Catalogue Number
NMLH.2024.46.2
Object Name
placard
Title
'Tory Cuts Kill'
People
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Conservative Party,
Events
Austerity (2010s)
Description
A placard with the slogan 'Tory Cuts Kill'
This was part of a disabled people's protest against austerity. Austerity was a government economic policy of the Conservative party, also known as the Tories, as referenced in the poster. Austerity reduced the amount of government funding available for services which disabled people rely upon to live independently. This made disabled people one of several groups disproportionately impacted by the policies, along with women, and people of colour. The reduction in services which impacted disabled people included the closure of day centres, and the shuttering of the Independent Living Fund, as well as reductions to NHS and local council budgets impacting disabled people's ability to access services. During the austerity era there were also many high profile cases of disabled people being stripped of their benefits and dying either through suicide or in some cases starvation.
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities found austerity measures to cause gross and systemic violations of Disabled peopleâs human rights. A study published by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that during the austerity era there had been 334,327 excess deaths from 2012-2019 (more deaths than were predictable based on previous years data).
