Congratulations! Disability has just become a “lifestyle choice”.

We saw it coming, with the government’s aggressive briefing on “benefits as a lifestyle”, but with the Department for Work and Pensions today releasing figures showing that 80,000 people claim Incapacity Benefit because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol, or obese, it is now official – we have “good disability” and “bad disability”. (Hey, that sounds familiar!)

Gay rights campaigners, particularly those following gay rights issues in the US, will be familiar with the rhetoric. The implication is that if being gay – or having an addiction – is a choice that you made, that should not be the state’s business and you do not deserve any support, regardless of whether it’s Incapacity Benefit or equal marriage rights. And no, Chris Grayling hasn’t come out and said in as many words that addiction or obesity is a choice, but the implication is very much there. Why else single out those groups and release the numbers, if not for the rabid coverage you’ll get from the Telegraph and the Mail?

Let’s take this logic a little further then. Who’s next on the DWP’s hitlist? Cervical cancer sufferers? It’s linked to HPV which is sexually transmitted – perhaps they should have remained pure and virginal. People with mental health conditions? After all, if the expectation is that you bootstrap yourself out of addiction or obesity (“Just pull yourself together!”), why not out of depression? Or perhaps the DWP’s approach will spill over into Andrew Lansley’s territory – maybe next we’ll classify treatment for addictions in the same category as cosmetic surgery. It’s a lifestyle choice, isn’t it?

Nevermind the fact that scientists are beginning to hunt around for other causes of our obesity epidemic than the simple “moral failure” story we keep being fed, or the biology of addiction – 40-60% of what makes us susceptible to addiction are our genes.

It’s a lifestyle choice. So, do you have a good disability or a bad disability? Ultimately, though, this divide and conquer approach only works if we let ourselves be divided. I for one don’t buy the rhetoric. Do you?