Assisted Living

I suffer from an illness called M.E.
There is a lot of talk about 'assisted suicide' in the press and media at the moment. There is a high suicide rate amongst members of the ME community, but it is not 'assisted suicide' that we, as a community, are actively seeking, it is 'assisted living'. We just want to be able to lead a decent life. Until the government allows us to receive proper assistance with our living so that we can lead lives without fear, isolation, torment or despair, then how can we possibly encourage assisted suicide? It's not that I'm against an individual's right to take control of their own lives or deaths. But if we are not allowed control over our own lives in the first place because it is impossible to get the assistance that we need to live, then death seems like the only way out when there should be alternative options that involve living a decent quality of life.

Human Rights Act

Well there we go, good old Jack Straw...
...Just as ordinary members of the public (as opposed to career criminals) are beginning to realise that the Human Rights Act applies to all of us equally, and gives us all equal protection in law from an over-bearing and over-reaching government, and also from other government institutions and government provided services, and it allows us to challenge new laws which have been brought about in haste and without due thought....
...Just as people are beginning to realise that we can use the Human Rights Act to protect ourselves...
...Just as the tired arguments against having protection for the individual laid down in the law are beginning to die down...
then along comes Jack Straw, capitulating to the backwards looking, status-quo protecting, elite, rich owners and editors of the Daily Mail, and tells us all that it's a criminal's charter after all...

And then all the old tired arguments against people deserving protection from big government rear up again, and all the people who would have us without protection get brought onto the news to tell us what a terrible Act it is.

You'll only ever hear the rich and the elite arguing against protection for the ordinary person.
The rich can protect themselves and they don't get persecuted and hounded by government anyway... they control the government.

I really think that this Labour Government has finally lost all connection with the base that they represent. And I'm not just talking about their working class base, I'm talking about all the people who voted for them last time.

The exhausted government's collective mind is clouded by the persistent lobbying of vested interests and its own fear of losing the next election. They are too close to the rich elite... to the people who own the country.

I don't expect too much from my government these days...
well, I've given up hoping for real change anyway...
But what i would like is fair taxes, a fair, sustainable and real democracy, protection for the individual, and equal rights for all in the eyes of the law.

Isn't it strange how when a Torie MP gets his offices raided, then there's an almighty fuss and uproar... but where are those Torie MP's when the police carry out illegal stop and searches on ordinary members of the public everyday?

Let me tell you how my experience of a typical police stop and search encounter goes...
It goes like this:
A number of police constables pile out of a van onto the street in front of you...
Police: "right, where are you going, what are you doing?"
Me: "erm, I'm sorry, what do you mean?"
Police: "just tell us where are you going, what are you doing?"
Me: "well, I'm walking along the street"
Police: "what are you doing in this area?"
Me: "well, i live here... i live just round the corner"
Police: "what have you got in your pockets?"
Me: "erm, look, how can i help you?"
Police: "have you got anything on you that you shouldn't have?"
Me: "no... look, really, how can i help you?"

and so it goes, on until they decide to carry out a forced search on me, without following the legal procedures for a stop and search. To make a legal forced search, the police must have reasonable suspicion that you have carried out a specific crime and they must tel l you the reasons... it can't just be a case of them not liking the look of you!

When i was younger, in my early twenties, this was a typical encounter with the police...
they always acted illegally, and they seemed to have no idea that their duty was to uphold the law, not to break it.
They were the biggest thugs and law-breakers that i ever had contact with in my daily life.
I mean my friends and associates weren't angels, but they were not thug-like and they did not go around carrying random acts of illegal activities on innocent passers-by.

Apparently i looked like a drug user because i was 'gaunt', what ever that means... i got so fed up with the treatment that i ended up asking for the search reports and made an occasional ineffective complaint to the local police station.

These encounters happened when i was living in Central London, just walking around.. it wasn't when i was on a protest or any other unusual activity... just walking.
My mother asked me why it was me who was always getting stopped... as if it was my fault... well, it's not my fault i looked 'gaunt'!
Then when my mother got searched at customs once, she soon changed her tune! Suddenly it was all very ridiculous and unjustified!

Anyway, i am white and educated, so i can only imagine the hostility that black individuals who live in deprived neighbourhoods have to put up with daily.

The trouble is that on these encounters, the trust in the police is diminished each time, so that nobody wants to cooperate with them anymore.
I still resent a police uniform when i see one, even though i have now seen another side to the police and worked with them when i was working in the NHS.

It seems to me that the police have ceased to act for the community. They are an extension of the government's will. They appear not to be acting to protect the individual or the community, but they appear to be just trying to achieve targets and to carry out the government's will.

How loudly do you here the Conservative Party complaining about the illegal stop and searches that happen in our streets every day? When an uneducated person is stopped and searched, they do not have the means and the power to kick up such a fuss as the Conservatives did when one of their number got raided. So where are their protestations on these occasions?

Remember the chap who was arrested under anti-terror legislation when he dared to heckle at the labour party conference? Well, this is exactly what I'm getting at... they used use anti-terror legislation for heckling!!!
Where is the protection for the individual against the disproportionate actions of the police and the government? The problem is getting worse.. our liberties are being slowly but surely chipped away by an over-powerful executive.

At the time of that labour party conference, the whole of Brighton was shut down.
There was a road block into Brighton where the police could pull you over at any time just because you were black or they didn't like the look of you.

The whole of Brighton was declared a special zone by the chief constable which meant that anyone could be stopped and searched at any time and no reason was needed.

I resented this because i live here... i live here everyday... it is my community...
and just because the government demanded it, hundreds of police with automatic weapons were parachuted in to hassle the locals and disrupt our daily lives.

I know that the government needs protection, but when the police abuse and misuse their powers and no longer protect the individual or the community, then they will lose the respect of the general public.

We need Human rights legislation to protect our whole society, and to protect the police and the government from themselves. The rich elite are never interested in the rights of individuals, until suddenly one of their own gets his home and office searched.
Suddenly it is a big deal and the police need a search warrant to enter his premises.

Suddenly they are complaining of big government and an over-bearing executive. Conservative party, welcome to the real world. Suddenly individual rights are ever-so necessary. Well, for MP's they are anyway, but maybe their constituents don't really need or deserve them!

Rights and Responsibilities

I suffer from ME and i am in touch with a other people who have ME through online support groups. The illness has had various publicity over the years, but basically it leaves a person with varying degrees of limited abilities. Some people with ME are bed bound, others are house bound and others have very limited lives. Some go on to make a partial recovery and can lead active but restricted lives. ME is a neurological illness and the symptoms feel a bit like having flu and your worst ever hang-over at the same time. As you can imagine, to feel like that all the time can be totally devastating. And many sufferers are left isolated and unable to lead any decent quality of life because of the persistent symptoms. The symptoms include constant exhaustion, tiredness and fatigue, muscle pain, changes in body temperature, severe memory problems, concentration problems and a shutting down of the brain and body to the point where we have very restricted activities. If you think of what you are like with a bad dose of flu, not a cold, when you can't get out of bed due to weakness, exhaustion, fever and sickness, well then that's just about what it feels like to have severe ME. I, and the people i am in touch with, are getting a bit tired of all of this talk by the government, the political parties, and the media at the moment. They talk about 'benefit scroungers', 'malingerers', people 'languishing on benefits', a 'something for nothing society', and 'rights and responsibilities'. Well, please let me tell you what it's like to be a real-life 'benefit scrounger'. Not a media invented one. I can get out of my house a maximum of once a day for a short walk, and sometimes not even that. I have to use these excursions to do essential chores such as buying my groceries and going to the bank and attending medical appointments etc. I have almost no social life whatsoever and have become very isolated. I receive incapacity benefit as my only source of income. I do not qualify for help with prescriptions, and i have to pay for dentist appointments and opticians etc. So out of my pitiful benefits has to come prescription charges , transport costs, dental costs, bills, food, clothes etc. I have a regular medical assessment carried out by a government employee in order to qualify for incapacity benefit. Instead of asking me about my illness, my life and my abilities, and how it would affect me to work, and how i could work. They ask me some specific questions relating to how many meters i can walk and how long i can stand. On the answers that i give, they judge me fit or unfit to work. The questions are not relevant for an illness like ME because it has such complex symptoms, and a person's abilities can vary daily and be unpredictable. An overall picture of a person's life would be a more appropriate way to assess us, but they stick to their bureaucratic rules and form filling. At the assessment the assessor throws a constant stream of questions at us, trying to get us to say something that will disqualify us from receiving benefits.It is easily done because they are looking for the smallest thing that means they can put a big cross by your name. The process is extremely intimidating and stressful for such vulnerable to have to endure, and often they are only too happy to withdraw the benefits at a moments notice because of some technicality in the answers which you give. So the decision often ends up going to an appeal, which takes 6 months of exhausting form filling and ending in a frightening tribunal in a court-like setting. People with ME are taken to the edge of their tolerance with a soul destroying faceless and bureaucratic process like this. You are made to feel like a 'benefit scrounger' and a nuisance and a 'malingerer' just by the very process itself. But we honestly and genuinely need the benefits to help us through such an awful illness. All of us had extremely productive lives before we were struck down with the illness. It's not like we have spent a whole life on the dole, spending our money on beer, as the media would have you believe. On top of this devastation caused to us by the benefits bureaucracy, we receive no help from the NHS for treatment for the ME. Treatment for ME is almost non-existent, and there is not enough money given to the NHS ME specialist services. I am still waiting to see a specialist after 5 years, and i have never received a single piece of support, information or treatment from the NHS or the government. No money is invested into bio-medical research into the causes and possible treatments for ME. At the moment there is zero government investment into bio-medical research. We campaign for it, but we get nowhere. We get no help for transport costs.We get no help from social services. We get no help with anything. We are left isolated and alone, struggling against bureaucracy and a lack of investment. Rights and responsibilities? Where are our rights for fair treatment and the government's responsibilities to help the most vulnerable in society? Well, as i said earlier, they are talking about 'benefit scroungers', 'malingerers', people 'languishing on benefits', a 'something for nothing society', and 'rights and responsibilities'. But it only ever seems to apply to those at the bottom of the social ladder... the scapegoats... the people on benefits. The people without a voice or a fair say in our society. These 'responsibilities' never applies to the rich as we have seen from the recent banking disasters. The bankers who gambled with billions of pounds of our own savings on risky investments to get rich quick, almost brought the country to its knees. What about the politicians who get £100,000 expense accounts to furnish their second homes with plasma TVs? what about the mega-rich tax dodgers who hide their money in overseas accounts, but still live in the UK can make use of our liberal, safe, modern society? what about the £150,000 take home pay of our useless GP's. What about the exploitation of the workers who are paid the minimum wage just about £5 per hour. i hear the tax office is taking it easy on rich tax dodgers who are getting caught owing thousands of pounds. It really is one rule for the rich and another rule for those at the bottom of the pile. Well i say to the politicians, if you don't want a 'something for nothing' culture, then give me some help and I'll give you something back. give me some treatment for my illness, and some support, and then it'll be a 'something for something' culture. At the moment it's more like a 'nothing for something' society from my perspective. I'm receiving next to nothing but I'm expected to get myself better and get off benefits and get a job that I'm too ill for, as if getting a job takes priority over everything else including getting well. So with no NHS support, no social support, no care support, i am expected to get through everyday with this illness, no matter how exhausted i am. Sometimes i can not even stand for long enough to prepare a meal can not stand in the shower, I am too exhausted to go to my local shop for some bread. I can not get out of my house. And now they are getting us all who receive incapacity benefit onto the new ESA (employment and support allowance), and reducing the pitiful amount that we receive by £10 a week from about £10 to £80.... £80 to pay for bills, food, prescriptions, clothes, transport cost, dentists, etc etc etc The list of outgoings seem to be endless. We live in poverty and cannot even afford public transport. well, i for one, am getting sick of this persecution of the poor and vulnerable, and i think it's about time that we invested in this country instead of creaming our wealth off into the pockets of the extremely rich elite. the top 10% (or is it 2%?) own about 50% of the country's wealth and they react very strongly if you suggest that they should perhaps be a bit more generous with their taxes. They pretend that they are the 'wealth generators', but this is ridiculous... it is the workers who generate the wealth. i could easily generate millions if i had millions to invest in the first place, because my father happen to the Count of Westminster or whoever. we have been sucking the blood out of our society for years now, and it's about time we invested in people, in infrastructure, in our children, in the disadvantaged, in housing, in transport, in science, in green energy and in our towns and communities. When is this country going to wake up from it's deep sleep and see the light? And if you want a change and think about voting for the Conservative Party, then please understand what they stand for... the represent the rich, the elite...they pretend that they care and that they are on your side, but they want to decrease investment to put it in the pockets of the rich... that's what they stand for ... that's their ideology... that's what they've always stood for... it's a straightforward belief that every person should stand on their own without any government intervention or investment in society. Remember what they did to schools and the NHS in the eighties? They all but destroyed them. If we're talking about rights and responsibilities, where's the government's responsibility in supporting and treating us and investing in research? i have a massive responsibility to get myself through each day and support myself. So please don't let me hear anymore of this cynical society destroying rubbish which is encouraged and perpetuated by the likes of the Daily Mail, whose editors and owners are filthy rich... we are sick of hearing it... we are sick of our treatment... we are sick of the rich stealing our money... we are sick of the government not living up to it's responsibilities and giving us nothing when we've spent our lives giving plenty to the society we live in.