I have just returned from the public apology for abuse in care at Parliament, feeling only profound frustration and disappointment at how far disabled people still have to go in this country.
I'm sure the Prime Minister's speech was scrutenised by multiple officials. Every phrase, every nuance would have been vetted. But disabled people are so absent from key positions of influence that no one told him that maybe, just maybe, using the expression "turned a blind eye to abuse" when blind people were some of the victims of that abuse is ill-advised.
Let me tell you from first hand experience, you can have blind eyes and know full well that abuse is taking place. Using that pejorative, ableist phrase at any time is not advisable, and that is according to the Government's own published guidelines. To use it in a public apology which actually includes blind people is unforgivable. The abuse just keeps on coming.