Frances Ryan
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Articles by Frances Ryan
The Experiment review – easily the most disturbing thing on TV
I have never had to pause a programme halfway through before to catch my breath. That is until The Experiment – Channel 4’s highly controversial social exercise designed to find out “how susceptible the British public are” to Nazi ideology about disabled people. This is a show so disturbing, timely and surreal that within 90 seconds of viewing it alone, I am looking around for confirmation from an empty room that any of this is happening. We start with a clip of Hitler.
The right's scrounger rhetoric dominates the benefits debate. Labour must fight back – and win
Back in 2009, months before the coalition government unleashed sweeping austerity, the then Conservative backbencher Iain Duncan Smith produced a study that would go on to lay the foundations for the rollout of universal credit. Now, nearly two decades later, Duncan Smith and his thinktank, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), has published State of Dependency: a landmark report promising to expose “the full scale of Britain's worklessness crisis”.
When I was ill, some friends disappeared – here’s what I’d like to tell them
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When I was ill, some friends disappeared – here’s what I’d like to tell them
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David Tennant and Siobhan Finneran are stellar in this horrifying and exceptional TV drama
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I'm not buying into the ‘Keminaissance'. If the Tories lowered the bar any further, they'd be Reform UK
Kemi Badenoch is considering doing her job. With her second Conservative party conference as leader looming on Sunday, and her rival Nigel Farage finally losing some ground, the provocateur with a reputation for dodging media rounds and being ill-prepared for briefs has seemingly cured her camera shyness.
Martin & Roman's Irish road trip: the choice of presenters for this travelogue is utterly baffling
If you're someone who believes the celebrity travelogue genre has been pushed too far, Martin & Roman's Irish Road Trip (Monday, 8pm, Channel 4) is here to push you to the edge. Then continue pushing until you're falling off a cliff into the Irish Sea. It is unclear why exactly the producers chose Martin Kemp and his son, Roman, to take viewers on a tour of Ireland. Which to be fair, the two men address in the first three minutes.
Disabled people with lifelong conditions facing ‘unnecessary' PIP reassessments
Disabled people with lifelong conditions are repeatedly being put through “pointless” benefit reassessments, contrary to official guidance, new analysis suggests. A study by the anti-poverty charity Z2K has found that hundreds of thousands of disabled people are going through “unnecessary” personal independence payment (Pip) reviews, “wasting” public money and “significantly harming” the mental and physical health of claimants.
Dear England: James Graham's rousing, joyful football drama will make you cry and shout at the TV
To watch Dear England (Sunday, 9pm, BBC One) – the BBC's stellar adaptation of James Graham's Olivier award-winning play – you must first understand the incomparable damage to the national psyche that arose from Gareth Southgate missing a penalty in the Euro 96 semi-final. For those born outside England or too young to remember, imagine the apocalypse mixed with the death of your childhood pet and you're just about halfway there.
‘A cruel penalty': Disabled people face lower benefit payments if conditions not deemed lifelong
Hundreds of thousands of severely ill and disabled people making new claims will have their benefits cut if the government assesses that their condition might improve, charities have said. In April, the health element of universal credit – an extra payment for people assessed as too unwell to work or prepare for work – will be halved to £50 a week and frozen for new claimants unless their condition is found to be terminal or severe and lifelong with no prospect of improvement.
Labour's Send reforms get this right: disabled children in mainstream schools is transformative for everyone
When I was 11, a woman at the hospital asked me what school I was starting in September. I still remember her surprise when I told her I would be going to the local girls grammar, as the hoist pulled my wet limbs out of the physio pool. I was a child but already familiar with those few seconds: the time between a person seeing my wheelchair and the flash across their face as they tried to recalibrate their expectations.
is it still ethical to use it?
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Finding Father Christmas review – Lenny Rush and James Buckley's chemistry is just wonderful
In an era in which it is now an annual tradition for the US streaming giants to put out bland paint-by-algorithm holiday movies, there is something rather satisfying about the oddball British Christmas stand-alone special. The ingredients tend to be as follows: appearances by the year's favourite comic actors; niche cultural references, with or without cameos; a wittily biting but heartwarming script that preferably leaves the viewer weeping into their Baileys.
this is how the Tories dehumanise migrants and those in need
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we can’t get enough of Kristen Bell and Adam Brody’s heartstopping treat of a show
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Rylan and Prof Alice’s look at one of history’s most shameful periods is unfailingly moving
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Rylan and Prof Alice’s look at one of history’s most shameful periods is unfailingly moving
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like Britain seeing an old flame and remembering why we blocked their number
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Starmer should have conference in his hands – instead, power is slipping through his fingers
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Starmer should have conference in his hands – instead, power is slipping through his fingers
Keir Starmer in Downing Street, London, 21 September 2025. Photograph: Lauren Hurley/No 10 Downing Street A little over a year since Labour took office in a landslide and, with the Conservatives flatlining, by any measure, Keir Starmer should be riding into next week’s party conference as, if not quite a conquering hero, a leader in his prime. Instead, he is mired in tanking poll ratings, three scandalous exits and plots by his own MPs to oust him.
Is it wrong to throw a birthday party for my dog?
Pets win parties … Photograph: Posed by model; South_agency/Getty Images/iStockphoto I’ve been telling Mabel she’ll be four soon for about a month. I bought her present similarly early, though I am unsure whether to wrap it. When the Amazon guy delivers a gift from my sister on the day, he wishes Mabel “happy birthday” through the gate. As I sing the opening bars, the build-up has clearly worked: she jumps up with excitement and licks my knees.
Young people want to ‘go private’ – I’m a lifelong supporter of the NHS, but I can see why
Medical staff prepare a hospital bed on a private ward. Photograph: Curtseyes/Alamy It is 10.25am on a Friday and I am Googling “online pharmacies”. I have a mild infection and I weigh up whether talking to an AI doctor will be more efficient than queueing at my GP surgery before the weekend. After a seven-minute multiple-choice questionnaire, I am deemed eligible for antibiotics: a single sachet is £43.
have we learned a single thing from Covid?
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This ruthless pursuit of disabled people has damaged Labour – no matter what happens next
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This ruthless pursuit of disabled people has damaged Labour – no matter what happens next
One year ago, as cheering supporters waved union jacks to celebrate Labour’s election landslide, Keir Starmer walked into Downing Street with a promise: the country had voted “for change. For national renewal. And a return of politics to public service.” On Tuesday, his government will ask parliament to remove benefits from more than 1 million disabled and sick people. You will have already heard much about the Westminster drama of the vote.
The Disabled Girl's Guide to Life: A handbook and manifesto from the acclaimed journalist : Ryan, Frances: Amazon.co.uk: Books
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Who Wants Normal? by Frances Ryan
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Grant Mitchell’s genius EastEnders comeback
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Grant Mitchell’s genius EastEnders comeback
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Meet the ‘sickfluencers’ of TikTok – and don’t be fooled by the outrage obscuring the real scandal
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Disabled Palestinians are facing horrors piled upon horrors. I think of their suffering every day
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A summer defined by men killing women and girls. This can’t go on
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all are there at a Midlands baby bank after 14 years of Tory rule
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all are there at a Midlands baby bank after 14 years of Tory rule
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Smacking a child is just an act of violence. Why do England and Northern Ireland still allow it?
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Sunak on the sofa and Starmer in soft focus: prepare for a PR war pretending to be an election
I don’t wish to alarm anyone, but the signs suggest that general election season is upon us. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is interviewed in the March edition of British Vogue alongside a photoshoot with his wife, Victoria. On Monday, Rishi Sunak took part in the People’s Forum: a Q&A on GB News that was a mix of party political broadcast and angry conspiracy theory. It follows his interview with Piers Morgan last week for TalkTV and an appearance on the This Morning sofa.
Here’s the moral of the victorious campaign to stop disabled people being warehoused: resistance is not futile
Following the news in Britain feels increasingly like living the Smiths’ lyric, “Good times for a change”. The onslaught of cost-cutting, short-termist, outright nasty public policy can sometimes make it hard to believe any progress is possible. Well, here’s some good news. Last month, I reported on cash-strapped Bristol city council’s proposal to move disabled people into residential care if it was deemed “best value” compared with providing support in their own homes.
a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people. What kind of nation is Britain becoming?
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Weelchair Barbie is like looking in the mirror, this is progress
By Frances Ryan / The Guardian It is mid-November and I am browsing Christmas presents online for my niece. I scroll through a sea of dolls, small bricks and future landfill until I notice her: Wheelchair Barbie. She is blonde, her long glossy hair draped down her back. Her accessories include a watch, movable joints and a bright pink ramp. She is wearing a rainbow-colored playsuit. It is like looking in a mirror. Growing up in the 1990s as a disabled child, I had no doll that looked like me.
Hold your nerve on Lords reform, Keir Starmer, or we’ll never see the back of Boris Johnson’s cronies
Bad news for fans of unelected legislatures: Labour is considering abolishing hereditary peers. According to the Sunday Times, Keir Starmer is drawing up plans that could see the immediate removal of hereditary peers if the party is elected, as part of a package of “interim” reforms to modernise and reduce the size of the House of Lords.
By telling us so little about its policy plans, Labour tells us all we need to know
When Labour activists, MPs and unions meet at its “national policy forum” in Nottingham this month, it will be a novelty to hear what the party is for. The past six weeks have seen the leadership distance itself from key policies. It has already ruled out universal childcare for young children and scaled back plans to borrow £28bn a year to invest in green jobs and industry. Keir Starmer has touted dropping a promise to reinstate the Department for International Development.
Jeremy Hunt will boast about benefit hikes, but his party knows it’s still not enough to live on
Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA When benefits rise in line with soaring inflation on Thursday, expect a sea of self-congratulation. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, and his fellow ministers will pretend they wanted to boost benefits all along, while rightwing cheerleaders in the press will talk of Britain’s “generous” welfare state. The reality, though, is altogether different: millions of people who rely on the social safety net still won’t be able to afford to eat, stay warm, or clean.
Booster jabs are vital - why is it so difficult for clinically vulnerable people to access them?
Photograph: Jacob King/PA If Boris Johnson is a betting man then he is putting it all on boosters. As the Omicron variant spreads throughout the UK, and early data shows three doses of the jabs are needed for protection, Johnson has announced a speed-up of the booster programme. All over-18s are eligible from Monday, with the aim of rolling out 1m booster jabs a day through GPs and even the army. It’s a bold and necessary move but it would be naive to suggest it will be straightforward.
Suffering has become normalised in Britain. We can do better than this
Dehumanisation of marginalised groups is now part of political discourse, but there are ways to restore compassion to society Look at British politics in recent years and one thing stands out: an ever-dwindling supply of compassion. Migrating people who are left to drown as ministers send in patrol boats. Disabled people going hungry as social security is targeted. More divisiveness, via online abuse and anti-immigration sentiment, provoked by Brexit.
The perfect books to mark Disability Pride Month
Features July is Disability Pride Month, so we've gathered together the best books to learn, engage with and understand all things disability. Lydia Wilkins 22 July 2021 Image: Ryan MacEachern/Penguin July is Disability Pride Month, a chance to celebrate all things disability, which equates to around a quarter of the UK’s population.
we want equality
Text By Frances Ryan Photography © courtesy of People's History Museum To mark 25 years this month since the DDA came into effect, writer Frances Ryan argues that it's time to stop seeing disabled people as weak and to defend their basic rights.
Crippled : Austerity and the Demonization of Disabled People
In austerity Britain, disabled people have been recast as worthless scroungers. From social care to the benefits system, politicians and the media alike have made the case that Britain's 12 million disabled people are nothing but a drain on the public purse. In Crippled, journalist and campaigner Frances Ryan exposes the disturbing reality, telling the stories of those most affected by this devastating regime.
I conquered my fear of public speaking - and you can too
I wonder if anyone actually likes the sound of their own voice. Town criers, perhaps. Toby Young. The rest of us have, at least at some point in our lives, likely been a member of what I call the sweaty-hands club: those who would sell their first born if it got us out of a presentation, or have palpitations at the mere thought of getting up on stage. A study by Chapman University in 2014 found that one in four people admit to being frightened of speaking in public.
Fighting for Our Social Fabric
David Bevan’s body was found slumped in a JobCentre chair. The 62 year old, who had diabetes, was waiting for an appointment to discuss his Jobseeker’s Allowance in South Wales when he had a suspected heart attack this month. Witnesses said he was heard to give out what sounded like a loud snore before his last breath. When news of Bevan‘s death broke, it went viral, in part because of rumours that he was only at the JobCentre because he’d been found ‘fit for work’ and forced to sign on.
Verso
The New Old World looks at the history of the European Union, the core continental countries within it, and the issue of its further expansion into Asia. It opens with a consideration of the origins and outcomes of European integration since the Second World War, and how today's EU has been theorized across a range of contemporary disciplines.
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