Posted here because otherwise a certain mod will moan about phantom viruses
There's a famous story about Stephen King being invited to give a talk at a university. As part of the students tribute to the great writer one of them read a disitation on "Children of the Corn," a rather hokey and very short story about some kids who killed all the grown ups in their town. And are now setting about any oldster foolish enough to enter their town.
The student gave a brilliant and lengthy disertation. Taking in classic literature, the Vietnam war and Watergate. Finding symbolism at every turn,
King said more or less. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was just a hokey story about some kids killing oldies.
There is one great truth about truly great literature. The reader will find more in the book then the author put there.
Which is the case of Kasi Ishigoro's Never Let Me Go. This low key scifi epic set in an England somehow always 1955. Describes a school(Hailsham) where the children are educated by caring "guardians" taught about the arts, literature to be kind and expressive. The twist in the book is these children will never grow up. A darker fate awaits them that their guardians can only prepare them for, certainly not save them from.
Sardonicus doesn't think any one who works in care can read this book and not have an uncomfortable twinge. Doing all you can to help and prepare those you look after to be all they can be in an essentially unfair world. A world ultimately you can't protect them from.
And these days more so than ever. The government has decided that those with disabilitie should work, no more issolation on bnenefits. So people are to be assessed on their ability to work. And those who can must find paying work. Those who can't find work will join work orientation groups. The pyramids were built by people in a similar position.
The problem is no one asssessed the employers ability to employ. And as a final insult it seems Remploy has finally closed. Remploy was a charity that employed people with a wide spectrum of disabilities. It needed generous subsidies and in some respects was something of a ghetto. But atleast unlike most other employers it took people on.
And now in this brave, brave new world people with disabilities are the same as everyone else. Unecumbered by extra benefits, unpatronised by specialist employers. They can join us.
In the end Hailsham closed, the staff sadly like so many people saying they did their best. That model seems to be apt to this anology all to soon.
This is one sided negotiation. And like the staff at Hailsham those of us working in care can watch on and do the best we can to support those we care for. In a hard world we are too complicit in.
Remploy was a noble effort to offer an alternative to an uninterested job market. And now it's gone. Like so many little projects who don't effect the majority with their fears about child benefit and all the other little bribes.
In the end Hailsham closed. It's staff uncertainly thinking that some how they did the right thing and without them things would only get worse. Looking at the ease that these cuts are slipping throug, I understand the sentiment.
you're being bribed!
One of the reasons the UK is going broke is bribery. There is a massive well organised and completely public programme of voter bribery. Involving all major parties.
You, your mum, your dad, potentially even your silver haired nan are part of this, and it is bankrupting our nation. Not only that but it is denying support to the most vulnerable.
These bribes have names like child benefit, winter fuel allowance and Disability Living Allowance.
The problem is they are not means tested. When a person who would be destitute, cold or trapped without them receives them, then they are a benefit. When they are received by somebody who doesn't, then they're a bribe.
The government is rapidly finding that hundreds of thousands may receive incapacity benefit and millions receive job seekers allowance. But the number receiving child benefit or winter fuel allowance stretches into the tens of millions. So the benefits which stop people starving or living on the street are cut back or ever more carefully tested. whilst The bribes that are just handed out once you can prove you have a kid or you're old are not. Of course here and there, there are the occasional family who score a hundred thousand in benefits. But they are a tiny minority against those living on a pound a day per person. It Is now easier for a 60 year old, mobile, employed person to get a freedom pass. than it is for someone who cannot walk more than a few hundred yards.
If you need help with your personal care, which in all likelIhood you want be able to afford,. the welfare pot is so scraped that all you get is two portions of 15 minutes a day. at that point that bribe starts to look a little foolish,
This is silly, this is wasteful and most of all it isinsulting.
It's insulting that our leaders view us as being so venal, we'll vote because we're handed a bribe for being over a certain age or for having kids.
Why not just do away with the pretence? Let your local MP hand out £50 notes on election day?
Because right now the cuts are landing where they hurt the most and can be afforded least. Today the government announced the scrapping of the Social Fund. This was a benefit of last resort. It existed for those with no bank account and no access to credit and only benefits as income. It was a small bridging loan from giro to giro. It was helpful if you had been mugged or your fridge failed. It wasn't expensive nationally. It cost one hundred and seventy eight million pounds. But for that money there's going to be several thousand people with absolutely no where to go and no money in their pockets. People only bribe you, as a away of taking something even more valuable late
