False Imprisonment and the Government

Take a walk through this semi-hypothetical situation with me and ask yourself if you agree with me that there is a law being broken.

Joe Bloggs has arthritis, he can walk about 130 metres, however this distance is split up by repeated stops because of pain.  His nearest bus stop is 450 metres away from his home so there is very little chance he can get there.  He has a car, which thanks to "Passport" benefits, he can tax and because of the Higher Rate Mobility component of Disability Living Allowance he can use a Blue Badge to allow parking closer to buildings that he has to visit.

Now thanks to the changes in the regulations in PIP, if Ms Esther McVey, the minister for Disabled People has her way, the requirement for the Blue Badge and car tax will be drastically reduced, so much so that Joe will lose all the Passported Benefits that allow him to use his car.  As he is not able to reach the bus stop, he cannot go anywhere to do all the things he does.  His shopping will have to be done online and delivered; his visit to the Department of Work and Pensions or the Jobcentre Plus will have to be by friends giving him lifts or at the worst, he will have to forgo food so that he can use a taxi.

He will be detained within the four walls of his home. 

He will be detained against his wishes.

He will be denied the freedom to move freely through the world.

The law states that False Imprisonment is The illegal confinement of one individual against his or her will by another individual in such a manner as to violate the confined individual's right to be free from restraint of movement.

So, does that mean Joe and all the others that will have their mobility stripped from them by the changes in the regulations, simply so the government can save some money without taxing their friends the high earners, or the bankers with their ridiculous bonuses paid for simply doing their job?

Does the change in the regulations which will affect 600,000 (according to Esther McVey) be tantamount to False Imprisonment?

If so, are we entitled to compensation for this being done to us?

There are so many different ways these Welfare Reforms are wrong, they are poorly thought out, they harm those who cannot fight back, they harm those the government promised to protect, and they are being carried out in a virtual media blackout.

There has been no Cumulative Impact Assessment of Welfare Reform there needs to be one, if you haven't already signed the "WOW Petition" started by the disabled comic Francesca Martinez. please do so now at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154 and let all your friends know about it, this blog and all the harm that is being done to the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society.

Thank you, and remember, every time you see a person on crutches, with a walking stick, in a wheelchair, there, but for the grace of God, goes you.

Ouch, Christmas Day has been spoiled!

There was I, half past seven in the evening, feeling like the day was good, I felt totally drained, but hey that's what bed is for.  Amazingly, for the first time in about two months I went to bed in NO pain.

Started to watch some (really boring) Will Smith film, and dozed off in the middle of it about 15 minutes after getting into bed.  About an hour and a half later ... BANG!  Hello Pain!!!!  Don't know what caused it, don't really care, but my knees, ankles and shoulders are letting me know they are there!

So I lay there, trying to a) get comfortable, b) stop hurting and c) go back to sleep (oh, and d) not sobbing so much that I wake the wife). No success.  So I give up, turn the TV back on (I use a sleep function, in case I drop off again) and start to watch stuff.   Oh, I see a programme of Bee Gees music, that's good, I'm a fan.  I sit and get about 20 minutes in to a 30 minute programme, when I hear that most glorious of sounds, the car outside my house is leaving!

"Oh My God," I thought, "I'm parked over the road as there was no parking spaces anywhere when I came home!"

I threw on my trousers and boots, grabbed the car keys and walked over the road to where my car was parked on Double Yellow Lines (No Parking for any that don't realise), start the engine, indicate I am about to pull out. The lady in the little car that had been taking up enough room for my large saloon pulled out, I started to pull out and ... A Multi-Person Vehicle owned by one of the local taxi firms pulls up alongside it.

OK, thinks I, he's dropping someone off. I gesture first at me then at the space, "Pull forward mate, I am going in there!"   He pulls forwards, then slams the van into reverse and fills the space!

I can tell you, I was a little put out by this.  No scratch that, I was a LOT put out by this.

I pulled alongside his door, stopped, thought, shall I leave my car here or not?

Thirty metres down the road (Thanks Ms McVey, I measured it the other day thanks to the new Mobility requirements), there was a LARGER space, one by a garage so this Hackney Carriage Licence holder could have driven in more easily and would not have been blocked in in the morning!  So, I, with a car steamed up because it had been standing for three hours with a Blue Badge displayed, had to reverse 30 metres to get to a parking space so that the Lesser Spotted Blue Stripped Traffic Vultures (aka Parking Attendants) didn't get up at Oh Dark Hundred Hours thinking, "lets get those who had too much to drink last night" and give me a ticket.

Insult added to injury though, when I got close to this Minibus on the walk back home, the driver had disappeared into the ether and hadn't even had the courtesy to apologise for stealing my parking space. 

Oh, I wish I had a disabled bay outside, but it's no good applying for one, there's too many people around here with disabled badges that would park there and I'd still have to walk a mile to park.

So now, from thinking I was going to get a good night sleep, agony and annoyance!

Oh, and the Bee Gees programme, on a channel without a +1 sister was just rolling it's credits when I got back to the bedroom!

BAH HUMBUG!!!!