Richard's Hardest Hit podcast

On 11 May 2011, we joined the Hardest Hit march and rally to demonstrate against the government's proposed cuts to welfare rights for people who are disabled. We met Richard Holmes, campaigns officer at RNIB and he told us more about the demonstration.

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Transcript

Hello this is Catherine Moat from Action for Blind.

We went to the Hardest Hit Rally and March on 11th

of May 2011. I met with Richard Holmes, campaigner

officer for RNIB at the end of the march and talked to

him about the importance of attending the

demonstration.

Hi, I'm Richard Holmes and I'm a campaigns officer of

the RNIB.

How important was it for you to be here today?

There's two reasons really. One, as a visually

impaired person myself I have an interest personally

in benefit provision and I know well the difference it

makes in terms of meeting extra costs. And obviously

in a work experience I meet people every day who I can

benefit very much from what they are receiving. And I

know they want to do some things that they wouldn't be

able to do it if they weren't receiving the benefits.

So, there's a very clear independence issue that we

need to raise and get heard by MPs. Don't save the

money, use it for specific things, transport,

cleaning, whatever people want to use it for it's

their rights. I think it will have implications.

Okay, so we're outside the Methodist Church at the end

of the march. We're just waiting outside, some people

have gone inside to lobby their MPs. So how do you

think the march went? How do you think it's gone

today?

I thought it was fantastic, it was amazing, really

wonderful to see all the different organisations from

around the country and outside of our sector crucially

I think we've got support from trade unions and not

just impairment groups. We made a good noise and

let's hope the noise is resonating in parliament and

people have their meetings now.

Do you think it will make a difference?

I think the important thing is that if you don't try

you won't make a difference so we'll see.

Okay, fantastic, thank you very much, Richard.

Thank you very much.

Bye.

Cheers.

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