Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

STORM TROOPS OF COMPASSION

We should do more in Britain for people who really need help; and we could pay for it by doing less for some who don’t – but lean on the state nonetheless. I have always thought that and experience gained in the last 13 years of doing this job has only confirmed things for me.

For example, I had a meeting last Friday, organised by the excellent Carer’s UK with some people in Ivybridge who were full time carers for severely disabled loved ones. Yes, some of them worked outside the home as well to earn much needed income, but they were all full time carers because that is what life is like in their world: 24/7 worry and effort, interrupted by all too fleeting moments of joy at unexpected responses.

And we, the state, the taxpayer, the rest of us, should do more for them. More provision of services for their loved ones, providing more individually crafted care and support, not one size fits all.

People who are born severely disabled, or who become disabled by reason of accident or illness or age should be a very high priority. It is not their fault.
Those who care for them rather than placing them in state funded institutions should be celebrated as heroes and not pushed to the margins. Just think how much they save the chancellor every year – latest estimates are £57 billion.

Above all, we have to come up with better respite care so that the carers can get a break, think their own thoughts, breathe their own air, before returning to the daily struggle. (In some parts of the country there is far more respite care available.) Many people who have been to see me cannot get respite care for love nor money, and that should be a matter of local shame.

But how could we pay for it? We simply do less for the many thousands of people in this country who are still taking us for a ride. This is getting worse. A creeping welfare dependency, freshly driven by the absurd philosophy of the “rights agenda” is spreading its icy tentacles over the land once again.

But rights come second to responsibilities. Each one of us has a duty to stand on our own two feet, if we can.

Then we would have more resources to support these storm troopers of compassion as they care for severely handicapped members of the family.

posted by Nigel on Thursday, December 15, 2005