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After some 12 years in power, to hear that useless Muppet Brown talking about “caring for OAPs” makes my stomach churn. When people ask me as a full time carer about me having a “Respite Care Break”, I stare back at them blankly and think to myself, “You really don’t understand what this is all about, do you ?”

And the truth is, they really don’t and in a large part wholly due to a “Legislation and Rights” approach to this and most other problems. Pass a Law and regardless of whether you have understood the issue, everything is now fine, it has been “seen to”. How Harmon, how Labour and all this talk about the taxpayer stumping up vast sums of money to create another sacred cow like the NHS and calling it a National Care Service, one thing is being overlooked and perhaps it is the most important of all, Dignity because I can assure you that there is precious little of it in old age.

Total Twaddle

Yesterday’s Queen’s Speech was just Labour Party Electioneering, as if we would believe them but to me the key thing was the whole stupidity of what is proposed. The Schools thing will just become a “whingers charter” for disinterested parents unwilling to accept that their kids are totally thick and unmotivated because of all the “guilt toys” their parents buy them in place of spending any time with them personally.

What Loony came up with the idea of passing a Law to say that the Budget Deficit must be halved in 4 years, I really have no idea, clearly they cannot count beyond their fingers and toes, the figures are way beyond their comprehension and they don’t realise just how bad things are. The scariest thing is that this is the Government, no wonder we are in a mess !

Caring for Carers

The same applies to looking after the old at home. So just who is going to do that Mr Brown, “top pay” for a family carer is about £50 per week – yes I guess Mr Brown really cares, Big Time about the people doing the job ! However, I suppose that is totally in line with him providing Helicopters and Body Armour to the troops on the ground in Helmand, doesn’t matter, only the Gordon Brown headlines do with their multiple promises of the same resources over and over again.

The thing that really made me laugh was back in 2005 when I first filled in a form to claim “Carers Allowance”, I had two Parents, I put them both down, they sent the form back to me, I may have two people I have to care for but, I could only claim for one, please re-submit ! But it gets better.

So complicated are the what shall we call them ? “Social Security Benefits” under Gordon Brown as Chancellor that even the DHSS will ask someone from “Help the Aged”(a Charity), to fill in the claim forms for you and that has just got to be wrong. My Father had done this some 18 months previously so when we went through this process, it turned out that he had been receiving “Carers Allowance” because my Mother had “Attendance Allowance” – don’t ask me I still don’t understand anything about it.

Total Cock Up Brown

I can programme computers, I cannot fathom Gordon Brown and his arse hole or the Monkey’s either. Perhaps Astro Physics will be easier to comprehend. Oh silly me, I forgot, he wanted to be the Labour Leader that lost an election !

Anyway, I got Carers Allowance and a back payment, my Father lost this allowance and I ended up with paying off ‘his debt’ for past payments to him with my ‘back payment’. Now I really don’t have an issue with this in principle, the taxpayer should only pay once is fair but, so complicated is the crap served up by our current PM as Chancellor, we had no idea. I am not even complaining about the amount of money but I am complaining about the unnecessary complexity to the whole thing introduced by this one-eyed idiot with half a brain, at most.

Age and Stage

For people like me bought up in the 1950s with an “extended family” around me (Uncles, Aunts, Grandparents living close to each other), caring for my Parents is quite a natural thing to do but for my children who are now in their 30s and 40s bought up with more of a “nuclear family” (Mother, Father Siblings), it will not be natural. Possibly the only group of people who today would care for their own old people in the same way are from the Asian communities.

Hospitals should not be used as dumping grounds for old people regardless of their physical ailments, they should be cared for at home or in the community. There is a need to start volunteer schemes based on specially trained experts, currently this often falls on the District Nurses, who could supervise mainly out of work people working as volunteers under a “community service” basis.

In simple terms and given the parlous state of the Nation’s finances, the “taxpayer” cannot afford to fund a scheme based upon every worker having at least the Minimum Wage, but they could afford to pay some “financial enhancements” to a volunteer that is receiving State Benefits already.

A New Approach …

We need to consider how we approach and care for old people in the years ahead because this is just the tip of the iceberg. Whilst the idea and problems associated with Dementia are obvious and for the family carers it imposes dreadful strains emotionally, they do need respite breaks. However, we must not ignore the other side of the coin, a mentally alert old person trapped inside a broken down body and unable to control their bladder and bowels, them being aware of this, really hurts them.

My Father was never a self pitying man, a former soldier but I can remember during his last year saying one time that it was only now that he truly understood the prayer “They shall not grow old…” My only other comment based upon my experiences and bearing in mind that I will soon be 64, is that today the Medical Profession can deliver technically amazing things just not possible 30, 20 or even a decade ago, my question is whether in many cases they should ? Quality of life counts too which does not mean I support any kind of euthanasia but merely that Nature should be allowed to take its course sometimes.