I'd like to follow on from a previous post about a statement Leys Geddes and the British Stammering Association (BSA) submitted to the Speaker's Conference. The conference had been set up to find out why women, people from ethic minorities and those with disabilities were under represented in the House of Commons, the main chamber of the UK parliament.
The event took place earlier in the week and Leys Geddes dropped me an e-mail on how things went...
At the end of the meeting Leys gave the following 3 conclusions on behalf of the BSA:
1. In terms of local democracy and the Disability Discrimination Act, there do not appear to be any councils which have a ‘speech friendly’ policy in place for those with any kind of Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN). They seem to think that the words ‘disabled’ and ‘disability’ refer only to those with mobility, vision or hearing difficulties. For example, people with SLCN, and even Councillors with SLCN, might wish to have additional time to speak at meetings, but this does not appear to be happening.
2. Prospective MPs with SLCN fear that the Selection Committees of the political parties will prefer candidates with fluent speech.
3. We would be grateful if Members of The House might consider the needs of those with SLCN more often. Some 750,000 children and adults stammer, yet we are virtually invisible and inaudible. If anyone in the House wants to learn more about stammering, or to involve us in any way, we would be delighted to help.
One of the Members of the Conference is Andrew George MP and he was kind and brave enough to admit, during the meeting, that he had a stammer. He managed to get a grip of it in his 20s, after doing a lot of acting and singing. As a result of this, he developed a new way of talking, which he has always used since, when he is in dangerous speaking situations. He said that when his young son sees him on TV in Parliament he says ‘Dad, why are you speaking all posh like that? Mr George then spoke to his local newspaper about his stammer and you can see the article at: http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/cornwall_news/4456260.Helston_MP_speaks_about_stammer/
I think it is great how Andrew was compelled to speak out about his stammering at the meeting.
More people in influential positions doing this will help the cause tremendously...
Comments