Features

32 FEATURE

5TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION SPONSORED BY

From the front line…

Probably best not to travel right now, especially up north.

BY JACQUELINE CURZON

Apologies to readers for any typos or disjointed text, but I’ve been in hospital for several weeks running, and not entirely on top-gun form. Access to news has been slightly limited.

It was shocking to discover that the DfE is recommending that students without a pass at GCSE Maths or English should be ineligible for tuition loans to go to university. Hold it right there. Did I just write University? Back it up….. I know of youngsters denied a place in their school 6th form for failing one or other of these. One has to ask how could any self respecting university even consider offering a place to such an unqualified individual. School is surely the place to acquire basic skills, not a higher institution charging £9k plus a year, although it’s a scandal that schools all too readily want to pass the responsibility for late academic catch-up to ‘crammer’ colleges or inferior colleges to then upskill these struggling students, rather than risk jeopardising their ranking in the league tables. Relevant offenders, take note!

Various news articles from Scotland have reached my radar. A Trade Union leader has urged Glasgow City Council to sell a famous Salvador Dali painting worth millions for funds towards Glasgow’s equal pay bills. GMB general secretary Gary Smith, said the council should sell the painting currently housed in Kelvingrove Art Gallery, and put the money towards any outstanding equal pay liabilities. In 2019 the council agreed a settlement of more than £500 million with nearly 16,000 current and former employees, however the union says the council are stalling on the settlement and urged chiefs to “flog the Dali’ in order to meet the bill. The Dali was painted in 1951 before being purchased by the City of Glasgow in 1952 and is worth an estimated £60 million. Glasgow City Council say they will only ‘know the cost of settling claims once we have a deal.’

A long-standing murder case appears to being close to resolution. Iain Packer (49) has been charged with the assault, abduction and murder of Emma Caldwell (27) back in 2005. Packer allegedly assaulted Emma, who was reported missing and her body then found in woodland near Biggar, South Lanarkshire one month later. Packer, from Airdrie, made no plea to the murder charge at a private hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court, but is also accused of numerous further charges including 11 charges of rape, assault and abduction against a number of women. He was remanded in custody pending further examination by Sheriff Mark Maguire and will appear in court within the next week. Elsewhere a bank robber escaped after threatening staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Kilmarnock Road. The man, in his late 40s, made off with a three figure sum. Police are appealing for information about this incident in the Shawlands area of the city, and are keen to speak to anyone who may have private CCTV or dashcam footage from the area.

A recent article by Professor Mark Woolhouse, Professor of infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh, summarised succinctly what went wrong in our first year of covid. Here is a summary in my own words. 1. We needed to have acted much faster once we had information from China about the outbreak, certainly much earlier than March, for expedient action would have resulted in less drastic intervention. 2. Border controls and international travel bans should have been instigated immediately to delay the epidemic and allow time for preparedness, with the NHS building up testing capacity. It was much less effective thereafter. 3. Much more should’ve been done more quickly to protect the most vulnerable, especially the elderly and the immuno suppressed rather than waiting until the development of vaccines and enforcing - effectively - devastating isolation on those who were most at risk, given their vulnerability. 4. School closures proved largely unnecessary and should’ve been reversed quickly, or better not implemented at all. 5. Other social distancing measures should have been relaxed more quickly and replaced by Covid safe protocols such as face coverings, ventilation, physical distancing and self-isolating where warranted. 6. More should’ve been done to support those asked to self-isolate, with test-for-release measures adopted earlier. 7. He said we were far too slow to accept that this was never going to be over in a matter of weeks, but that we had to learn to live with a virus for the foreseeable future, so our response needed to be proportionate and sustainable. 8. Lastly we should not have ignored the wider ramifications for mental health, education and the general well-being of society. Yet the dice were always loaded in favour of suppressing novel coronaviruses at all times and practically every single cost. A good bit of news is that facemasks are to be ditched from the classrooms following an announcement by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Secondary school students and teachers are no longer required to wear them in the classrooms, however they will still have to wear them when moving around the building, in communal areas such as corridors. Those who wish to continue to wear the mask will be ‘fully supported’ to do so. Education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville hailed the move as a positive milestone, saying ‘the last two years have been really tough for the children and young people.’ Tough - certainly for children told to keep their coats on and doors and windows open, to sit one metre apart in class, stay two metres in the playground. These revised guidelines now also apply in public buildings and spaces, with face covering guidance remaining in close spaces, on public transport and in healthcare settings. Isn’t it great to see common-sense restored?!

Nicola Sturgeon‘s government launched a controversial Covid 19 vaccine passport mobile app, despite being warned it may break data protection laws, the information watchdog has disclosed as it issued a formal reprimand. The UK ICO raised concerns with the Scottish government and NHS National Services Scotland after only being provided with the app’s details three days before was launched. After reviewing the app, the commissioner raised several concerns with the SNP-Green coalition government, particularly an ‘unlawful’ deal with the software developer to let it access users passport pictures and details, designed to give the firm access to private information to help improve the facial recognition software used in the app. Murdo Fraser, the Scottish Tory shadow covid recovery minister, said the commissioner’s findings ‘could put the tin lid on a fiasco and shambles that shames the SNP.’

A Scottish government spokesman said people’s data was held securely and used appropriately ‘at all times.’ Of course. I have something a little more light-hearted, if shocking. Wind Farms have been paid to refrain from producing up to 50% of the electricity they are capable of generating, according to research which has led MPs to warn that ‘inappropriate decisions’ on wind power are forcing excess costs onto consumers. An analysis found that in 2020 three large windfarms in Scotland received a total of £24.5 million to fail to produce about half of their potential output. Researchers said that these ‘constraint payments’ which were ultimately added to consumers' bills, were being fuelled by a high concentration of onshore wind farms in Scotland, often leaving the electricity grid unable to cope on windy days. The renewable energy foundation charity that publishes energy data said the problem will continue until there is more than sufficient interconnection between Scotland and Jacqueline Curzon the centres of demand in England. As an example of the wastefulness, £7.7 million is PHOTO: LARA MINSKY PHOTOGRAPHY the amount in constraint payments handed to the operator of a 23-turbine scheme in Scotland. In another case SSE, operator of 33-turbine Strathy North wind farm in the Highlands, was paid £5.9 million to avoid producing 68% of the site’s capacity. Alistair Philip-Davies, chief executive of SSE said ‘wind will end up generating most of the energy of the country’s needs.’ A Government spokesman said constraint payments remain the most efficient way for National Grid to keep Britain’s lights on, and are only used when there is excess supply. A spokesman for EDF renewable said it ‘had to respond to National Grids constraint requests, in order to manage the system and keep the lights on.’ Boo - whoo to National Grid. Around £400,000 worth of Nike footwear was stolen from a lorry parked at a motorway service station. Police reported around 4000 pairs of the high-value trainers were taken from the vehicle in Abingdon services Interchange on the M74 services. It happened last week between the evening of Wednesday and Thursday. Police Scotland said the vehicle and two others parked nearby were damaged during the theft. We seem to get the optimism entertainment from theft reports up north, be it whisky, shortbread or trainers, usually where ‘unattended’ trucks fall prey to petty crime. In this case an appeal was made for anyone with dashcam ‘footage’ to come forward. If they can’t even look after their trucks, how will they look after a start-up economy and an Independent Scotland! Next week an update on the ongoing Ukrainian conflict. In the meantime, keep safe.

Paperweight Perspective Who Will Shout for Me?

BY BAYLA PERRIN, FOUNDING TRUSTEE AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE PAPERWEIGHT TRUST

The practicalities of planning for the aging population in the UK occupy the minds at a myriad of charitable organisations. All of them know that with improved healthcare - aside from the setbacks brought on by Corona, comes a longer life for many people.

With that comes the recognition that an older generation absorbs a disproportionate amount of health, welfare and practical resources for which the state system is totally unprepared. Health and social care services are predicated upon the implicit assumption that it is families who fill the gaps in service provision and in the case of older people particularly, that the people supporting them are largely their adult children.

Adult children provide help in different ways: from low-level support tasks such as accompanying a parent to medical appointments (a hospital trip can be an entire day’s event), helping with cleaning and shopping, reminding their parent to take medication and some personal care tasks, such as changing dressings, to high-level support from mediating with health and social services, looking after their parent’s domestic bureaucracy, general advocacy and finances, to being their part-time or even full time carer.

Adding another wrinkle to the mix: many children of this longer-living age group are themselves growing older. And they have busy and often complicated lives, and maybe their own medical requirements too. Today, it is common for many to live at a distance or overseas from their parents, and have a younger generation of grandchildren to additionally assist. And whilst one of the tenets of Jewish society is having a high regard for the elderly and an implicit understanding of the meaning and value of “honouring one’s father and mother”, the practicalities of doing so can be very challenging.

Consequently, people ageing even with a notional support network often find themselves high and dry.

The difficulty of arranging for all the support and benefits that are available can be quite overwhelming. If you add into this mix another very worrying statistic, we have the ingredients of a perfect storm – even in a community that takes justifiable pride in looking after each other. Currently in the UK, one in six of the over 80s have dementia in one form or another. This as we know, manifests itself in a range of symptoms from occasional forgetfulness to full blown Alzheimer’s and its miserable and soul-destroying effects. The healthy partner of an octogenarian dementia sufferer has an impossible burden, and calling upon younger generations is an uncomfortable and often unworkable stop-gap.

As ever, financial matters remain one of the last taboos, and discussions on this can be fraught. The tension that builds up across the generations often results in a fracturing of the family bonds. Sometimes, through a combination of timing and family dynamics and of course geography, these new crises take the elderly to a new and even lower ebb. And they realise they need someone to step in and advocate for them.

And they will cry, to everyone and no-one, in addressing a fragile future with regard to the help they may need, “I wonder who will shout for me?”

And a good starting point, in many and varied circumstances, is Paperweight, who will shoulder the challenging mix of old age and bureaucracy and shout very loud indeed.

Health and social care services are predicated upon the implicit assumption that it is families who fill the gaps in service provision and in the case of older people particularly, that the people supporting them are largely their adult children.

Debt-negotiating, courtattending, benefits-advising, law-guiding, tribunalaccompanying, hand-holding, rights-advocating, landlordchallenging and people-empowering.

Your situation may involve any of these tasks, and more. Whatever your administrative, legal or financial problems, our 200 caseworkers, based in London, Manchester and Gateshead, have the expertise to help. And it’s all free of charge. To access our services or to make a donation to support our work, call 0330 174 4300 or visit paperweight.org.uk