I think services in my area are corrupt.

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I think all the services in my region are in it for their own benefits. Maybe even corrupt, when I think that they make money from vulnerable people.

The local council of which I won't name, but it's somewhere in the south of England, pay a company that I'll call A to run an autism Forum, which is supposed to take opinions of autistic adults to the autism Board. The autism Board is made up of many council departments and other services, to talk about the interests of autistic people.
The council pay for company A to hold the Forum and Board. When it was run by a previous company that I'll call B, everybody was in agreement that it achieved nothing.

I asked the new company A if any autistic adults are at the Autism Board meeting where they talk about our interests, and she said that the same two men had been going for years. I asked those men about what happens at the Board. One of them has quite a low IQ, and told me he doesn't care but just goes because he was asked to. The other man hadn't even gone to the Forum for months, which is held before the Board.
The previous company B which held the Forum and Board which achieved nothing, are now claiming to be autism experts who provide autism training and help autistic adults with things like applying for benefits.

I was applying for benefits but can fill in a form myself. I needed somebody to help with the unfair assessment system, which the government minister Iain Duncan Smith eventually resigned after years of making the unemployed and vulnerable suffer. He only resigned after enough organisations and people made the effort to protest. I had been made ill after years of useless work programmes and threats to do unsuitable work, with no offer of useful volunteer work or training that could actually help me find suitable work. When I went to company B, all they did was fill in the form so badly that I was turned down for the benefits, and when I said I needed somebody to help me appeal and stand up for me and make a difference to others, they told me to find somebody else to help. When I explained how ill I had become from treatment of the Job Centre before and how my Dr had signed me off work because of it, and I was scared to go back, she called me paranoid and said to just go there, because she couldn't be bothered to help more.

After many months of appealing to the company A that I think more autistic adults should have a chance to be at the Board, or at least a female, I was eventually allowed to sit in on the Board, and the woman from company B who told me to find somebody else to help appeal, was there talking about having lottery grants to run an autism hub, where the main service was to help autistic adults apply for benefits. She had been too busy applying for lottery awards for her own salary, than helping me.

I then went to company A who now run the Forum and Board which is supposed to hold the Forum to take opinions of autistic adults to the council, to say my experience of how company B let me down and I couldn't believe they were at the Board saying about having lottery grants. Instead of caring about my experience and opinion, company A were angry at me, saying I wasn't allowed to criticise company B or any of the services at the Board.

There haven't really been any useful services for autistic adults apart from an adult social group, so the Forum and Board had one job to do for autistic adults, which was to keep the adult social group going. Yet when Company B were running the Forum and Board, they didn't inform any adults at the autism social group that the council had stopped funding the NAS to run it years ago, and then the NAS were funding it alone. After a few years the NAS said they couldn't afford to keep running it. That was plenty of time for company A or B to help save the social group. Yet the council were paying company B to speak in the interests of autistic adults, with only the same two men going who didn't even care about the issues.
Now company B want to apply for future grants to run the adult social group, instead of trusted expert charities like the NAS who had previously run it.

The same council that stopped funding the adult social group fund the useless Forum and Board, of which there are people called Autism Leads, and I'm not sure if they're paid, but they seem more useless standing for the rights of autistic adults than the companies running the Forums and Boards.

There are lots more examples, but the only people who seem to gain from all the lottery awards and council funding are the people who run it. For their own salaries and egos, pretending they're autism experts, because they ran the Forum and Board, while being useless at it and not making much effort to fight for autistic adults.
They all seem in with each other, supporting each other to be useless for autistic adults. Helping each other in their own careers.

For some reason your experiences don't surprise me. It seems to be the way of the world that a lot of "organisations" don't give much real help at all and I expect a lot of the people running them are just maximising the money they got and minimising the work they did to earn it. A law centre once suddenly dropped the case they were handling on my behalf against my landlord. It turned out they had no right to, but the bloke who ran the place was in cahoots with my landlord, so he did him a favour. As for politicians, I think the recent exposure of the health secretary's hypocrisy is probably just the tip of the iceberg. He just happened to get caught. The prime minister wanted to just keep him on and tried to declare the case closed. Highest office in the land, and he thought it was OK to ignore a minister breaking his own public health rules and cheating on his wife.

Thanks for telling me so I know others are experiencing the same with services that are supposed to help us.
I think the services think as many people on the spectrum are quiet, they can use us for their own gains.
I think some of the small services who spend lots of time trying to get lottery grants to pay their salary, are aiming to be like the big charities where their managing directors are rich.

I think they purposely had the same men at the Board for years as the only autistic people there, as I know one of them couldn't care about it and doesn't have many opinions about it, as was diagnosed for most of his life and had lots of support. Yet he's still the only one the services tell about various meetings to talk about the needs of people on the spectrum.

While many women aren't diagnosed until later in life, after a lifetime of difficulties and still don't have enough support after being diagnosed as an adult. The fact women are often diagnosed later is a well known fact, but those people running the Board who are supposed to represent people on the spectrum couldn't even be bothered to ask any women to attend.

As for the politicians, they do things right in front of our faces and nobody seems to care, so maybe we get what we deserve.
Most of the anti EU Tories were sacked from previous governments for misconduct, including the PM Boris Johnson, and then he moved his girlfriend into 10 Downing Street while still being married to his wife, he was unfaithful to with another woman. Same with Nigel Farage. He was paying his foreign wife on tax payers expenses and hiding money in foreign tax havens, and people thought he wanted to leave the EU for good of most British people. Then he resigned as soon as he got people to vote to leave the EU, to leave us out the EU with Tories in power, who will use leaving as an excuse to turn us more into a slave to the USA/international bankers/war machine.

The media as are much to blame. When British people were shot in Tunisia and blown up in Manchester by extremists from Libya, when has the media reminded people of when the secret service whistle blower David Shayler told about Thatcher going along with the USA funding Al Qaeda in Libya against Gaddafi?
Michael Gove said to Guardian newspaper Education, that Labour were liars for saying Tories would get rid of Education Maintenance Allowance if they won the election, and then they did get rid of EMA, but even the Guardian now treat Gove as a trusted politician.

I think sometimes you might get lucky and find a service provider who actually tries to provide a service. There's usually no harm in testing the water, apart from a significant risk of disappointment and wasted time. It's hard for autistic people who tend to hate dishonesty. I remember a time when I actually thought anybody homeless or unemployed only had to pop into the job centre or ask the city council and they'd look after them. And I went for years thinking that if I spotted any foul play, all I'd have to do was to report it and somebody up there would be shocked and sort it all out.

They've recently found a new trick - right-wing populism. Talk like an uneducated slob and they'll think "at last, somebody just like us who is rooting for ordinary folks." They don't seem to notice the size of his wallet. Follow the money and things usually become clearer.

Yes you're quite right. It upsets us more because we dislike dishonesty. Yes, now and again there's actually a service who want to put in the effort, so worth looking around. I think my local council are known for being heartless towards the desperate and destitute. I was nearly homeless once and they wouldn't even help with emergency homeless accommodation, as I had moved into the area with my husband in the military so didn't have local connections, but had moved away too long from where I originally came from to have local connections there too.
The things I had to go through when being taken advantage of as a vulnerable and desperate undiagnosed woman and having little help is probably another reason why I'm angry about useless services.

I call right wing populists Sun readers. They think they're right wing without realising true right wing fascism is like Communism anyway. All the men I know like that who go around calling everybody lefties as an insult, often have children with many women they expect everybody else to pay for, want social housing, good public services and cheer on the National Health Service. Not realising the NHS is a lefty idea. They just heard some Americans online using the term lefty as an insult towards multiculturalism, when capitalists like British Tories and the USA are more multicultural than any lefty country with free university and a national health service.

Many neurotypicals can't seem to see reality, and think everything is the exact theories of an academic than how they really are. They seem easily dumbed down by the media constantly forcing talentless celebs in their faces, not seeing those talentless celebs are in fact less talented, useful or stylish than most other people.

Last edited by PAnderson on 28 Jun 2021, 4:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I might have abused the proper definition of the term "populist," but I meant the leaders rather than the Sun readers who I see more as the victims of populism. To me, the Sun itself is a populist, a rich man (Murdoch) talking through his paper in a vulgar way that uneducated people can relate to. Of course he's as much an elitist as anybody else who gets a say in the running of the country. This probably isn't the best explanation there is, but hopefully it'll be helpful:
https://theconversation.com/what-actual ... ion-109874

I would be more surprised if you thought they were not corrupt. The incompetent and dishonest prefer jobs where the results are hard to measure or even expect. In school, they learn to cheat and help each other, and that continues right into their professional lives. The only helpful counsellor around here got micro-managed into quitting, but she really appreciated my remark that she had only been paid to keep me from suicide, and that any happiness I gained was from her volunteering to do more.

Yes that's true. Good points, thank you.

Yes, I often think that. How people repeat what's in the Sun, when it's just taking the mickey out of them, using dumb language so the uneducated will relate to it and vote for what's worse for them.
Especially when they think what they repeat is nationalist, when Murdoch doesn't even have a British passport. He's trying to brainwash the simple into wanting to keep the British economy closely linked with USA banks, encouraging people live in greed and debt.

Strange how Scotland seem to have a lot more sense and vote for politicians who do what's best for most people and society, like the rest of north Europe. As much as I don't want the UK to split, I was thinking that maybe the only way those English Sun readers will wake up, is if Scotland become a separate nation in the EU and/or like the rest of north Europe and Scandinavia, where people aren't encouraged to live in greed and debt, or buy up lots of houses to rent out to the poor at high prices. Then again, I think it will take a lot to wake them up, as devolution has allowed Scotland to vote against what England voted for, so Scottish people have things like free prescriptions and university, while English students are £50,000 in debt. Then those English Sun reader types follow orders and act angry because Scotland have more sense about the politicians they vote for, as if they think they can tell Scotland to be idiots like them.
Maybe then also the Tory donators who live in tax havens and other international bankers won't see a split up UK as much use to use for the war machines, and they will go and use another country. Although that's hoping a lot, as London is run by the bankers.

Yes Scotland does seem a tad more sensible. The majority of Scots voted against Boris and Brexit. I can never decide whether I want Scotland to break away from the UK or not. I'd like it in a sense because it would be one in the eye for the Tories' ideology, and they'd have to take the St. Andrew cross off the magic cloth, which would break their hearts, the Scots would no longer have to tolerate any interference in their politics by a government they didn't vote for (I was proud to see how direct action stopped the UK Home Office van from deporting those immigrants, but legally speaking Scotland was required to just let the deportation go ahead). On the other hand, if the UK loses all those Tory-hating Scots voters, then the UK will have an even harder time kicking Boris out at the next general election.

And it's debatable whether a shift to the (so-called) left would reduce the corruption. Labour city councils are often pretty sleazy and dishonest themselves. And the most left-wing government - led by Harold Wilson in the 1960s - wasn't particularly sincere and didn't really help anything.

True, but we can't blame Scotland for England being full of Sun/Express reading idiots, and need to take responsibility for ourselves. I expect Scotland will vote to be independent as fed up with waiting for us to wake up, but they're lucky that at least devolution has prevented Scottish students being £50,000 in debt.

While there's so much media we talked about, where rich Americans own Tory propaganda tabloids, some people get angry if anybody else has another opinion.
I made two similar comments on a Sun youtube video, and was angrily told that I'm repeating myself, as if only the media barons are allowed to say their opinions to a mass audience, and the rest of us should hardly be heard. Wouldn't surprise me if the person who said that was part of the newspaper, as they don't spend billions on buying up the media, for ordinary people to get their point across.

Well anyway, as long as we keep speaking up against corrupt service providers and brainwashing media, there's some hope we're not all dumbed down sheep, so thanks for making me realise there are also others who question things.

Yes this type of thing goes on frequently with autism services. People donate money "for autism" but then if you try to track down where the money actually goes to help real people it gets foggy.

And think about how autistic children fit into this. The insurance companies of their parents usually pay for THEIR services. So if there are no services happening for adults and the services for kids are already paid for, where does the extra money from grants and donations go?

Hmm...

Yes it's not really fair on Scotland to inflict Tory governments on them just to dilute the power of the Tories over England. But it's Scotland's decision, I just note the benefits and risks that my own country would face. What's really unfair is that they can't even legally have a referendum without London's say-so. There was a similar problem in Spain where they held a referendum anyway, and Spain sent the troops in to stop it. It seems to give the real game away when they have to use force to hang onto a region that wants to split.

It's often hard to speak out against a corrupt venture on their own page. About as popular as criticising Trump at one if his rallies. But I think a lot of people know there's something rotten in government and the media. I never seem to get contradicted when I point it out, but maybe that's because the circles I move in are ones that tend to agree about these things. And of course then all I'm doing is preaching to converted. I've seen right-leaning (relative to me) groups on social media talking complete rubbish about immigrants, the benefits system, etc., and it wouldn't be hard to present information there that challenged their beliefs, but I don't bother because I think they'd just dislike me for it and cling on to what they're comfortable with. I find it very hard to resist doing it though.

Yes you're right. Who does Boris think he is telling Scotland when they can have another referendum? The fact more Scottish people voted to stay in the EU should be enough reason.

Talking about people who post online but don't know what they're talking about, always make me think of the Sun readers again lol. The media do a good job at creating those types, trying to make us like the USA. A large dumbed down population talking nonsense, in debt buying rubbish and caring what talentless celebs do.

It's as if those people can't see reality, as they seem to think left wing governments just allow in unlimited immigration, but in reality I went on a coach trip to France when Tories were in power and my passport wasn't checked once. Despite there being a lot of IRA terrorism. I went on the same trip a few years after Labour came into power, and a whole new immigration and processing building had been built, which took a while to get through after the coach was checked for stowaways.
The latest anti EU Tory government is the most multicultural one ever. An Indian running the economy, a Pakistani home secretary, USA born PM whose family changed their last name to Johnson to sound British.

Also, why do those types think leaving the EU has anything to do with non European immigration or asylum? I've seriously heard the Sun/Express reader types say they wanted to leave the EU as wanted less Muslims here from Pakistan or asylum seekers. As if they don't know Europeans are nearly all Christian culture or even the original Pagan beliefs, and the reason we have many people from Pakistan is because of the Commonwealth, some of them seem to prefer.
In reality, people obeying Tory propaganda tabloids to go along with any foreign policy so the rest if the world hate us and to cause more asylum seekers, is going to cause more non white Christian immigration than the EU. Although suppose we would only get the desperate Europeans here from the poorest countries, as most other north European countries have better public services, pensions and don't get £50,000 in debt to go to university.

Also the men who listen to ultra religious Americans online who just seem to follow the Old Testament while ignoring most of what Jesus said, think respecting women and women being in government is some new lefty thing, when before the Old Testament came to Europe, the original Pagan culture held the feminine qualities as important.

Let me guess ... is it somewhere in or near ... Wittshire?

Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire in South West England, created in 2009.  It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council and the four district councils of Kennet, North Wiltshire, Salisbury, and West Wiltshire, all of which were created in 1974 and abolished in 2009.

This is very true. I used to do low level work in group homes for physically disabled people, and I also found that of the people who work at any level (from grunt workers all the way up to the psychiatrists and beaurocrats) of social services of any kind:

* Perhaps 1/3 of them are sociopathic, sadistic, or have some kind of personality disorder
* A few percent of them are actually decent kind people who are working really hard to do good work
* And the rest just do the minimum they can to keep their job and will never rock the boat even if, for example, a client is in danger

God help us and any when we are vulnerable or in any way dependent on this system of "service".