The government has tried to take away our self-respect – protest lets us take it back

You’d need to be living under a rock not to notice the rising cost of living in Britain. It’s much more than simply needing to ‘watch the pennies’. Rising energy bills and cold homes will cost lives – that’s the terrible reality. For disabled people, older people, people of colour and those from impoverished communities, higher energy costs can impact much harder.

For example, many medical and mobility devices like electric wheelchairs need electricity to run. So many disabled people are now facing higher bills or risk losing access to the energy they need – just for using equipment they need for their day-to-day lives.

While the government fails to provide enough support to people facing fuel poverty in this cost of living crisis, they protect the vast profits of energy companies.

In the face of colossal government failure, activists from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and Fuel Poverty Action (FPA) talk about the energy crisis, climate crisis and why taking action is vital.

“Protesting gives me back the empowerment and self-respect that I feel this whole process has taken away from me.”

Nina talks about how the government isn’t doing enough to protect people from rising bills and why protest is important.

“I feel there’s so much more the government could be doing to address the cost of living crisis, but they’re not doing it. Things like insulating homes and becoming less reliant on fossil fuels. These are things that will help the cost of living crisis long term. A lot of people are going to fall through the cracks. Like they’re helping people on disability benefits with extra payments. Which is, great for those of us who get disability benefits, but a lot of disabled people don’t qualify for disability benefits. Protesting gives me back the empowerment and self-respect that I feel this whole process has taken away from me. We can do things, individually we can change things, but as a group we can really have an impact.”

“The government aren’t listening to the right people”

Sandra speaks about the government’s failure to listen to ordinary people:

“The government aren’t listening to the right people. To the young people who are going to have to contend with climate change, and the future that will bring them. They’re not listening to the people in the global South, who are dealing with it now. To activists or to ordinary people who are having to contend with the energy crisis, with the cost of living crisis, and with the effects of climate change now in this country as well.”

“We need to have our voices heard. It gives me power to challenge… It’s immoral that we should be counting our pennies.”

Ellen tells us about the concerns of her communities and why speaking out is important:

“We need to have our voices heard. It gives me power to challenge. To be part of a movement. To be with others, to be in solidarity with other groups and ideas and principles, which we share as older people. The communities that I work with are extremely concerned about how they are going to manage to pay their bills. It’s immoral that we should be counting our pennies. And that we should be too afraid of putting our lights on, walking round our homes with lit candles and endanger ourselves. And also, to be so poor that we succumb to cold-related and health-related illnesses caused by poverty.”