We can be heroes

A recent poll by PR agency Freud's asked 4000 people to choose their biggest heroes from a list of 84 contenders. It produced a very interesting top three.

First came Falklands veteran Simon Weston. Second was Professor Stephen Hawking. Third, Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds.

Other self-declared disabled people who featured in the list were Stephen Fry (25), Katie Piper (43) and David Blunkett (57). But it's the top three which gives most pause for thought. After all, here we are in a climate where, as disabled people we feel we're predominantly perceived or presented in entirely negative ways. The government's own "cheats and scroungers" spin; the "Lying thieving bastards" view common among those charged withworking with disabled people on the Work Programme; disability hate crime apparently on the increase. All are indicators of the low esteem in which society at many levels holds its disabled members.

So can the achievement of these top three, all of them admirable in their own right and way, lead us to any serious conclusion? Or is the poll really little more than a self-serving stunt for its sponsors?

On the face of it, and in comparison with leading politicians of today, we could feel justified in taking heart. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, wielder-in-chief of the benefits axe and a propounder of the "something for nothing society" languished near the bottom. Hisparty leader, Prime Minister David Cameron managed only sixty-eight place two places lower down the list than former PM Tony Blair. Even the sainted Boris, Mayor of London and seen by many as Cameron's natural successor managed only fifty-fifth place.

What's difficult to judge is the motivation of those who placed our three "Heroes" on top of the heroic pile. Each of the 4000 polled would have their own reasons for ranking people as they did. And without seeming to express regret over their collective achievement or belittle their individual efforts, we can perhaps tilt at some tentative and speculative conclusions.

But before doing so, I want to make it clear that I intend no derogation of these three proud representatives of our community. Rather, perhaps we could be forgiven, in view of our own experiences and keeping in mind the general direction in which public opinion currently seems to be running for feeling a little cynical about the motivation of those who put them top of the list.

The tireless charity worker and former soldier, the academic battling not only his condition but also the barriers of physics and the "Plucky little" sports star could all be placed by an unsophisticated public into that box marked "Triumph over adversity". Whereas what they are to us, their fellow disabled people are three individuals who pursue their own goals and go on making their own mark in their chosen field of endeavour.

What it would be unreasonable and unrealistic to expect of them, of their places in the top three, and of the Freud's poll from the society of which they are all part is that this will have any effect on the plight and lives of the general run of disabled people.