tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25972401857554073352024-02-20T11:10:18.679+00:00Collected WalkCollected walk is my top speed, verging on Piaffe some days. This blog is a Collection of Walks through my mind.RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-34068138003469569562014-02-06T03:01:00.001+00:002014-02-06T03:01:48.441+00:00The Big Benefits Row<b>Or, </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Disability Campaigners.</b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.72222px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;">I'd been looking forward to seeing this debate ever since I'd first noticed it in Channel 5's schedule. They have managed, in the past, to produce programmes about the UK's minorities which were neither patronising nor sensationalist – in comparison to the tabloidesque offerings from some other television channels. I've seen a couple of pretty well-balanced debate programmes on Channel 5, too. So, as I said, I'd been looking forward to this debate and had tried but failed to find out how to get a place in the audience.<br /><br />On the night, however, I checked the telly guide, spotted the dread name Katie Hopkins (right-wing, loud-mouthed, poor-hating, ex-Apprentice 'star') and, feeling somewhat under the weather, tired, and in pain, decided to go to bed instead. Now, I rather wish I'd watched it so will hunt it down on catch-up; but having read Sue Marsh's excellent article (see link) I'm rather glad that I couldn't find a way to get tickets. I'm a wheelie, too, and had I managed to get there, the building might have collapsed under the pressure of <b>five entire wheelchairs</b>, as you will understand, gentle reader, should you click on the link and, please, read on:</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9.72222px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></b>
<b><a href="http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-big-benefits-row.html">http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/the-big-benefits-row.html</a></b>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-78588196592101229352012-03-07T07:18:00.000+00:002012-03-07T07:18:52.033+00:00Please follow the link to the original post: Benefit Scrounging Scum: You don't know what you've got til its gone... #NHS<div>Bendy Girl says it better than I can – and Joni Mitchell sings it better than me, too... I mean, I sing it <i>pretty</i> well but, oh, please go and read the linked post. And <b><i>celebrate</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> everything that is just so brilliant about the NHS. Please.</span></b></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/2012/03/you-dont-know-what-youve-got-til-its.html">Benefit Scrounging Scum: You don't know what you've got til its gone... #NHS</a>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-67993477415387527222011-09-28T02:02:00.000+01:002011-09-28T02:02:58.372+01:00Inaccessibility, Speech-to-text, Post-surgery 'fun' and Other Stories<br />
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/116222833568410151476/about"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trey Harris</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">'s </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/116222833568410151476/posts/Npm9MeBhKKg"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eloquent report</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on his recent surgery and the resultant need to use dictation software - in his case, mostly Dragon Dictate - should stand as a wake-up call to anyone who builds such software. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Massive</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> improvements are needed. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are more and more people who need to be able to use </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reliable</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> speech-to-text, speech-to-code and voice-control software; either because of temporary disability - post-surgery or injury - or because of permanent disabilities. We need it to live 21st Century lives, whether that be social interaction on the internet, preparing books or letters or posters or whatever for hobbies, or, indeed, in our working lives. There is a massive market there and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">absolutely anybody could need this tomorrow</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, either short- or long-term. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And there is a massive, mostly untapped, potential market amongst all the people who would </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">love</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to be able to say, "Computer: print me a copy of the letter to Phipps & Co. and put dinner with Jo and her lot in my diary for next Friday and open G+ for me please. New post. Take dictation..." - and have it all happen. Smoothly. There's a Mac Concept film: </span><a href="http://youtu.be/HGYFEI6uLy0"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apple's 1987 Knowledge Navigator Video</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, on the theme of future-computer, where the guy and his computer converse in natural speech. It might have inspired, or been inspired by, Heinlein and/or Arthur C. Clark. </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/116222833568410151476/about"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trey Harris</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> found it for me after I’d tried and failed. But that future should be </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">now </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or hereabout! </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honestly? Full accessibility should be baked-in to every OS - and every browser! - by now, damn it! After all, just as with wide access gates at stations, automatic or button-operated doors at shops, libraries, hospitals, etc., ramps and level entries on buildings, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everybody</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> would use it – even when they're not burdened with prams, buggies, or both hands full!</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, Googlers and Blogger Team, that goes for visual accessibility on every web-page (or site) too. It's not enough to say, oh you can set preferred or minimum text sizes and page-contrast in your browser or system-preferences-pane. Not while every web-site uses a different font-size to start with so you often end up having to over-ride your over-ride. A small control panel with three sizes of 'A's and two or three contrast settings, tucked into the settings cog in the black bar - and repeated in the sign-up process - then remembered as your personal site settings - would do it. Please?</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">P.S. I typed this, rather than dictating it. My speech has reached the slurr-y stage, editing-in punctuation is a drag and, right now, my typing is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">less </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">slurr-y ;-)</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">P.P.S. I originally wrote this as an introduction to a ‘share’ of Trey’s post but </span><a href="https://plus.google.com/114929190273737402078/about"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rowan Thunder</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> suggested I put it up as an individual post. I’m also posting it to my blog.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Links:</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is Trey’s original post, which I’d ask you to read - there are some good hints and tips in the comments on it, too! </span><br /><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/116222833568410151476/posts/Npm9MeBhKKg"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://plus.google.com/u/0/116222833568410151476/posts/Npm9MeBhKKg</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the link to Apple’s ‘Knowledge Navigator’ video:</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://youtu.be/HGYFEI6uLy0">http://youtu.be/HGYFEI6uLy0</a></span></div>
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This is the link to this article on Google+. If you read it there, you'll notice some minor differences:</div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110866754584285378195/posts/TfXixypfUNq">https://plus.google.com/u/0/110866754584285378195/posts/TfXixypfUNq</a></div>
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110866754584285378195/posts/TfXixypfUNq"></a> </div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Note:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov are twentieth-century ‘hard’ Science Fiction writers, all of whom included ‘aware’ computers in at least some of their novels. You can find out more about them here:</span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov</span></a></div>
RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-51908784848742080902011-08-18T05:37:00.005+01:002011-08-18T17:54:36.128+01:00Free Concert for Petition Signature or vice versa...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">ONE International is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping to put kids in school and improving futures. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African activists and policy makers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Their current campaign is this <a href="http://act.one.org/sign/horn_of_africa/">Petition</a>, calling on World Leaders to urgently provide the full funding that the UN has identified as necessary to help people in the Horn of Africa and to keep their promises to deliver the long term solutions which could prevent crises like this happening again.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">So far, ONE has achieved 96% of the goal of 160,000 signatures. I've added mine. Please will you add yours.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Thank you.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">And as a further thank you, I'd like to invite you to watch</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="proflinkWrapper"><span class="proflinkPrefix" style="color: #999999;">+</span><a class="proflink" href="https://plus.google.com/100974258168375166691" oid="100974258168375166691" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Daria Musk</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">'s</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Hangout Concert 3</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">on Saturday night. Daria is a great supporter of ONE International as well as a fine singer/songwriter, given to singing as long as a) there are people to listen and b) her voice holds out - the last Hangout Concert lasted</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Seven-and-a-half hours</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">... So signing the ONE Petition is also a way to pay forward for getting a free concert ;-)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">You'll be able to see this one via embedded youtube.live players either here on G+ or on</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i>shh... the 'f'word...</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">or on youtube itself or at </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a class="ot-anchor" href="http://hangoutparty.com/" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">hangoutparty.com</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">. You'll be able to share the player and/or the links on your own pages or blogs or sites so as to invite your friends along. And, if you're on G+, you could even get into Daria's own Hangout and chat with her between songs!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">I'll post full links on Saturday in the run up to the concert and during it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Lets enjoy some live music together</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><i><b>and</b></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">tip this Petition over it's target. They're only 4% away from it...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://act.one.org/sign/horn_of_africa/">http://act.one.org/sign/horn_of_africa/</a></span><br />
<br />
<br />
*<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>edited because I accidentally published before I'd put the title or the links in... Need... more... sleep ;-)</i></span>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-67720573115023385392011-07-11T00:16:00.000+01:002011-07-11T00:16:49.286+01:00Michael 'Würzel' Burston. R.I.P.<br />
I've just heard about the death of an old friend.<br />
<br />
Würzel (Michael Burston) was truly a gentleman, a gentle man, open, warm-hearted, generous, so easy to be around. He was a consummate musician, he was encouraging towards and supportive of other musicians; a confidence-giver, someone who gladly shared his talent and skills.<br />
<br />
Würzel was equally at home in light-hearted banter and in deep conversation. He listened as well as speaking. He remembered people. Years could pass, then we'd bump into each other and just pick-up from where we were. He and his beautiful partner Jem welcomed all sorts of people into their home and made us feel easy in their warm company.<br />
<br />
I feel for her today.<br />
<br />
The hole that he leaves in so many people's hearts will be enormous. His legacy, huge.<br />
<br />
Mick, Michael, Würzel. Whoever you were to people - we LOVED you, man.<br />
RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-456438726354733412011-04-27T16:34:00.003+01:002011-04-27T17:13:53.022+01:00Ponies for All<div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">“Ponies for all” could lead to a large-ish slump in forecourt petrol sales with knock-on effects on the oil industry but hay and stabling costs are pretty high. Current pony purchase prices range from second-hand-old-banger to mid-priced new family car, with a few in the super-car range, so the pony-sales economy would certainly enjoy a temporary stimulus. However, the vast majority of the ponies would have to come from overseas as there are only about 1.75 million horses and ponies in the UK and a large number of those are below working age. There are also costs to muck storage and disposal, 'though there should be an increase in the availability of manure-based composts and fertilisers.</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Mind you, there would be an added stimulus in the cartwright, harness, vetinary and insurance industries. And riding schools, riding- and driving-instructors should see an upturn in business. In the short term, there would be an additional rise in ‘green jobs’ as bridleways and green-lanes are returned to service although introducing ‘pony-lanes’ to the roads might be a slight problem.</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">All in all, it should be a positive policy for the environment and the economy and I hope that a future Government will have the foresight to introduce this radical platform of measures.</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Anyone who wants magic fairies can have them anyway: just close your eyes and say, “I believe in fairies, I believe in fairies,” etc.,</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Originally written and posted, by me, as a reply to comments on <a href="http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/04/26/how-bad-could-it-get-for-george-osborne-tomorrow/#comment-263304">this blog</a> at Liberal Conspiracy</span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">P.S. </span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I forgot to add in farriery as a trade that would see an upturn in business. They look after barefoot ponies as well as shod ones. </span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I also forgot to mention that during the Second World War there was something of a renaissance in the use of horses and ponies for riding and driving - people keep comparing current economic conditions to those of WWII, so why not encourage a similar response now? ;)</span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Oh! And you might need to clap for the magic fairies thing to work...</span></div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">xJ</span></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-69887627143857927182011-03-31T06:46:00.000+01:002011-03-31T06:46:11.027+01:00Waxing Lyrical<div style="background-color: transparent;"><div id="internal-source-marker_0.2982700520660728" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve been slightly-off-world lately, in great part thanks to the interesting side-effects of the counter-intuitively trade-named Lyrica which continue to steal my words and give me </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">other</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ones instead. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Par example:</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other day I was sitting in the sunny patch on my doorstep</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">directing S as to how </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">exactly</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I wanted the gardening chores done when, while sipping my tea, a clever, space-saving thought struck. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"S," I said, "is there anywhere on the wall to hang my rain-barrows?" </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Your... what?" came the reply, quizzically. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"My rain-barrows. If they were hung on the wall it'd save space and clutter." </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I don't get it. What are they, again?" </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rain Barrows!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">" I enunciated clearly, although at this point I was beginning to doubt that I was using the correct term and wonder what on earth might be another word for them. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Rain-barrows?" I repeated, somewhat hesitantly, pointing at one of the rain-barrows which was perched six feet away from me on top of some empty plant-pots. "Barrows," I said, while thinking </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it isn't a barrow it's something, um,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> "for carrying rain," </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not rain, that doesn't come out of taps,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> "to spread on the..." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Damn - that’s not right... </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My voice faltered away.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Watering-can?" S suggested, gently, while stifling mirth... </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I could only nod. And blush. And start to giggle.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">prefer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ‘rain-barrow’ now. It's a much better name for the object, since I often find mine filled up with a few days'-worth of free liquid from the sky and imagine that others do. Mine </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">would</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> be filled by the down-pipe in the guttering sometimes if it weren't for the slight obstacle of all the drain-pipes from the flat roof of this block of flats (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the balconies) being built inside the walls and linked directly to the main drain. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Waste of rain! Plus, ultimately, it </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> rain that comes out of the taps. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And barrows </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">surely </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">don't have to have wheels...</span></span></span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></div></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* Don’t be daft - I was sat upon a chair. I’m not quite limber enough, these days, to sit on the step. Well, just not and get up again...</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans'; font-size: small; white-space: normal;"><br />
</span></div></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-67510091100771212932011-03-10T06:03:00.001+00:002011-03-11T01:16:56.180+00:00Yell...............................................ow!<b><u>An Open Letter To My Friend And To All Whom It May Concern</u></b><br />
<b><u><br />
</u></b><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(Pursuant to my visit to your blog as per your request to tell you what you'd written. More accurately, to tell you whether what you'd written had appeared where you expected it.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I thought, since I was visiting your blog, that I'd have a read of the butternut squash one 'again'. I'm sure I'd read it before. So: "Hurrah!", I thought. "This was good - I'll read it again!" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But (and this is where I became distraught, teary and all quivery in the lower lip department) IT. IS. IN. YEL... No! I can't type it :-( </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My least favourite colour except when, in nature, it is the approved colour for members of the narcissus family, buttercups (golden, in truth) and mustard. But as a type-face colour* it is painful, confusing, impossible and <i>just plain wrong</i>! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I cannot read it. It zings through my eyes, ricochets down the optic nerve, reverberating and rebounding and amplifying as it goes, heading for my brain, creating havoc as it goes into a feedback loop and deafens my letter- and word- identification system. There's a proper word for that and it involves neurons and, for all I know when faced with yel (EEK!) typefaces, neutron bombs being lobed [sic] in all directions. And the only message I get from the page I'm looking at is, "Run away! Flee! Fire! Foe!"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I run. Slam closed the book. Hit "Command, Double-U" reflexively. Turn swiftly away from the advertising hoarding. Anything but look at the colour which hurts us, precious, it burns... </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">PLEASE change the colour! Pink is fine. Electric Blue, ditto. Flourescent Green, even. All against a white background, naturally, Because I <i>want</i> to read your words, your thoughts, your rants, your outpourings, your witterings. Truly.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But please, do not confront me with anything <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">ye**ow</span></span>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unless it's a banana.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">xxx J</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">*Let alone walls, carpets, furniture... indeed ANYTHING which is not a flower or a fruit or a wasp or an hornet. And NEVER the colour of oilseed-rape. Shudder.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Edit of comments at 1.05am Friday: I've taken down two comments - one from my friend Severin who has, to my <b>great </b>relief, kindly changed the type-face colour of his blog which is rather x-rated <b>far</b> more often than not... The second was my reply to his comment which is out of context once Severin's comment is gone. If you are <b>adult</b> and determined to press on and find his 'prattlings' then I've given you enough clues ;-)</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>sJ</i></span></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-57832700054910623602011-02-20T13:29:00.000+00:002011-02-20T13:29:37.822+00:00Suffering from Irritable Duncan Smith-itis or why my doctor is a liar<div class="post-body entry-content" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 536px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font: normal normal bold 22px/normal Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A Guest/Cross Post from my friend The Purple Fairy</span></span></span></span></h3><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="font: normal normal bold 22px/normal Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></h3><div class="post-body entry-content" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 536px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"Apparently I am a fraud! Hey! How exciting, now I am labelled as something other than average or invisible! Not that I have been officially told I am a fraud. No, that would be to allocate a humanity to me that the Tribunal were incapable of expressing. It seems that not only am I unimportant enough not to benefit from assistance but they have written to tell my friend this is the case BUT NOT ME! How hard must it have been for her to have had to tell me over the 'phone? <br />
<br />
So, there you go - you know those headlines that tell you your taxes are being wasted on wastrels; the ne-er do wells, the scroungers, those citizens that can't be arsed to get off their fat backsides and do a day's work? Those who are profligate with their reproduction resources and leech as permanent parasites from the State? Well according to three honest, upright citizens, I AM ONE OF THEM! <br />
<br />
But! Wait! Not only that! I am also a benefit cheat! Under the rather wonderful Welfare to Work programme (thanks to the last government) I was encouraged to seek Employment Support Allowance. Only problem with that was that it was intended for individuals who did not have a job. I did. Not only did I have a job but I benefited from generous terms and conditions that saw me through the first part of my illness. As I went into the zero pay stage under my sick note (oh! sorry that's out of fashion now - they are no longer sick notes but fit notes) I was required to be screened by the wonderfully named Atos on behalf of the DWP, then referred to TNG (for some reason I want to call them TCP) another organisation employed by the DWP to assess me for any training needs I may have to encourage me back into work. To overcome my illness(es) and continue to contribute to the State.<br />
<br />
The training I needed to get back to a job I already had was a diagnosis of one condition and the management of the excruciating pain of another condition to enable me to function nearly normally for a few hours a day.<br />
<br />
Injunctions galore signposted the route back into work. I must do this: I must comply with that; I must co-operate with any and all who asked me; I must share my most intimate secrets with any 18 year old spotty Kevin or Kevinette who I was directed to. Failure to meet any such directions would result in hanging, drawing and quartering. Oh alright then! I exaggerate - a bit. Any failure to follow instructions you could not understand would result in benefit being withdrawn. To complicate matters further, if your ESA is granted on the basis of contributions paid via the National Insurance Tax you are precluded from seeking financial assistance with things like poll tax. If, however, it is granted on the grounds of income, then your poll tax is paid in full!!! So an income 50 pence higher that the minimum set for a person to live on per day trumps four and a half decades of paying contributions. A calculation process even the most greedy of bankers would have envied. <br />
<br />
I am sure there are people in this Country who are managing to defraud the system; who know the right words to say, who know how to complete the relevant 46 page forms accurately. People who can adjust their bodies into the rigid boxes that have to be ticked by a faceless policy wonk who has no idea who or what you are. I almost admire them! They must be bloody clever to get around the system! Perhaps it is a skill that could be added to the curriculum so that erstwhile students can add it to their cannon of qualifications. I, clearly, have failed. Because I was daft enough to believe that TNG were acting in loco DWP and who shared my day to day information with them, and, because I was silly enough to report two weeks early a</span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">proposed</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> adjustment to employment mutually agreed between me and my employer </span></span><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">prior</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> to it's formal implementation, I am now marked as a cheat for receiving £282.00 too much money. Oh and TNG still owe me the £50.00 shopping voucher they promised me for being a good girl and returning to work.<br />
<br />
Having striven through the first age and the second age to make a decent life for me and my family, paying all my dues, obeying all the rules, I find myself progressing through to the third age discounted as a human being; called a liar, labelled a cheat and unworthy of help from all the State. If I was the only one then I could easily mange the rage I feel because after all, if you are called worthless long enough, you do believe it and there is no need to trouble with how others perceive you. But I am only one. There is a large, silently suffering population hidden away under the skirts of Mother England. <br />
<br />
Mr Irritable Duncan Smith is quite right! The feckless and the foolish should be discouraged from milking the state. However the tools to be used for such a process need to be much finer than the blunt boxing of people into shapes that do not fit them. The decision process sidelines the GP's report (the one prepared for me clearly detailed my difficulties and my needs so she too must be a liar) the focus isn't even on any additional consultants' reports (ditto previous comment), it is on the ticked boxes, on strict narrow parameters. Step outside the line by a toe and you are automatically discounted as a cheat and a liar.<br />
<br />
Am I vexed! Am I filled with rage! Too bloody right I am! Me and half a dozen people involved in my care have been called liars, but worse, thousands more are deprived or dissuaded from seeking help because the authorities cannot manage the handful of thieves who do plunder the system. Once more the tail wags the dog. I wonder if any of the people who sit on these appeal tribunals ever trouble to reflect and research on their decisions. Of course not. That would credit them with an empathy they clearly do not possess.<br />
<br />
Love and Peace<br />
<br />
THE Purple Fairy xxx"</span></span></div></span></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 536px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 536px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 536px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 536px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Originally posted </span><a href="http://viewfromthehive.blogspot.com/2011/02/suffering-from-irritable-duncan-smith.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #351c75;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">here</span></span></a></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-7197846592839009082011-02-19T02:52:00.002+00:002011-02-19T03:00:14.406+00:00Blame And Recrimination<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><h1 id="internal-source-marker_0.9089212438557297" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #38761d; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-large;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
</span></u></span></span></span></h1><h1 id="internal-source-marker_0.9089212438557297" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Blame And Recrimination</span></u></span></h1><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(A Protest Song in a Reggae Style, inspired by Life, Aswad, Benefits, Disabilities, Prejudice - and a new typeface called Syncopate, which doesn't copy over!)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*One-a, Two-a, Three-a*</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">(Nothing but) blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They say no, no, we don’t wanna see you shirK</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So pick up your broken body, take it to work</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They say, you ain’t sick cause I seen you online</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And that is the proof that you’re perfectly fine</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They say no, no, we don’t wanna see you shirK</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So pick up your broken body, take it to work</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They say, I saw you went out on the town</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Gonna report you so the judge sends you down</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They say, you ain’t sick ‘cause I seen you online</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">and that is the proof that you’re perfectly fine</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They say no, no, we don’t wanna see you shirK</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So pick up your broken body, take it to work</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: magenta; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: magenta; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But they don’t see how we crawl up the stair</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The hour it took just to comb out our hair</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">How we don’t eat if there’s no-one to cook</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The struggle to turn over the page of a book</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">That we need both hands just to pick up a glass</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Have to ask for help to clean our own</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #a2c4c9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Aah-ah-ah-aah, </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Apparently the government gives us all a free car,</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And electric wheelchairs and loads of money</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The latest computer and a plasma TV</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They send lots of people to do all our chores,</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To cater every whim and to open doors</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We take three holidays every year,</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Expenses all paid, free wine and free running beer</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And just to make sure that we never feel cold</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">They insulate our houses with 18carat gold! Hah!!!</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #bf9000; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #8e7cc3; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #8e7cc3; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6fa8dc; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #8e7cc3; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #8e7cc3; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #b4a7d6; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #b4a7d6; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #b4a7d6; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9fc5e8; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #b4a7d6; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #674ea7; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #d9d2e9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">No, nothing but blame and recrimination</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #d9d2e9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On the </span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #cfe2f3; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">dis</span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #d9d2e9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">abled of our nation</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #b4a7d6; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #d9d2e9; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>Copyright </i></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>(2011)</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i> vests in the writer here known as Rockhorse. The lyrics may be used for non-commercial purposes only but credit must always be given. For any other purpose, please request permission </i><b><i>before use</i></b><i>.</i></span></div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #9900ff; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: lime; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: cyan; font-family: Syncopate; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-46453744557800964342011-02-14T23:43:00.000+00:002011-02-14T23:43:13.423+00:00A Valentine's Gift to Current Welfare-To-Work Programme Contractors and Other Stories<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Watching "Live Questions to The Work and Pensions Secretary and his Ministers" on BBC Parliament this afternoon I </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">thought</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> I heard Iain Duncan Smith say, in answer to a question from Dame Anne Begg MP, that the bidders for the new (future) Work Programme had been decided. In this I was mistaken as, according to Hansard, it was Chris Grayling speaking and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">he</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> actually said that:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"...</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">the Work programme bidding process closed this morning, and we have had a substantial number of bids, which is very encouraging. It looks as if the Work programme is going to go ahead according to plan, which is good news."</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> (Question 18, <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/02.htm">Hansard: HoC 2.30pm 14.11.2011</a> )</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Reading this relieved me of my belief that a decision had been made within hours of the bidding period closing; so, Good Times. Sort of. Since the new contracts for the new Work Programme were, I understood, due to start in April.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What shocked me was what he said next.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"I would also say to the hon. Lady that, shortly before the start of these parliamentary questions, I placed a written statement before the House, giving details of an extension to the welfare-to-work contracts under existing programmes through to next June."</span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Shock and horror. That might sound dramatic (and might be so) but I <i>know</i> a few people who are currently making weekly or twice-weekly visits to the offices of at least two of the existing contractors. Those people are actually quite looking forward to the end of March, as the replacement contractors might actually have some idea how to help them find decent training or jobs. Or, indeed, <i>any</i> training or jobs...</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">And then there is the question of when, exactly, is 'next June'? I've tried but failed to find an online copy of the written statement so no help there. Is it 'the next June due' which would be this June, 2011. Or is it June 2012? I know not. But perhaps the existing staff will no longer be overheard on the telephone to employment agencies seeking new jobs for themselves. Or they'll go and be replaced by people who'll try harder to help those they are <i>meant</i> to be helping. It'd give me a break from a fair amount of the tear-drying, calming-down, making properly constructive suggestions and even setting up of interviews for training or work which <i>I</i> do for my friends and acquaintances. I don't mind doing it, when I have the spoons, but people and organizations are being paid <i>vast</i> sums of money for a "service" they appear incapable of providing. And they get their contracts extended...</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b>In Other News</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">A great array of questions were asked of the Secretary and his Ministers regarding Work Capability Assessments, DLA, ESA, Universal Credit, the Mobility Component for people living in Residential Care Homes and Special Boarding Schools; all of which makes a full reading of <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/01.htm">today's report</a> instructive and often jaw-dropping. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">In particular: during Topical Questions (at the end of the session's report) at "T:9" <b>Atos</b> rears its head:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"<i>Yvonne Fovargue</i></span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i> (Makerfield) (Lab):</i></span></b><a class="mpBkMk" href="" name="d2e1293" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #085196; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></b></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Recently, a constituent contacted me regarding his Atos Healthcare assessment. Three specialists had considered him to be unfit for work, yet it was suggested that he could be a bingo caller or a car park attendant. My local citizens advice bureau has identified many such cases which are resolved in favour of the claimant after an expensive review or appeal. Are there any plans to review Atos Healthcare’s delivery of medical assessments?"</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Mr Grayling gave an answer but did not answer the question.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">This did not surprise me.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Quotations are taken from the Hansard report on the proceedings in the House of Commons, Oral Questions, Work and Pensions at 2.30pm on Monday 14th February 2011 which can be read in full here: <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/01.htm">http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/01.htm</a></i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i>There are two pages and some of the questions do not relate to disability or sickness but all make interesting reading and there are some gems in there...</i></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</span></span></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-83120672878318582972011-02-13T09:07:00.003+00:002011-04-28T07:54:36.417+01:00On Revolution<i>This post started as a quick reply to a contributor on a discussion board who, quite rightly, castigated another contributor for comparing the need for protest here with the situation of Algeria. Like I said, "a quick reply". It sort of got longer so I'm reposting it here (with a couple of minor corrections of spelling and grammar and a few additions which are italicised) because it poured from my heart...</i><br />
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You're correct in that the situation here does not compare to Algeria's current or recent experience. Our last official civil war was hundreds of years ago. But the oppression of vast swathes of the population continued and the struggles, protests and conflicts we've had since The Civil War have just never been officially called Civil War. But people died or were beaten and imprisoned and starved. <i>Brother set against brother, sister against sister, parents, families, neighbours all divided and torn asunder.</i><br />
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Some rights and freedoms were granted 160 years ago because those in power here were terrified that we'd launch a revolution like the French were having just across The Channel - it's only 26 miles to France by sea... <i>we can see it on a clear day and the refugees and the instigators and the exiles all alike came here and told their stories. And some encouraged the (massive) underclasses here to rebel against the land- and factory- and mine-owners. And some warned the ruling class that they'd better make some improvements and <b>quickly</b>...</i><br />
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It is less than a hundred years since ALL men over the age of 21 were given the right to vote and women over the age of 30... women over 21 didn't get the vote until 1928. My grandparents <i>and great-grandparents</i> took part in the campaigns that helped achieve those rights. They, and then my parents, campaigned and marched and demonstrated for workers' rights. Life as a pacifist during the first and second world wars was hardly a stroll in the park! Then for a proper National Health Service and welfare system. I was taken as a babe-in-arms and then in a push-chair to protest against nuclear weapons and have since joined campaigns and marches against erosions of civil liberties and against wars and discrimination and racism and religious intolerance and so many other wrongs and short-sighted government policies.<br />
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We have laws now on equal rights and equal pay but there is still inequality and discrimination. And we see the things that were fought for in our own lifetimes, even <u>very</u> recently, being eroded, smashed, removed. We are being set one-against-the-other<i>, yet again,</i> to try to protect the things that make this country civilised, a safe and secure place to live.<br />
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A government 30 years ago took away many of our rights to protest, to congregate! We got those rights back - watered down but back. The freedoms our forebears risked their lives for still have to be protected and fought for again and again and again. <i>Many of the assets and institutions that had been created through struggle were dismantled, sold off, industries decimated, jobs lost. Some few, through struggle and a change of political colour and policy, were revived but most? Lost. Seemingly forever. Many, many people thrown on the scrapheap remained there. Their scrapheap was cushioned, slightly; but many continued to argue, to protest to campaign whether for themselves or for their compatriots.</i><br />
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<u>This</u> <i>continuing struggle for fair and equal treatment and opportunity</i> is why so many of us support and hope for the peoples of Algeria, of Egypt, of Palestine, of Russia yesterday, of everywhere that people are standing up and saying, "WE matter. WE have a right to freedom. WE have a right to self-determination."<br />
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We don't know what it's like to live under a "State of Emergency" for thirty years. <i>Under curfews, martial law etc.,</i> But we DO know that freedoms and rights won ALWAYS have then to be defended against encroachment. Always have to be protected against those who rise to power. Because even freely-elected representatives of the people STILL lose touch with the 'ordinary' lives and experience of the people they're supposed to represent. ALL the people. Not just their friends. <i>Or people 'like them'.</i><br />
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And because the peoples of so many countries are standing up against MUCH more oppression than we feel, it gives us the strength and the will to remember that it is only when we unite, rather than fracture over save-the-NHS vs. protect the pensions of disabled people vs. save-the-libraries vs. no-university-tuition-fee-rises <i>vs. everything else that is currently being 'reformed' and cut in such heedless, mindless haste</i>, that we will TRULY succeed in saving or rescuing ANY of them.<br />
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Peace.<br />
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<i>Edits to correct MORE 'misspronts' - blame the medication ;-)</i>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-58807132472175324302011-02-03T00:17:00.000+00:002011-02-03T00:17:49.844+00:00The Long Answer<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A comment on a social network site set me thinking. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My response threatened, as so often, to turn into an essay so I hurriedly edited it down to a short answer and popped over here to inflict the long answer on my long-suffering readership. Ok, this is only my third post so you’re not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">literally</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ‘long-suffering’ (unless you know me personally) but stick around kids... ;-)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Here goes:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“...</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do not believe this govt can last much longer. They do not have a mandate to do all they are doing. At some point surely the majority of the Lib Dems will have to break away?...” </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh I do most sincerely hope so! But, from what I see, the LibDems (the Parliamentary bit of the Party) seem to have wedged into their heads the idea that they DO have a mandate because "the country wanted more consensus politics" and that a coalition is exactly what we wanted because we didn't give either main party a clear majority. I don’t remember having the option to vote for “a coalition”, let alone define which parties would form one. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I must have missed the mass public meetings where we-the-voters all got together and worked out how to vote tactically across, what, 650 plus constituencies to ensure that there was no clear majority in the House of Commons. It could have been a secret meeting to which I was not invited :-( So, in spite of the chunterings* of pundits, when I placed </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">my</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> vote it was for the person and party wanted and I fondly hoped that most of the rest of the UK would vote the way I did. (Not for the same person, of course; that way lies dictatorship...) </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">They don’t seem to have given any thought to the fact that perhaps there was an even more secret meeting of the electorate at which it was decided that a minority Conservative Government was just the ticket. Properly strong opposition leading to consensus, perhaps? Thus by entering into a coalition they’ve actually upset everyone. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think that what a lot of us </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">meant</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by ‘consensus politics’ was more along the lines of having almost everything decided by free votes rather than under one, two or three line whips. Maybe, say, spending longer debating issues in order to come to a greater understanding and consensus. It would slow down the pace of legislative change but that would not necessarily be a bad thing. Add in ‘all Public Consultations to be widely and fully publicised and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">then</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> opened for an absolute minimum of thirteen weeks’ so that the we-the-public felt that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> were a part of the debate more often than once in a blue moon! Look them up, blue moons, they’re more frequent than you might think... Certainly more frequent than general elections.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some LibDems probably still fondly imagine that they're preventing, or can prevent, “the worst excesses” of “pure Tory policies”. Most must surely know that if they cause a fresh General Election they'll (a) lose their seats or (b) retain them but lose the trust of the Conservatives and have to work pretty damned hard to regain much trust from Labour. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, it’s too early to bail out yet. ‘Have to give things a fair chance’. ‘It’s early days yet’. ‘We’re working hard to push our agenda through’. Et cetera. That’ll probably prevail for another fifteen months. Then they can start having ‘some cause for concern’ about ‘the direction our coalition partners are moving in’ before changing it to ‘stance . . . are taking’ later in that year. Before we know it, there’ll be less than two years before the Fixed Term is up and moving to an early election would involve votes of no confidence and untold/unspoken threats to the ‘green shoots of economic recovery’ so better to ‘see it through’ and hope. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, two and a half years from now there might just really </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">be</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> some green shoots for some sectors of the economy and/or the population. By three-and-a-half years into this Parliament an economic boom/bubble might have got underway by some miracle or sleight of hand - again, for some business sectors and selected parts of the population. And </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">they’ll</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> be on such a high that they wo’n’t notice the people who got left behind and will happily vote the Conservatives back in as long as the election happens before the bubble bursts. (Loadsamoney, anyone?) </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The LibDems? Ah, well. They were very much the junior partners in the coalition, weren’t they? No real major policies. Bit of tinkering around the edges. Some of it was quite good. Some of them are all right, the ones who didn’t defect. Or implode. Or get erased when the boundaries were redrawn. Or get kicked ‘upstairs’**.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If, though, we’re still in recession/stagflation/depression then, barring a sea-change/coup in the LibDem Party as a whole, they’ve probably had it anyway. </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, unless Cameron, Osborne et al., Inc., steam-roll something though that shocks the Parliamentary Liberal Democrats to their very cores (and I find it hard to imagine quite what that might be) I’m sorry to say that I think we’re stuck for the next four-and-a-quarter years. Not what I’d wish for. Not what I voted for. But my preferred candidate came second. And my party came second but ended up third... Hope they’re ready for next time!</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* * * * * * * * </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">* this can’t be the correct word but it’s the one my brain instructed my fingers to type and I can’t think for the life of me what word it was I was hoping for***...</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">** or wherever you get kicked ‘up’ to when you’d decided that it was a good idea to rush things through so that a fully elected second chamber would take the place of the House of Lords at the 2015 election...</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*** I am ‘enjoying’ some interesting side-effects from a medication which has recently been released into the wild (been approved for a new use). Combined with existing meds it’s, um, very interesting and sometimes highly amusing. To me. Some of the effects are on very short-term memory and co-ordination, such that what I intend is often not what comes out. ‘Neckst’ for ‘next’ is a particular favourite. Proof-reading and correcting this has taken a number of attempts interspersed with randomly falling (‘fawlign’!) asleep - or getting totally distracted - on top of my usual needing to rest, move around, re-groddle my joints etc., But, yay, I finished it!</span></div></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-61501767013568594062011-01-16T18:08:00.000+00:002011-01-16T18:08:35.914+00:00The Best Thing That DLA Helps Me To Do<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div id="internal-source-marker_0.4019287806004286" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Best Thing That DLA Helps Me To Do</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A Once Month Before Heartbreak blog:</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a marvellous organisation called RDA (The Riding for the Disabled Association) through whose benevolence - and that of a marvellous ‘local’ riding school which is the home of a local RDA Trust Group - I go riding. I’m booked to go once a week and when I’m physically able to get there it is my haven, my sheer delight, my freedom, my sense of accomplishment, my therapy, my additional physiotherapy (cross-training!), my joy, my challenge, my adopted extended family-and-friends network, my social life.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A horse ambling along the final part of a hack, warming down, travels at about 3 mph. I know this because the first time I was able to go out on a short hack (after an enforced break from riding of over eighteen years) the route brings us along a main road which has those smiley-face/sad-face speed measuring things. It said 3mph. 3mph bumbling along the road. 3mph is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">six times my own average walking/hobbling speed</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and that’s on a reasonably ‘good’ day. Bad days, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">really </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bad days, I’m not walking under my own steam...</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Horses and ponies are providing fresh legs for me. I’m not physically madly strong either so, thankfully, the ones I ride are trained to (mostly) respond to a very light touch but not to react to fidgetting. Special creatures to be able to differentiate between intentional aids, fidgetting, muscular spasms, tics etc., on the part of their riders. Do you wonder that I love them so?</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you wonder that I am </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">so</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> very, very grateful for my DLA payments which pay for the heavily subsidised amount I pay for my riding, for my lessons, to take part (and sometimes get placed) in dressage competitions at Intro and Prelim levels? And so very, very grateful to the people at the yard and the RDA for enabling me to ride at a generous discount?</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s more to be said but I can’t see through tears and I’ve got a self-imposed deadline to meet... Thank you for reading. I’ll add some links later...</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">xJ</span></div></div>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2597240185755407335.post-48818392607152366972011-01-14T22:29:00.000+00:002011-01-15T03:37:20.620+00:00A Modest Proposal: Walking a mile in disabling shoes.This is what I hope will be the first of many blogs. I'm launching it today in support of the <a href="http://onemonthbeforeheartbreak.blogspot.com/2011/01/some-background-to-one-month-before.html">One Month Before Heartbreak blogswarm</a>.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A Modest Proposal: Walking a mile in disabling shoes.</span><br />
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<div style="background-color: transparent; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div id="internal-source-marker_0.18627021787688136" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The current government are keen to reduce spending on certain allowances and benefits, the current qualification for which depends upon the claimant having impairments, disabilities, diseases or conditions of such seriousness that they are prevented from leading a “normal” life. They must face considerable challenges in such areas as washing, dressing, eating, cooking, walking, working or taking part in “everyday social activities”. If you have a temporary back-ache or a bad day/week/month at work you would certainly NOT be able to get “free money” from The State.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are unfortunate enough to have a seriously limiting physical and/or mental condition you are expected to complete a series of extensive, in-depth forms and provide copious amounts of evidence (from doctors, specialists, physiotherapists, counsellors, carers and/or those who provide you with physical assistance) to support your claim. You are also, in most cases, required to attend a face-to-face “independent assessment” with an approved assessor who may or may not have any understanding of the condition which causes you problems. All these forms, the evidence you’ve provided, the evidence your own medical practioners have provided and the assessor’s conclusion then go to a “Decision Maker” who decides whether or not you fit into their interpretations of the statutory guidelines. Then you’re told whether or not you can receive payments, at what level and for how long.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are turned down and feel you have a strong enough case (and have the energy to fight another battle), you can then launch into the appeals process. Most people win their appeals, if they have professional representation from, for example, the Citizens’ Advice Bureau.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, as I said at the top, this government are taking steps to increase the qualifying criteria for all benefits in respect of long-term sickness or disability. They are also planning to abolish some allowances (DLA, ILF) and replace them them with one named (Personal Independence Payments) and (perhaps) one as yet un-named allowance. I honestly don’t think that the majority of MPs are anywhere near qualified to tinker around with these things, so I’ve got a suggestion to make.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the next year every MP, Minister and Government Advisor should be fitted with equipment which mimics the effects of a disabling condition.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One day in the next couple of weeks they should all turn up at Westminster to be issued with their disability at random. The equipment exists. I’ve seen it used in programmes on television and in films. Splints which restrict movement in particular limbs to mimic the effect of physical impairments. Special glasses to replicate various sight impairments. Ear-plugs or intentionally-badly-adjusted hearing aids for hearing impairments. Thick gloves would cover loss of sensation or dexterity. All sorts of clever tricks! Electric shock generators set to random to give a hint of how some conditions plague suffers with pain. I don’t think that there’s anything which would safely replicate the “like a cold ice-pick” or “like a red-hot knitting needle” or “a burning, tearing sensation” that some musculo-skeletal or nerve-pressure conditions treat us to. We could just use ice-picks and knitting needles... perhaps better not! And I’m not sure how you’d replicate amnesia or lack of reasoning capability. (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pick your own joke here ;-)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rules of the “game” would also include: no simply paying someone out of your generous public salary and expenses or your private wealth to carry things, cook for you, dress you, help you move around, drive, read, write or any other “normal everyday activity”. They only get to keep a free travel-pass if they qualify for a Local Authority one already for reasons of age or existing disability. And </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">no cheating!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If they feel their “disability” limits their mobility so much that they need a wheelchair, white-stick, walking aid, special software etc., they should check the criteria for getting a Local Health Authority issue one or aids or adaptions courtesy of the Local Authority. Then, if they find they wouldn’t qualify or would have to wait too long for the assessment, buy (or hire) a suitable equipment out of their salary which could then be returned, sold or donated at the end of their participation.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When it all gets a bit too much for them they can ask for exemption, for which they qualify by: filling in the application forms for ESA, DLA, Access to Work and also being checking to see whether their “disability” would qualify them for any support according to the rules of their local authority. They would be given the forms to fill in there and then. A random small proportion of them would be given a copy of one of the free guides published by CAB, DIAL or other relevent advice organisation but </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the detailed guides that HMSO publish. They are excused from attempting to claim Independent Living Fund support because that’s been closed to new claimants since June this year.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The decisions to grant or deny their claims should be made by DWP staff in training or competency testing. I’m sure they </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">do</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> competency testing... don’t they? If I could make our elected representatives carry out this experiment while living entirely on randomly assigned wage levels (including minimum wage or Jobseekers Allowance) in ratios proportionate to the sources of income of the general public then I would but that would be </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">really</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> wandering into a dream world!</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wonder how they’d feel about abolishing benefits and allowances or restricting their availability once they had some experience of attempting to walk a mile in disabling shoes? </span></div><div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />
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</span>RockHorsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16913003630650603484noreply@blogger.com13