Skewed Priorities

The vexed question of 'grants' raised its head today with a very short piece in today's print edition of the Daily Telegraph (sorry no link).

It dealt with the fact that Yvonne Hossack, a solicitor, has lost a court hearing on whether she should retain her £200,000 Legal Aid grant on which she relies to fight the cause of those in Sheltered Accommodation and the need to retain full-time Wardens.

A little background: It has been shown that elderly people, wishing to retain a degree of independence, have entered Sheltered Housing for one main reason and that is that it provides the bonus of a Warden; someone who is there all day, every day, to help them with problems and to monitor their well-being. Due to 'cost-cutting' schemes Wardens have been phased out, without proper consultation with residents, and replaced by what is termed 'floating support'. This results in a scheme whereby someone calls once a day for about an hour (if that) to check on residents - sometimes not even once a day - which has resulted in cases where elderly residents have lain undiscovered in their flats unwell and, in some documented cases, dead for day after day.

These are people, probably the majority, who fought for this country during World War II, others who have 'done their bit' working to benefit this country and its status in the world by their daily labours - and we cannot look after them?

It seems to me that before we house, clothe and feed those whose avowed aim is the destruction of our country and our society we should look after our own 'kith and kin' - and support those in the legal profession who selfishly work to that end!