because there is no requirement for any of the country's councils to prove that they spent the money on the disabled/people with autism. SO THERE ARE LITTLE GUARANTEES THAT ANY OF THE £25 MILLION WILL GO ON CARERS.</p> <p>2. Social Services. An Independent Review identified that over 90% of disabled/people with autism had NOT got an approved Social Services assessment report. Similar situation for carers assessment. Again Gordon Brown and Ming Campbell's Constituency seems to have perfected the act of avoiding this. Indeed for several years Fife Social Services has totally refused to agree to issue an accurate report. The Informed Parents of Scotland and others believe that the reason for this is simple. Like education there is no requirement for councils in the country to prove where that they are spending the funding on disabled/people with autism. But by not issuing assessment details or reports then even if the incompetent Labour Party or Executive asked then this makes it easier for Gordon Brown and Ming Campbell's constituency to effectively steal the social services money as well.</p> <p>3. NHS. NHS is the same. The incompetent Labour Party gave doctors hundreds of millions of pounds for effectively reducing the standard of care to patients. But specifically take Professor James McGoldrick (Chairman NHS Fife) and Dr Francis Elliot (Director of Health Services NHS Fife) they deliberately blocked payment for my severely autistic son's health care for over 3 years by trying to tie it into a so called Integrated package with the immoral and incompetent Fife education and Fife social services. Yet for the 3 years having starved my son of his healthcare and knowing full well that I and relatives had to borrow they finally caved in to the fact that they were breaking Health and Safety Legislation but refused to reimburse us for the previous 3 years.</p> Conclusion <p>The services for disabled and people with autism were described by the Children’s Commissioner as a national disgrace. UNICEF has also highlighted that Scotland and the UK as a whole is one of the worse places to bring up children. BUT THE BIGGEST LIE THAT THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER CAN DUMP ON THE DISABLED/PEOPLE WITH AUTISM IS THE FARCE OF CREATING 'SMOKE AND MIRRORS' THAT THE MONEY GETS TO THE DISABLED/PEOPLE WITH AUTISM AND THEIR FAMILY CARERS. SO NOT ONLY ARE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF POUNDS BEING EFFECTIVELY STOLEN BY THE COUNCILS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY BUT IT IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE THAT THE EVIL IMMORAL LABOUR PARTY IN SCOTLAND SHUT DOWN THE CROSS PARTY GROUP FOR AUTISM, WIPED THE WEBSITE BUT WORSE SLASHED THE AVERAGE ANNUAL SPEND FOR A PERSON WITH AUTISM.</p> <p>FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN'S HEALTH, WELFARE AND DEVELOPMENT DON'T EVER VOTE FOR THE IMMORAL INCOMPETENT LABOUR PARTY AT THE NEXT ELECTIONS. </p> <p>FINALLY CAN ENGLAND NOT TAKE SCOTLAND'S INCOMPETENT EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES MINISTER HUGH HENRY WHO PRIDES HIMSELF IN NOT LISTENING TO THE INFORMED PARENTS OF SCOTLAND? NO DOUBT HE'LL DO HIS USUAL STICK HIS FINGERS IN HIS EAR, SING LA LA LA, DELETE THIS EMAIL AND WITH A SMILE ON HIS WARPED FACE GET ON WITH IMPLEMENTING A SYSTEM THAT CONTINUES THE SYSTEMATIC ABUSE OF PEOPLE WITH AUTISM. </p> <p>PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL ON.</p> <p>Dave Cunningham Parent whose severely autistic son like thousands of others is being systematically abused by Labour. No education for over 3 Years. No social services for longer and basic healthcare. The legacy of the incompetent, uncaring and immoral Labour Party<br> 22 Feb 2007</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/02/23/david_cunningham_on_systematic_abuse_of_~1792229/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>david-cunningham-classical-autismlabourparliamentaryhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/02/23/david_cunningham_on_systematic_abuse_of_~1792229/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/01/15/zyprexa_files_not_secret_but_lilly_targe~1557862/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-01-15:/2007/01/15/zyprexa_files_not_secret_but_lilly_targe~1557862/Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:18:00 +0100 MindFreedom News - 15 January 2007 <p>Nonviolent Revolution in Mental Health</p> <p>The New York Times reports today that Eli Lilly's files on the<br> psychiatric drug Zyprexa are no longer secret, and are still<br> available on the Internet. Yet, as the Times also reports, Lilly<br> continues to target the MindFreedom web site for censorship with a<br> Temporary Restraining Order.</p> <p>MindFreedom's Ted Chabasinski is one of the attorneys arguing against Eli Lilly and for free speech tomorrow, 16 January 2007, in US District Court in Brooklyn, New York.</p> <p>British Medical Journal, journalist Evelyn Pringle and other media<br> are covering the controversy. Why is mass publicity of the exposed<br> files about Zyprexa a threat to Eli Lilly?</p> <p>For all this news, analysis and more see MindFreedom News Update #26<br> published 15 January 2007:</p> <p><a href="http://www.mindfreedom.org/know/psych-drug-corp/eli-lilly-secrets/"> <a href="http://www.mindfreedom.org/know/psych-drug-corp/eli-lilly-secrets/">www.mindfreedom.org/know/psych-drug-corp/eli-lilly-secrets/</a></a></p> <p>or: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/yx6k9x"> tinyurl.com/yx6k9x</a></p> <p>ACTIONS:<br> STOP THE CENSORSHIP!</p> <p>Please redistribute this news to all appropriate places on and off<br> the Internet.</p> <p>See the alert about how you can contact you Attorney General and ask<br> for criminal prosecution of Eli Lilly execuives.</p> <p>For more info on MindFreedom see the newly redesigned web site at<br> <a href="http://www.MindFreedom.org"> <a href="http://www.MindFreedom.org">www.MindFreedom.org</a><br> </a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/01/15/zyprexa_files_not_secret_but_lilly_targe~1557862/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>zyprexapsychiatryeli-lillyhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/01/15/zyprexa_files_not_secret_but_lilly_targe~1557862/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/01/03/adders_again~1509058/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2007-01-03:/2007/01/03/adders_again~1509058/Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:39:18 +0100 <p>Adders.org are at it again, this time trying to shut up a member who<br> has criticised (not nastily) a member of admin (sounds familiar).<br> Suddenly her posts get locked, admin starts to make sarky remarks...people are allowed to make unpleasant remarks about her... again familiar. Perhaps this time they've learnt a lesson, as they've not banned her, perhaps free speech will finally be allowed on adders.org? I particularly liked it when one member of admin commented that they'd never ban anyone for having an opinion because seems to me that's exactly what keeps happening, specially if that opinion is about a member of admin doing something out of order e.g. Exfactor with Adrian and now this person with Dr Billy.</p> <p>Think power of being admin is a bit much for some people hmmm. They get to lock posts whenever they feel like it and to boot off anyone they don't like. </p> <p>Unimpressed<br> 30 Dec 2006.</p> <p> Site: <em>All sites discussed have a right of reply. Hence here are some comments copied into the main article, for the sake of even-handedness of prominence for them. But it is not "comment behind people's backs" for Unimpressed to post here, as it is done openly for anyone to read, and nobody can reasonably be asked to "put up or shut up" on a site where they find intimidatory group dynamics being allowed, can they? </em></p> <p>Now they've banned her completely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why not just call it a support site FOR ADMIN?????????????????????? </p> <p>Unimpressed, March 10</p> <p>I have made enquiries to ascertain the validity of your statement and find that it is untrue. Nobody has been banned. Perhaps you should ensure you have all the facts and that they are correct before making misleading and incorrect statements. </p> <p>Unimpressed2, March 16</p> <p>As with all people calling names they never have there facts right. Too much in a rush to open there mouths and say something without checking first</p> <p>there was no ban the person requested to leave for reasons of there own.</p> <p>If the person writing this finds it such an issue why not say so publicly on the site instead of comments behind people's backs<br> or is it a case of they will find that the support they enjoy at the moment wont be there for them when the truth about things are reveiled.</p> <p>And the other members will not find this kind of helpful to a site they feel comfortable with.</p> <p>Perhaps its time to put up or shut up. </p> <p>Angry Person, March 16</p> <p>July 7 !<br> Now there's been another cull! </p> <p>Darky, Chrissie, FeeinLeeds<br> The site has gone riiiiiiggggghht down the pan. </p> <p>Even their posts saying bye were deleted. As always admin were allowed to make negative comments about Samantha's SENDIST tribunal with JM saying she couldn't see the point but then when people objected posts were locked and when people said bye we're leaving and mentioned it their posts were deleted. someone needs to ask Caroline what's going on, such rubbish to say that everyone's entitled to there opinions and then to delete messages which express opinions about other peoples opinions Not a support site anymore, not at all. </p> <p>Themostunimpressedofalltheunimpressed </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/01/03/adders_again~1509058/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>adhd-site-addersadhdhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2007/01/03/adders_again~1509058/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/12/01/dangerous_psychiatrist_wants_to_return_t~1390040/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-12-01:/2006/12/01/dangerous_psychiatrist_wants_to_return_t~1390040/Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:02:00 +0100 <p>This Sunday Mirrror item - that's a tabloid paper, remember - <a href="http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=naughty-kids-need-discipline-not-drugs-&method=full&objectid=18109811&siteid=94762-name_page.html"> <a href="http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=naughty-kids-need-discipline-not-drugs-&method=full&objectid=18109811&siteid=94762-name_page.html">www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline=naughty-kids-need-discipline-not-drugs-&method=full&objectid=18109811&siteid=94762-name_page.html</a></a></p> <p>is exploiting the well-funded fear of overpushed drugs for ADHD, to call for a return to belief in <em>discipline</em> instead of in the reality of ADHD at all.</p> <p>This when evidence up to a generation old, of serious life-wrecking abuses committed by schools in the name of discipline, are still being systematically suppressed from public awareness. They are neither getting published nor covered in the media - how work pressure and teachers deciding they know best a child's abilities can make a child's life impossible. Resulting in a clash that can even be called life-threatening if running away or suicide are the child's only escape options, otherwise results in descent into the social service/mental health underworld.</p> <p>Growth in understanding of the neurodiverse or autistic spectrum, whichever you prefer to call it, is the only major gain that has been achieved in the direction of overturning the wall of silence around teachers' atrocities. A silence there has been a unanimous criminal consensus in the media and politics to maintain. Only the crime of that silence is served when a psychiatrist comes along and says to the tabloid press, okay I'll back you, dictatorial power for teachers is right and the autistic spectrum isn't real.</p> <p>Quoting: "Consultant child psychiatrist Dr Sami Timimi argues that medicalisation of childhood problems is due to a search for "an easy cure that fits in with our fast lifestyles and gives us a quick answer". </p> <p><em>Consultant child psychiatrist.</em> A profession with an overwhelming history, familiar to many spectrumites, of siding with persecution of us and with medical crimes seeking to destroy us. Do you see <em>how Orwellian</em> is the inversion of reality this sinister whitecoat Timimi is trying to pull? Under a cloak of opposing the medical crimes that involve drugs, he is promoting a wider agenda of medical crimes to be perpetrated through sheer authoritarian bullying. <em> He is medicalising us by opposing accepting our reality! </em>A politics of group destruction..</p> <p><a href="http://www.aspergianisland.com/viewtopic.php?p=49100#49100"> (link to a comment on Aspergian island.)</a></p> A worldwide emergency alert by the ASD scene is important. <p> Maurice Frank, 1 Dec 2006. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/12/01/dangerous_psychiatrist_wants_to_return_t~1390040/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>adhdpsychiatryhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/12/01/dangerous_psychiatrist_wants_to_return_t~1390040/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/11/22/patients_association~1357730/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-11-22:/2006/11/22/patients_association~1357730/Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:21:32 +0100 <p>The Patients' Association, certainly its Scottish branch, is ruthless, self-interested, + not interested a damn in the patients in whose name it exists.</p> <p>When it is approached concerning corrupt warping of the procedures in the NHS complaints and Ombudsman systems,</p> <p>the Patients' Association's chair will just say, sorry can't help, you have tried all possibilties, nothing we can do. When she knows there is something she can do, she can <em>expose what is going on</em>. This can be done both on the Patients' Association's <a href="http://www.members.aol.com/SCOTL1/SPA/index.htm"> website</a> and in all the representational material it produces at a general level on NHS patients' behalf. But the PA's response to being told this, + told it has an AUTOMATIC duty to do it or else is itself criminally culpable towards many people, is just to ignore it.</p> <p>When an "advance statement" under the 2003 Mental Health Act is presented to the NHS, and contains declared information affecting every other person either presenting such a statement or using mental health systems, the information must be acted on. It is not enought just to file away the advance statement in the personal files of the person who wrote it. Because it is potentially evidence in every mental health case, it is a legal corruption of the case of everyone in the system unless that is done, which makes it an automatic duty. This is a description of the case the PA's assistance in was applied for. Its reaction is a deliberate siding with suppression of facts. It is a criminal act towards all users of the mental health system.</p> <p>Everyone thinking of trying the Patients' Association, for anything, instead tell it you know of this + enquire as to how it explains a claim to be entitled to say not he exposing any, that's <em> any, </em> corruption in health service procedures !!! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/11/22/patients_association~1357730/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>patients-associationpsychologynhshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/11/22/patients_association~1357730/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/20/more_david_cunningham_anger_with_the_lab~1144829/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-09-20:/2006/09/20/more_david_cunningham_anger_with_the_lab~1144829/Wed, 20 Sep 2006 18:54:22 +0200 (his politics are personal, of course) <p>This e-mail has been sent to over 600 of those influential people who in Scotland who claim an interest in Autism</p> Question <p>-------------<br> 1. Why is it when every Labour MSP know's that report after report has demonstrated that things are worse for Scotland's People With Autism that they have starved Scotland's Disabled People With Autism of funding while Westminster MP's are now going to significantly and quite rightly increase funding in England (reference the attached web link to the BBC article</p> <p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5352262.stm"> news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5352262.stm</a></p> <p>BBC Headline<br> More funding could be found for teaching autistic youngsters in England, a minister has said. <br> Quote:</p> <p>The pledge for action came after the children's commissioner for England described existing provisions as "shocking and appalling". </p> <p>Unquote</p> <p>PLEASE PASS THIS E-MAIL ON TO WORLD. SCOTLAND'S EVIL, UNCARING, INCOMPETENT REGIME CALLED THE LABOUR PARTY HAS DEVELOPED A MISSION AND STRATEGY TO MAKE SCOTLAND A SECOND CLASS COUNTRY BY SYSTEMATICALLY DESTROYING SCOTLAND'S DISABLED PEOPLE WITH AUTISM. </p> <p>EVERY DAY (YES DAILY) NEARLY £400 MILLION POUND OF OIL, GAS AND GOLD REVENUES GO DOWN TO ENGLAND FROM SCOTLAND WHILE SCOTLAND IS TREATED LIKE SCUM. </p> <p>YES SCOTLAND GIVES ENGLAND NEARLY £142 BILLION POUNDS PER ANNUM FROM OIL, GAS AND GOLD FROM ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE.</p> <p>IT IS NO WONDER THAT THE BULK OF SCOTTISH PEOPLE HATE LABOUR MSP'S WITH EVERY FIBRE IN THEIR BODY AND WHY THEY ARE TELLING ALL SCOTTISH LABOUR MSP'S TO FCUK OFF OUT OF SCOTLAND AND GO AND LIVE IN ENGLAND. THE SCOTTISH PEOPLE DON'T WANT YOU AND TRUTH BE KNOWN IF YOUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS KNEW WHAT YOUR WERE DOING THEY WOULD DISOWN YOU TO.</p> <p>Dave Cunningham Fife parent of a severely disabled Autistic Boy who's Labour Stronghold of Fife have chosen to be one of the best examples of Labours lack of caring and delivery by refusing to deliver any Education for 3 years and who have stated in writing for 6 years that it is the lack of funding that stop's them delivering David's Social Services needs.</p> <p>David Cunningham 18 Sep 2006</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/20/more_david_cunningham_anger_with_the_lab~1144829/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>david-cunningham-classical-autismlabourhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/20/more_david_cunningham_anger_with_the_lab~1144829/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/19/a_reversal_of_public_order_powers_passpo~1140901/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-09-19:/2006/09/19/a_reversal_of_public_order_powers_passpo~1140901/Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:52:19 +0200 <p>Police forces are being required statutorily to compile "diversity policies" to make sure they are operating with understanding of minorities with any type of limitations or disability, however you like to class these things. The Elas AS society in Edinburgh has been invited to contribute to this for the Lothian/Borders police area.</p> <p>It is fortuitous how AS includes a genuine reliance on having the full explicit logic in any situation expressed openly. It means we can't be expected to guess, culturally or from the state of politics, what will or won't be counted as acceptable. As many abuses are made possible by expecting folks to guess, everyone, the folks without AS too, are better off if because we exist nobody can be expected to guess. AS's existence excludes the option of deciding the public should be expected to accept regular situations of challenge on a basis of unannounced rules culturally assumed by police officers to exist.</p> <p>Because we can't be distinguished on sight from the neurotypical population, our existence makes this apply to everyone! The state's duty not to commit population-scale abuses on any section of population, exists at a supraparliamentary international level regardless of what domestic laws on public order are in force at any time. It defines in human rights law the state's own validity, this is the principle all the supranational trials for population crimes have established. So AS's existence imposes on the police everywhere - a duty never to enforce on any person any rule that has never been specifically enacted, under generally worded laws of public order giving the police situational powers of interpretation. </p> <p>This annuls every generally or discretionarily worded power that can ever be enacted, from the medieval English/Scottish law of "breach of the peace" to the modern powers created since 911, from being used to impose any rule that has no separate specific enacted existence. This is a massive thing to say, an advance in democracy, a constitutional and supranational fundamental in the relation of law enforcers and public. It now stands irreversibly recorded as police notified, creating a formal (we'll see about what <em>really</em> happens) entitlement for all to expect it will be followed. It's in Scotland but it's by reasoning that is not confined to here, so it's everywhere. This is simply thanks to an anti-discrimination duty given to them because the spectrum exists. </p> <p>The AS scene worldwide should record this for citation + use in all police situations + all liaisons with governments, + all other civil liberty groups should seize on it too. Notify your politicians of it too. </p> <ul> <li>Note the parallel with the Dalgety Bay library case. It and this stand separately, don't depend on each other, but each can be quoted in pursuit of the other. It is a timely example, that though every incidence of unclear or improperly discretionary rulemaking is worth fighting, the position you fight from is stronger when you know you have made a review of anti-discrimination standards at state level answerable to the AS case against this type of rulemaking.</li> <li>It also meant an opportunity to suggest to police, in a situation of their formal duty to have an answer to it, though not of addressing the right force area, so this is just a marker for when other force areas do their "diversity policies" - that to be seen as non-discriminatory in their response to AS means having to take up the stalking issues around AFF and the offence committed against SF by Schlund-1and1.</li> <li>What advances in democracy can be proved from other conditions, in the same way? </li> </ul> <p>ADHD and dyspraxia, for a start, each prove it a minority persecution for anyone ever to be judged by their bearing of any physical document. This is simply because all physical documents are losable. Because you can't tell by sight who has ADHD, this applies to everyone too. The fact of human fallibility that any physical document can be lost or stolen, may no longer be conflicted with by allowing such loss or theft to result in a disastrous situation. Spread the word on this, make it widely known as fast as possible, to force recognition of it. You can bet the system will be reluctant to concede this if it's not widely known, they prefer it to be possible for anyone's life to be devastated in an instant + by chance as you move through the day. <em>It's absolutely fundamental to personal safety in moving around, that the loss or theft of a physical document which may not be your fault should never place you stranded at the mercy of any official who can hold you responsible for it not to have happened.</em></p> <p>This would overturn and prevent identity cards!!! Including the identity cards already used to govern international travel - passports!!! Regardless of the effect on how public transport shall be paid for, it would force an end to the use of losable tickets!!! <em>Thanks to ASDs! and I report this being notified to 3 MEPs, that's for each non-Labour party - MEPs in order to claim for EU-wide synchrony on it.</em></p> <p>Can you beat the importance that people-action like this should abolish tickets? It's funny how we don't even have an equivalent of how in Victorian times anyone without money in any place had a right to admit themself to the workhouse for a night. You can have any view you like on how transport should be paid for, but you can't argue it's practical that whenever you are distant from home there is an ever-present danger of your life being devastated in an instant by loss or theft of a little scrap of paper or of money, which may not be your fault. This removes, deliberately don't you think, a position of security from existing when you are moving around, so that there isn’t really free movement.</p> <p><em>Once these advances are made, think how barbaric the present situation we have accepted as normal for 200 years will seem in memory!</em> For now, it's a question of persistence in spreading the word.</p> <p> Sep 28: Update on 2 MEPs' responses. Elspeth Attwooll (LD) has promised a response to follow her acknowledgement. <em>This never came - these promises are often just a way of shutting you up until time has moved on and they can pretend to foregt about it. </em> Struan Stevenson (Tory) has responded to the identity cards issue only, expressing his opposition to them and the mass surveillance trends under Labour and "interest" in the angle of using AS and ADHD against identity cards. Oct 19: the third one, Alyn Smith (SNP), has obviously ignored it. How does that contrast with the recent SNP conference going on about winning public confidence, with a Scottish election on in 7 months?<br> <br> Dec 1: Following a letter in the Metro that mentioned how on the commuter trains into Glasgow, the operators are refusing to bother to sell tickets on trains, instead making passengers queue to get them at the ticket barriers when they each the city, + this can take over 5 minutes, adding unfairly to journmey times + resulting in avoidable latenesses for work. I wrote today to British Transport Police in follow-up to the Lothian police item, to point out that it is now a proven consequence of disability discrimination that there can no longer be such thing as train tickets. Consequently, it is criminal false imprisonment to keep passengers stuck at these ticket barriers, + hence the police are now obliged to back the passengers' right to proceed without tickets.</p> <p>2007 election: Mark Ballard, Green transport spokesman until he lost his seat, ignored a lobby about this issue., Nor even about more ordinary dumb behaviour by the giant transport company First which operates some bus and train services in duplication between the same places but without interchangeable fares, as if they were competing services. Not wanting to make any fight about that is a disgusting depth of cycnicism for the party most popularly associated with public transport as a cause. Ballard wouldn't make any election campaign comment on either issue. His behaviour is too bad for his own candidates: the Green council candidate for "Almond" (west Edinburgh) gave a private answer in support of renationalising most transport in order that multimodal fares could be introduced mostly in the good form of wideranging travel passes. But there was still no comment on not having tickets any more.</p> <p>Maurice Frank 19/20 Sep 2006 </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/19/a_reversal_of_public_order_powers_passpo~1140901/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>aspublic-librariesparliamentaryabolishing-ticketshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/19/a_reversal_of_public_order_powers_passpo~1140901/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/09/public_libraries~1110241/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-09-09:/2006/09/09/public_libraries~1110241/Sat, 09 Sep 2006 10:25:02 +0200 <p>AS means we can't be expected to guess things, including <em>rules</em>, by instinct, right? Hence we can't be held accountable to obey any rule without knowing it existed. Autism too. </p> <p>Which being a biological fact about us, is also a fairer approach to <em>everyone</em>. As a principle, it would be a great advance in demcoracy. It would abolish all generally-worded rules and discretionary authority.</p> <p>In public libraries, it means 3 things they have to observe or else they are perpetrating discrimination against us against all the international human rights structures! Because we can't be distinguished by sight from the NT population, it means they have to apply these things to everyone!!</p> <ul> <li> No library can enforce on any user a rule for which there is no display telling users it exists.</li> <li> No library can have generally-worded rules that give discretion to staff to make up more specific rules moment to moment, that have no separate existence as specific rules.</li> <li> No library ever has the power to decide or announce "We don't approve of..." anything.</li> </ul> <p>All it needs to establish these principles, as binding on every public library throughout the EU, is a single test case where a library breaks them. </p> <p>This has now been provided, by Dalgety Bay library in Fife, Scotland. After a case there, Bob Izatt, head of Fife libraries, has replied to a notice of these public rights just by a reiteration of the present system, making no reference to AS at all. He simply stated that libraries have generally-worded rules and staff discretion, and claimed staff are trained to exercise it consistently. Which achieves not a shred towards library users knowing what to expect.</p> <p>He is illegally blatantly testing his chances of pretending AS doesn't exist. This in a county that for a while has been operating a "Roving Autism Resource Library" in partnership with a local <a href="http://www.phad-fife.org.uk">group. </a> His bad example can be cited by name all over the EU, and in any other country where human rights challenges are possible, as proof of systematic violations of minorities unless the opposite of what he wants happens, the 3 rights listed become recognised as applying to all users in all libraries.</p> <p> Sep 28: An attempt to rejoin Fife libraries on these terms as a precedent, and to ensure they stick, initially by means of circulating a notice of the precedent to the staff of a string of Fife libraries at once, is being made. Awaiting its results, good or bad.</p> <p> Oct 19: The result is, predicatably, not satisfactory to the extent of actually getting further acknowledgement of the precedent out of Fife libraries, in response to said circulation. Take everything written before Sep 28 as standing, except only that Fife libraries require further challenge to actually acknowledge on explict record that they won't break the precedent, that has been attained still only in theory.</p> <p>Maurice Frank 9 Sep 2006 </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/09/public_libraries~1110241/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>asdavid-cunningham-classical-autismpublic-librariespsychologyhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/09/09/public_libraries~1110241/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/08/04/adders_a_prominent_adhd_site~1012764/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-08-04:/2006/08/04/adders_a_prominent_adhd_site~1012764/Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:31:48 +0200 <p>As emailed to the membership of <a href="http://www.adders.org"> the prominent ADHD site Adders </a> by a hurt member, who has received many supportive messages form other members (see comments):</p> Standing up against unfairness! <p>Dear Adders people,<br> Imagine that your child was permanently excluded from school. One deputy head said it was because your child had been 'causing arguments', but could give no evidence about what arguments had been caused, when or with who.<br> The headteacher gave another reason, but it completely contradicted the reason given by the deputy head.<br> Would that seem fair to you?<br> Wouldn't you then keep asking for a reason why your child had been excluded?<br> Wouldn't you kick up a fuss and protest the exclusion?</p> <p>My analogy, as many of you know, relates to me - banned from Adders for a reason nobody will tell me. If you're a newbie, watch out: this could be you, too, if you disagree with any of the Admin team about anything!</p> <p><em>Why was I changed to guest status in the first place and where is the evidence of my causing of arguments? </em></p> <p>Sometime in June, I agreed with Samantha on the Adders forums that Adrian (loverablemole/ possibly Cheekychap too) had been a bit rude to her in a post; I also said he probably didn't realise he had come across so rudely. This was apparently 'abuse' of Adrian, although Samantha remains able to post. I also started a thread talking about censorship on Adders in general, like when Bojangles got banned for having opinions others disagreed with. At no time was I ever rude about any individual.</p> <p>I then had trouble replying to Adrian's test emails, as they kept getting returned to me. </p> <p>I posted the following to him on the 3rd July:<br> "I've now had two emails 'undelivered' to your email address.<br> Perhaps this is why people can't reply to your test emails? Just a thought.This is exfactor. I do not choose to post anymore at the moment, but wish for my membership to remain should I choose to contact anyone through the website in the future."</p> <p>I got the following reply from Adrian:<br> "funny no-one else has a problem replying to my tset email and if we chose to delete memberships we do this for a number of reasons and i have every right as admin for the site to put your membership on restictions as you have caused arguements a nuber of yimes on adders.org and it is yor end as i have people reply to their test emails and also your membership has been put onto guest status"</p> <p>I then obviously complained! I got the following message from Caroline:<br> "Sorry but you have not been banned. We were simply carrying out your own request. You sent email to Adrian saying that you no longer wished to post but you wished to leave your membership open so you could get in touch with people from the forum boards Therefore we changed your membership status to that of Guest."</p> <p>(SO ALREADY THESE CONTRADICT - TURNED TO GUEST BECAUSE I 'ASKED' TO BE - NOT TRUE - JUST SAID I DIDN'T WANT TO POST AT THE MOMENT - ASKED TO REMAIN A <u>MEMBER</u>" OR BANNED FOR 'CAUSING ARGUMENTS' ? )</p> <p>I emailed her back to say, oh, well you misunderstood, but she ignored me, only to respond when I had tried to post about it on the boards saying "after that you decided to spam the boards this is abuse and therefore the final reason was for abuse of the boards (now they had another excuse!)I do not have to explain myself to you anyway at the end of the day I pay for the site - ok so there are some donations now which help - however still the bulk of the costs come from my own pocketyou have<br> >> abused the rules of the board by spamming and using numerous log in names (like Adrian - Loverablemole and Cheekychap (probably) - but it's OK for him, hey?) therefore I am free to do as I see feel fit" (but it's not censorship, oooh no) </p> <u>JD tells me, yesterday:<br> "You were temporarily changed to guest status as you were posting offensively on the boards about a member. " </u></p> <p>(Oh...who was I 'posting offensively' about? Can you quote the offensive bit, please, just to enlighten me?) <p>So, what's the truth? Someone's distorting things, aren't they - why was I turned to guest in the first place? It all contradicts - someone's not being honest.<br> I apologise to members of the forums whose evening on the 3rd July was disturbed when Caroline chose to turn the boards off, but if what they were doing by banning me was so ok, what is the problem with letting people read about it, like I am doing now? A lot of you will think: go away, you silly woman, and that's fine (I'm sure Madhouse, Noogsy and Keeny will be able to tell me how 'sick' and 'sad' I am again as on the thread started about me on 4th July- obviously I'm not allowed to say Adrian is rude, as that's offensive, but they can say that about me and that's fine - no hypocrisy there then!), but surely I am entitled to ask a question???????! All I was doing was posting this information, but they kept deleting it. I appreciate that my behaviour on that night broke terms and conditions, but NOTHING I had done up till then ever had, so the reason for banning me just seems to come down to Adrian not liking being told that his manner can sometimes be a bit snappy and rude when people are asking a question.</p> <p>So, consider my question: <em>Why was I changed to guest status in the first place and where is the evidence of my causing of arguments? </p> <p>Not only that, but a 'number of times', apparently! If anyone has got that evidence of me 'posting offensively' before the 3rd of July, please forward it to me so that I can at least know why I have been banned from a website I have been posting on supportively for over a year, offering advice and support to others...cos Admin refuse to tell me why I am banned and can't even agree themselves on the reason!</p> <p>JD, having emailed me this week to say I could start posting again if I agree to the Terms and Conditions (which I agreed to), has now said I should go away and set up my own website rather than tell me the answer to that question, cos I said I agreed to the T&C but wanted my question answered first!I have also been asked to apologise to the person I offended, but as they won't tell me the reason I was banned, I can't tell who I was banned for offending!</p> <p>You may think it is silly to be bothered, but unfairness from anyone, adult or child, to anyone else, adult or child, really really annoys me, especially when someone is prevented from expressing their opinion and people won't back up the accusations they make!</p> <p>I am able to get onto the adders site, and am even able to post under another identity, although the Admin team have tried to block most of my IP addresses to stop me from even READING the forums, but that's not the point. 'Exfactor' should not have been banned in the first place! </p> <p>I know most of you will totally be against what I am saying, and that's fine. I don't need to you email me to tell me that! However, if you have any actual evidence that what happened on 3rd July was fair i.e. any proof of me breaking the rules prior to that by offending you or others/ causing arguments, which would justify me being turned into a guest, please do pass it on.</p> <p>I wouldn't put up with this if my son was excluded from school for no good reason, so I won't put up with it for me either.</em></p> <p>Exfactor, 26 Jul 2006. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/08/04/adders_a_prominent_adhd_site~1012764/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>adhd-site-addersadhdhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/08/04/adders_a_prominent_adhd_site~1012764/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/08/02/labour_party_has_ensured_that_disabled_p~1009057/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-08-02:/2006/08/02/labour_party_has_ensured_that_disabled_p~1009057/Wed, 02 Aug 2006 21:30:22 +0200 <p>David Cunningham, a parent in Scotland with a long-running problem case, has contributed to SF before. He now wishes this further strong message about his anger with the Labour Party's management of classical autism services, to be circulated worldwide, as he explains. - site.<br> </p> <p>The sleaze ridden, uncaring Labour Party are systematically ensuring that disabled children, specifically people with autism, are starved of their health.</p> <p>This is frighteningly demonstrated within the Labour stronghold of Fife where NHS Fife under the management of Professor McGoldrick and Dr Francis Elliot Medical Director (supported by Mr Brechin and George Cunningham) have for years now played games and politics rather than deliver health services to a severely autistic boy.</p> <p>The latest rhubarb came from Dr Elliot Medical Director NHS Fife in a letter dated 24th July 2006. In the letter she makes a desperate attempt to prop up Labour's Policies by misrepresenting the facts and doctoring the truth to suit her demonstrably unethical position. I understand from my communications with hundreds of parents and relatives throughout Scotland that the following examples of NHS Officials playing "Labour's Game" are becoming the <em>"norm"</em>. Please pass on this e-mail and all of the 25 facts (another 23 to come) to all interested parties around the world. We have to let the world know just how bad things have degenerated in Scotland under Labour.</p> <p>Dr Elliot as chair of the Clinical Advisory Panel (CAP) did (she is trying to deny it through an incompetent technicality that is described below) block the release of funds for a severely Autistic boy. She will claim what she did was in accordance with the new Labour legislation. That is she will not issue the funding for the little boy's health care until the parents start taking the garbage offered by the 'yet to be proven competent' Fife Education. This child had a major medical breakdown in the first place due to Fife’s handling of his Education.</p> <p>The world must hear this. This sleaze ridden, immoral Labour party has effectively given all Health Authorities the mandate to starve any disabled person of their health care under Labou'rs requirement for 'Integrated Assessments' and delivery. In that Health, Social Services and Education must be delivered 'as one'. This means that in Fife £17,000 per annum that was allocated for my son's healthcare has for 3 years been frozen while the parents, through no fault of their own, watch the 'yet to be proven competent ' Fife Education' play their part in the Labour sham by refusing to provide details of a competent education service for my son. In addition Fife Social Services are also in on Labours immoral attempts to destroy the lives of disabled autistic children and there families. In that Senior Social Services Management in full collusion with Senior NHS Fife and Fife education management deliberately and without consultation with parents removed a small but critical number of hours of service. They all knew that this would cause maximum negative impact to my son and his family. But significantly how do I know that Professor McGoldrick, Dr Elliot, Mr Brechin and George Cunningham know all this? Well the basis for NHS Fife CAP's approval of the £17,000 per annum was to support the small number of hours from Social Services.</p> <p>But in an evil and immoral twist in the letter dated 24 July 2006 from NHS Fife, Dr Elliot and Professor McGoldrick state and I quote....'At that time and on regular occasions since then you (she's talking about me) have declined to accept this integrated package of care'...unquote. This is where Elliot and McGoldrick are liars. In a desperate attempt to prop up Labour's Policies they know that Fife Education have never offered any package of care. They also know that at the same time and to back Fife Education Fife Social Services timely removed (as detailed above) their Service. Indeed to complete the 'Triad of Destruction' and in full alignment with Labour's Grand Design NHS Fife simultaneously froze the £17,000 per annum to maximise the negative impact to our son and his family. PLEASE PASS THIS TRUE SEQUENCE OF FACTS AROUND THE WORLD AS IT DEMONSTRATES THAT LABOUR'S POLICIES ARE DESIGNED NOT TO DELIVER SERVICES BUT DESTROY THE HEALTH OF SEVERELY DISABLED AUTISTIC CHILDREN AND THERE FAMILIES. </p> <p>A SEPARATE BUT KEY QUESTION IS WHY ARE THE LABOUR PARTY DOING THIS? IT IS TIME THE OPPOSITON MSP'S STARTED TO ASK THIS QUESTION.</p> <p>I present more evidence not that anymore is required. The recent Labour publication admitted that under their management there has been a 1000% increase in people with autism in Scotland over the last 10 years. This means that 1 in 25 grandparents have no choice but to accept the Labour Party’s gift that they will have a grandchild that will develop autism. Yet for the same period Labour has refused to listen to the explosion of parents and grandparents who have been telling them what has been happening.</p> <p>SO IT IS NOW HISTORICAL FACT THAT HAD LABOUR LISTENED AND ACTED THEN THOUSAND’S (CERTAINLY HUNDREDS) OF SCOTLAND'S CHILDREN WOULD NOT NOW BE AUTISTIC.</p> <p>There are several more facts that I can present which overwhelmingly support the statement that the ‘Labour Party has ensured that disabled people are being starved of their right to their Health'. But I will close with one final fact. The Labour Party in a desperate attempt to prevent many facts from getting out has shut down the Cross Party Group for Autism. But worse in shutting it down they doctored the minutes of some meetings in a deliberate and systematic attempt by Elaine Smith, Labour Chair, to cover up the issues those Parents, Grandparents and other relatives and friends of People with Autism were raising. In an unprecedented move Labour also shut down the Cross Party Group for Autism Website and removed all minutes - COVER UP OR WHAT?</p> <p>I have another 23 or 25 facts to go. I re-emphasise that when finished it will show that the Labour Party backed up by an incompetent Executive have colluded and worked to cause maximum damage to People With Autism. But even worse, this has been done within a restructured justice system. Specifically the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB ) has been structured and with no standards for Autism in existence then this makes it virtually impossible to get justice i.e. the rates paid by SLAB means that most of Scotland's legal firms cannot afford to take on complex cases like those described above because the SLAB rates and procedures means that legal firms are forced to take a loss for every hour worked (Reference is made to statements made by the Law Society, Law Firms and media reports). Also when the parents point to a best practice standard the Labour Party, Executive and Council shrug their shoulders and say "we dictate what standard of crap you're going to get in your services" thereby ensuring that no laws are ever broken. Unless of course someone dies. Many believe that it is no coincidence that cases of suicide amongst people with autism and their families have significantly increased under Labour.</p> <p>SCOTLAND WHERE THE LABOUR PARTY ARE SYSTEMATICALLY DESTROYING THE LIVES OF PEOPLE WITH AUTISM AND THEIR FAMILIES. IT IS TIME THAT THE WORLD KNOWS THAT WITHIN SCOTLAND THAT THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE (INCLUDING THEIR FAMILIES) NOW BEING EFFECTED ARE FAR MORE THAN THOSE IN THE PRESENT CONFLICT IN ISRAEL, GAZA AND LEBANON.</p> <p>Signed Dave Cunningham Father of a severely autistic boy who's son, under Labour, is forced to live with the following realities:</p> <p>1. Severe bowel problems, it is fact that the 'scoping' of People with Autism has been mostly banned because the Labour Party and incompetent Executive can't explain what they are finding. So opt for 'don't look, no problem' strategy;</p> <p>2. autistic colitis;</p> <p>3. SIGN and NHS refuse to recommend best practice medical protocol for People with Autism;</p> <p>4. Parents are forced to fund testing themselves. But even where partial reimbursement is given NHS Scotland refuse to pay for all the treatment because they say Labour, Executive, SIGN and BNF will not approve it.</p> <p>5. NHS official policy is to tell parents to go to charities to get 'charity handouts' as Labour's Policy does not allow funding of the best practice. Note much of which is a fraction of the cost of existing treatment.</p> <p>6. Where NHS do not have the expertise in their geographic area NHS are now systematically refusing to pay for the full costs of GP referrals out with their area. This practice in NHS Fife means that thousands of pounds in GP referrals are being refused to be reimbursed to parents by NHS Fife. Thereby preventing People with Autism getting access to Health care.</p> <p>7. Many people with autism have the measles virus circulating inside them. The Labour Party claim this is impossible and so again opt for 'don't look, no problem' strategy;</p> <p>8. Within Scotland parents are being deliberately refused funding to take their child to the 'Best Practice Clinic' run by the charity Autism Treatment Trust in Edinburgh. The trust is manned with professionals and with their extensive network of clinicians around the world can go on to provide a truly world class service. But under Labour parents have been banned from receiving funding.</p> <p>9. etc, etc </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/08/02/labour_party_has_ensured_that_disabled_p~1009057/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>labourdavid-cunningham-classical-autismparliamentaryhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/08/02/labour_party_has_ensured_that_disabled_p~1009057/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/07/28/my_space~995866/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-07-28:/2006/07/28/my_space~995866/Fri, 28 Jul 2006 14:37:43 +0200 This was posted on <a href="http://www.aspergianisland.com"> Aspergian Island, </a> Jul 24. <p>"<br> Get away from My Space.</p> <p>I have it listed on my website as an unfriendly environment for Aspies - and I talk through experience. I noted that someone has been attacking your blogs and you had to create new ones. That's what I mean - Tom (the My Space owner) is useless when it comes to protecting Aspies.<br> " </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/07/28/my_space~995866/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>as-siteshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/07/28/my_space~995866/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/07/15/not_answered_by_save_the_children~962136/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-07-15:/2006/07/15/not_answered_by_save_the_children~962136/Sat, 15 Jul 2006 20:52:04 +0200 Still not answered by Save The Children since <em>Jun 29.</em> <p>Maurice Frank<br> </p> <p>Glad you sent me your latest supporter's mag. ...</p> <p>On page 4 there was an upsetting item about the child author Libby Rees becoming a backer for you. In publicising any child author, there is an act of mass child cruelty done unless a fact about child authors is AUTOMATICALLY referred to. You may well not have known the item, as it is unjustly little publciised, but you will know it now - <a href="http://www.phad-fife.org.uk/recognition.php"> see ___ </a> - and this needs updating urgently in your next literature. The item is, that there exist wronged child authors, whose chance to complete books was ruined by adult abuses towards us. I'm one, and my case represents a whole missing generation of child authors after Lindsay Brown in 1978. I was covered as a child author with a sci-fi/relativity novel in progress, by 2 Welsh newspapers in 1980-2 when they were reporting on early O-level passes at my school. The first item was by the young Rod Liddle. But my chance to complete it and succeed like Libby was ruined by abusive school homework pressure, which would eventually reach breaking point sand a crisis situation. The school, deservedly now closed, had the abusive stupidity to benefit from the public mention of my writing but then not give me enough spare time in my life to do it! and teachers believe they know best and give orders, they don't allow the child to decide.</p> <p>This is a crime of child ill-treatment and a deep wound. Given child authorship's now apparent association with Asperger Syndrome, not saying they all have it, it's even a medical wrong. As recently as the launch of an Asperger needs-survey project in Manchester 2 months ago, Aspect Action, I discovered a case of this school pressure happening to a child author RIGHT NOW.</p> <p>Don't you think wronged authorship is experienced worldwide by exactly the children wronged by poverty or wars who your work is full of? The crime upon all of us is worsened every time publicity of a child who WAS allowed to succeed does not mention wronged authors' existence. So you urgently need to mention it in follow-up to your Libby item and in all the work you intend to do with her.</p> <p>ETHICALLY towards children, you must not take an institutionally cynical position of wanting to prove for the sake of it that there is a discretionary choice over this. I have campaigning openings, as mentioned, to spead the word about that if it happens.</p> <p>You would agree is right to put to anyone, simple obligations against child ill-treatment. Hence, you must not feel insulted to be told that the responsibility to publicise wronged child authors is UTTERLY AUTOMATIC. It is demonstrated truth to say on public record that any party who wants any discretionary choice over this to exist even in theory, or who changes the word "automatic" to any other word a shred less committal, commits culpable and potentially actionable child cruelty thereby.</p> <p>You have not committed that because you likely didn't know of the issue, and now you can do the right thing for a group of child victims. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/07/15/not_answered_by_save_the_children~962136/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>child-authorspsychologyhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/07/15/not_answered_by_save_the_children~962136/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/06/29/title~920479/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-06-29:/2006/06/29/title~920479/Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:32:08 +0200 <p>The email list Wiki-en-l, for discussing Wikipedia, has a separate membership mechanism from Wkipedia. So it has been the only place for many of Wikipedia's victims to raise objections to bullying by the admins there and blatantly biased blocks and purges. Throughout the rest of Wikipedia, the openly corrupt trick has always been - that there are pages within Wikipedia where you are supposed to raise appeals against what an admin has done, but if you are blocked the block itself prevents you from writing anything on those pages!! And if you create a second log-in identity just so you can do this, <em>this</em> gets counted as the offence of creating a second identity to evade a block!!</p> <p>So now, of course, as Wikipedia turns in on itself as all purge-ridden tyrannies end up doing, it is being proposed on Wiki-en-l that objections to blocks should be excluded from being made on Wiki-en-l.</p> <p>A recent victim of Wikipedia's ruthlessness pointed out <a href="http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-June/049815.html">some good sense, here:</a></p> <ul> <li><em>> Is this official? Should I update the wikien-l page to tell people<br> > *not* to email for unblock requests?</em></p> <p>Why not go ahead and do the next logical step: Tell people to post<br> their unblock requests to [[WP:ANI]], where they will be subsequently<br> permbanned for "evading" their block and "disruption", and get their<br> user page vandalized by an admin as a follow-up.</p> <p>Am I trolling? No. This is what actually happened. </li> </ul> <p>The answer, as you see <a href="http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-June/049850.html">here, was "Piss off." </a><br> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p> <p>Oct 6, : <a href="http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-October/054949.html"> a recent admin's quitting notice against the system there</a> This is damning.</p> <p>Feb 23, : Check out Parker Peters's entry <a href="http://parkerpeters.livejournal.com/">here</a> for Feb 23 on how he had "exposed step by step" the behaviour of administrator cabals, in the Wiki-en-l forum before getting banned from it for it. </p> <p>Mar 2, : <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/02/wikipedia_fraud/"> <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/02/wikipedia_fraud/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/02/wikipedia_fraud/</a> </a> A story on "The register" - Bogus Wikipedia prof was blessed then promoted." Says - </p> <p>It's been a busy week for the pipeline that connects the consensus-reality wonderland of Wikipedia with Planet Earth. You won't believe what's just tumbled out at this end. Wikipedia's Maximum Leader Jimmy Wales, it transpires, has blessed an identity fraudster who bamboozled journalists last year, by rewarding him with a full-time job and promotion to Wikipedia's politburo. ... </p> <p>Wales' insouciance left onlookers amazed. "It does make you wonder about what else happens at Wikipedia that Jimmy Wales doesn't have a problem with," wrote author Stephen Dubner.</p> <p>Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger correctly describes it as an 'identity fraud'. And quite brilliantly, Sanger also gets to the core of the problem - the alternative reality, created by the Wikipedians cult-like devotion to the cause. (As with many cults, failings are attributed to outsiders).</p> <p>"Wikipedians have plainly become a very insular group: they have their own mores and requirements, which are completely independent of the real world," writes Sanger. "Indeed, that's what this story is about, after all: real-world identities and credentials are rejected as unnecessary by Wikipedia. How could Wikipedia fail to become insular with that attitude? " </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/06/29/title~920479/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>wikipediahttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/06/29/title~920479/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/06/21/a_rallying_call_to_all_survivors_users_a~899901/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-06-21:/2006/06/21/a_rallying_call_to_all_survivors_users_a~899901/Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:45:54 +0200 Link: <p><a href="http://www.kissit.org/kissit12apr06_content.html"><br> <a href="http://www.kissit.org/kissit12apr06_content.html">www.kissit.org/kissit12apr06_content.html</a> </a></p> KISSIT .<br> A campaign, not yet personally joinable, but their website is worth following, to keep in touch with their events announcements. Including a Bed march from Brighton to the former site of Bedlam in London August 6-10.</p> <p>Things they say include:</p> <ul> <li>The Kiss It campaign urges you to expose abusive psychiatric practices.</li> <li>Pleas, cries, explanations, and experiences are invalidated and recorded as symptoms.</li> <li>Forced treatment has immediate and long-term negative effects on the emotional well-being and <em>mental health</em> of those subjected to it.</li> <li>Forced treatment is the direct cause of many deaths each year. Records of the names, circumstances, and numbers who are killed in this way are not catalogued or retained in a comprehensive and coherent form, inquests are rare, and accountability negligible. </li> <li>Forced treatment and threat of it increase the likelihood of suicides.</li> <li>The needles that are forced deep into the buttocks of those who are dragged to the Isolation Room, pinned to the floor, stripped naked, and left in a locked cell to recede into unconsciousness, pierce not only the flesh but their hearts. ...For the countless who don't survive psychiatric assault (fatalities are not uncommon) an epitaph awaits, <em>Rest In Pieces.</em></li> </ul> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/06/21/a_rallying_call_to_all_survivors_users_a~899901/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>linkspsychiatrypsychologyhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/06/21/a_rallying_call_to_all_survivors_users_a~899901/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/27/fw_hmie_backed_by_the_labour_party_refus~833447/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-05-27:/2006/05/27/fw_hmie_backed_by_the_labour_party_refus~833447/Sat, 27 May 2006 17:09:23 +0200 <p>Circulated at the request of David Cunningham, a frustrated parent in Scotland and Cross-Party Group member - site.<br> <br> Attached is yet another of the hundreds of examples of the typical blocks and strategies being implemented by HMIe and Scottish Executive in preventing the parents of Scotland getting quality Education for their Special Need Children. This and the hundreds of other examples proves that there is systemic incompetence and cover up by the Scottish Executive and other bodies who are destroying Special Need Children and their families by colluding to protect themselves against basic challenge and questioning.</p> <p>The MSP's of Scotland have to see this as yet more evidence of the Council's and other public bodies covering their tracks by implementing a Policy of zero disclosure. Problem is the Parents of Scotland are being told by their MSP's that the Parliament is useless to prevent them doing what they want. I have examples from all over Scotland that prove that the Executive and Council's are a law unto themselves and that they see the Parliament and it's MSP's as nothing more than an irritant to their separate decision making. I will leave the other parents/relatives/friends of Scotland to present their own points but present the following 3 factual examples that demonstrate the case that Parliament is being ignored and is a toothless talking shop:</p> <p>1. HMIe carry out a secret, incompetently executed review on my son and then refuse to provide any terms of reference, don't interview the parents, don't interview the teachers and carer's and mainly interview senior managers and budget holders. HMIe then refuse to issue the secret report to the parents while all the other government bodies and council has been provided with a copy of the report;</p> <p>2.Marilyn Livingstone in response to my question as to why my Labour MSP wasn't issuing letters and questions of her own to Fife Education stated ...MSP's are just really just Facilitators I really don't know what you expect us (MSP's) to do? </p> <p>3. Murdo Fraser my hard working and caring MSP has said Dave, I really don't know how long I can keep on requesting answers and information. There are clearly many issues and they don't want to disclose them to me. I have even tried to use the Freedom of Information Act and well you can see what that's achieved. Due to the time that your case is taking I am not sure that I will be able to keep devoting time to David's case. There's not much more that I can do. What follows are now my words. Murdo has been ignored and as a caring MSP has been treated despicably by the Public Bodies. His numerous brave attempts for disclosure has achieved absolutely nothing but an increased collusion between HMIe, Scottish Executive and Fife Council.</p> A serious question must now be asked. The Scottish Parliament under Labour are allowing an incompetent Executive and Council to spent the Tax Payers Money doing what they want, when they want. However worse of all The Parliament are Powerless to act against them. In addition MSP's who do try and get answers are branded as troublemakers. But worse of all the Executive and Councils string them along to the point that the MSP is forced and systematically pressured to give up on the children and families that they represent. The blame for this has to be put at the door of the Labour Party.</p> Scotland where the Scottish Executive and Councils laugh, scorn and ignore the People of Scotland. The people of Scotland now know where the real power lives and it isn't in the Parliament. I am distributing this e-mail all over Scotland and the World, I suggest you do as well.</p> <p>Dave Cunningham Parent of a typical disabled and sick child who has had services, budgets and justice stripped away by the Labour Party, Scottish Executive and Councils<br> 27 May 2006 </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/27/fw_hmie_backed_by_the_labour_party_refus~833447/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>david-cunningham-classical-autismparliamentarypsychologylabourconstitutional-rights-to-publish-thingshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/27/fw_hmie_backed_by_the_labour_party_refus~833447/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/26/so_wikipedia_is_now_fiddled_oh_funny~830534/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-05-26:/2006/05/26/so_wikipedia_is_now_fiddled_oh_funny~830534/Fri, 26 May 2006 12:25:47 +0200 <ul> <li> May 25,</li> </ul> <p>on Wiki-en-l the publicly accessible mailing list of Wikipedians discussing the workings of Wikipedia and cases of blocking/banning,<br> <em>this </em> appeared.(by member Molu)</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/"> "Anyway, irrespective of the truth of these claims the permanent and<br> (apparently) secretive semi-protection of pages will give us very bad publicity,<br> particularly if this is applied indiscriminately to all pages in a category. I think the drawbacks of such a measure outweigh the benefits."</a> </li> </ul> <p>Protection of a Wikipedia page means a programmed block against the normal position that all-comers can edit and add to it. These protections are already applied as emergency temporary measures, to Wikipedia articles that become objects of heated argument. That is inevitable. But now, they are moving to secret, unannounced, protection controls programmed into many of their article pages on a permanent basis. On these "semi-protected" pages it will be like a moderated forum - any contribution won't get through or seen, in the first place, unless the Wikipedia admin who has been assigned to do the protecting chooses to let it.</p> <p>Not the orignal Wikipedia idea at all. Yes, give them the bad publicity. All Wikipedia's purge victims are vindicated.</p> <p>Oct 6, : <a href="http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-October/054949.html"> a recent admin's quitting notice against the system there</a> This is damning.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/26/so_wikipedia_is_now_fiddled_oh_funny~830534/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>wikipediahttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/26/so_wikipedia_is_now_fiddled_oh_funny~830534/#commentshttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/19/a_wiki_site_on_us_democracy_suppresses_a~813335/tag:spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk,2006-05-19:/2006/05/19/a_wiki_site_on_us_democracy_suppresses_a~813335/Fri, 19 May 2006 21:33:09 +0200 <p>Mainly US readers but also readers in all the countries US foreign policy affects -<br> EH? <p>- may have come across an anti-Republican group that organises lobbies of Senators etc, with the naff name "People For the American Way" which will never sound very appealing to hearers in the rest of the West. However, it has been circulating interesting emails opposing the constitutionality of some of the Bush government's more disturbing activities, as regards electronic surveillance, secret records of everyone's phone calls, + court nominations.</p> <p><em>But it becomes necessary for any thinking democrat not to trust or support PFAW,</em> when you catch it suppressing information itself, concerned with injustice.</p> <p>PFAW set up its own version of Wikipedia,called "Wiki the Presidency": at <a href="http://www.wikithepresidency.org"> <a href="http://www.wikithepresidency.org">www.wikithepresidency.org</a> </a>. It claims to be a place for sharing + exposing dirt on Bush + the Republicans, concerning civil liberties + war drives. "An ongoing record of Whitehouse wrongdoing for all to see", no less. In opening this site, PFAW described Wikipedia in positive terms, as popular and a public resource. "Authored entirely by the general public", which it isn't as anyone who reads Wikipedia's pages on its workings can easily see. In response, an article "Wikipedia" was created on Wiki the Presidency giving the dismal truth about Wikipedia, as revealed on Spectrum Fairness and elsewhere. In 3 days this article was deleted by PFAW, as "not relevant to the mission and spirit of this project." It's <em>spirit</em> is not about factual openness then, by its own admission! <em>(WikiSysop, 1141 May 18).</em></p> <p>ONLY INTERESTED IN YOU IF THEY CAN EXPLOIT YOU. ONLY WANT TO SAY WHAT FITS A SLICK IMAGE. NOT INTERESTED A DAMN IN TRUTH AT GRASSROOTS LEVEL. NOT A SCRAP BETTER THAN THE FORCES THEY PAINT THEMSELVES AS FIGHTING. Clearly their site will contain no other information than they approve.</p> <p>Oct 6, : <a href="http://mail.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2006-October/054949.html"> a recent admin's quitting notice against the system there</a> This is damning.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/19/a_wiki_site_on_us_democracy_suppresses_a~813335/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>wikipediaparliamentaryhttp://spectrum-fairness.blog.co.uk/2006/05/19/a_wiki_site_on_us_democracy_suppresses_a~813335/#comments