Thread: ( #NECPForum21 and arts decision makers who couldn't make it along) Please hear me out without distracting too much about language at this stage. What I'm saying is important to the arts and who we are. Please read to the end. It is estimated that up to as many as 1/9

100,000 disabled people, from all communities, have died in this country as a result of austerity - Government policy - and two thirds of people who have died of Covid are disabled people. Disabled women are 11.9 times more likely to die of covid than non-disabled peers. 2/9

A community who is socially ignored, politically diminished, culturally invisible and experiences representation which perpetuates status low enough for there to be no outcry when we die in our thousands. We are equal citizens in a five decade long Civil Rights 3/9

movement fighting a genuine existential threat. Why can't people see this? And we are denied cultural space of scale to both represent ourselves and tell you what is going on under our noses. We'll do it as artists, with beauty, passion, power and wit and you can rely on us 4/9

to tell the truth. It's not simply about representation (although important), it's not identity politics, it's not about 'minorities' or ticking boxes. It's about an honest national story, where we're looking the other way when the subject of eugenics is raised. I'm relying 5/9

on you - 20% of the population is relying on you, pandemic or no pandemic, TO SEE THIS and to ACT ON IT NOW. Braveness, kindness, respect and generosity with language are part of human interaction, are part of collaborating. This is about more than that. Disabled people, 6/9

and the truth of our national story, requires - let's call them 'decision makers' so that we're not distracted from the weight and seriousness of this call to action - decision makers to stop in their tracks right now and ask how they are going to respond to the UN termed 7/9

'human rights catastrophe' of disabled people in the UK. Don't think of this as a 'diversity' matter - this is about truth, power, speaking out and accepting you might not know what to do, and need disabled people to guide you. I am proud to make the work I make & thank those 8/9

who believe in me, who commission me to tell the truth with beauty and power, who give disability a space. A moral imperative on the arts to tell the truth - stories that will make us laugh, cry, be surprised, entertained, commission now & let's plan the bigger picture. 9/9