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Right, I& #39;m going to go on a bit of a rant here and I& #39;ve not had a drink but I& #39;m going to use evidence and whilst admittedly some of it will be anecdotal, it will all be true.
A thread...
A thread...
I don& #39;t expect to change people& #39;s minds but I do want people to wake up to other people and some of the shit they have to go through and most of the shit they have to go through is completely unnecessary in the 5th/6th/7th richest country in the world. All of this is a choice...
and it is a choice that you and I are making.
Just to be honest though, I am pretty shit at this life thing, I& #39;ve good friends and family but I& #39;m terminally single and have gone from one shitty call centre job to another, in part because of mental illness but mostly because...
Just to be honest though, I am pretty shit at this life thing, I& #39;ve good friends and family but I& #39;m terminally single and have gone from one shitty call centre job to another, in part because of mental illness but mostly because...
as previously mentioned I& #39;m shit at this life thing and I have enjoyed getting smashed with a copious amount of intoxicants both legal and illegal.
As many of you know, I worked at the local council in Bournemouth and am now working at a national Housing Association, I live...
As many of you know, I worked at the local council in Bournemouth and am now working at a national Housing Association, I live...
right in the centre of town above a pub, I have claimed UC and worked for many big financial institutions both insurance and financial products, I won& #39;t name them all but at some point in time, I have been employed (at the lowest rung, remember I& #39;m shit at this life thing)...
at all the big banks weirdly apart from Lloyds, so kinda know how things work, I think, well mostly but I& #39;m always learning and will make mistakes but the point I& #39;m trying to make here is that I hopefully know what I& #39;m talking about.
Every morning I go to work and I literally pass 5 or 6 rough sleepers living in shop windows, I sometimes start at 8 and we aren& #39;t talking about people who have come from their homes to beg enough money for a fix (this happens) these are human beings who are sleeping rough...
, who regularly get abused by drunk dickheads (I hear it from my bedroom window) and people who are so down on their luck that alcohol and drugs are their only way to get through the day. There are facilities and help that some charities and NGO& #39;s can do but this Governments...
policies and callousness have seen a 150% of people who live like this and with cuts in local Government budgets there just isn& #39;t the money to help with places to help them, let alone the places in the NHS for substance dependencies help or mental health issues that...
they probably had before and will be even worse because of life on the streets. This is the reality of now, of every morning what I see when I get up and go to work.
Then I get to work, a lady called me the other day for a repair but it wasn& #39;t really about the repair, she...
Then I get to work, a lady called me the other day for a repair but it wasn& #39;t really about the repair, she...
just wanted someone to talk to. We got talking and it turned out she used to be a royal marine, she had fought and been shot at in both Iraq and Afghanistan and was currently going through the transition, she hadn& #39;t left the property in 2 weeks because of people hurling abuse...
at her and she had been getting into fights defending herself from transphobes and other bigots. She opened up to me about her PTSD and that the broken window she had called up to report was probably from an air rifle to scare her and she had been having suicidal thoughts for...
the last two days but it was cold and she thought she could at least get it fixed for the next person to live there. The chat lasted a while and come to the end of it, after speaking about CBT and how you can& #39;t let the bastards get you down (not those exact words, I& #39;m at work)..
she thanked me for saving her life (bit dramatic and probably not true), I referred her to our safeguarding team and they got social services involved. My point of this story isn& #39;t about how great I am, any of my colleagues would do the same but it is about intolerance and...
it is about acceptance, we have come so far in society about the concept of accepting equal rights for all but we actually have so far to go, racism, religious intolerance, homophobia and the language used regarding any minority matters and it has real-world implications. To...
add to that point, she was a member of our armed services and we as a country had let her down, post putting her life on the line for all of us.
Another call I took was from the police, we had to evict a gentleman who hadn& #39;t paid his rent for over a year, even as a housing...
Another call I took was from the police, we had to evict a gentleman who hadn& #39;t paid his rent for over a year, even as a housing...
association and a charity, you still have to pay your rent. So the housing officer, bailiffs and police went to the property and when they forced entry, the man pulled a knife and stabbed himself in the stomach, trying to kill himself. The police were calling me to speak to...
the housing officer to get a witness statement because he may not make it (honestly I don& #39;t know if he did, more calls to take and all that shit). Now I don& #39;t know why the guy hadn& #39;t paid his rent but I can make a pretty educated guess. UC, you can only apply online and if...
you don& #39;t know how to you can get a month course from the CAB at the local library and that& #39;s it. If you then fail to make a claim or miss an appointment or even fail to show (again online) 35hrs per week of job searching you get sanctioned, now some will rise to that...
challenge but many more will not and what then? Foodbanks, crime and not paying your rent & bills, you can& #39;t pay money you don& #39;t have and then people Ostrich, they ignore letters and phone calls and things don& #39;t get better they spiral, social services are stretched to breaking..
already (see above local Government cuts) and these poor souls end up on the streets with massive mental health issues or in temporary housing.
Look I get it, people don& #39;t like paying tax, I don& #39;t! But the realities of cuts and UC are seeing our citizens dying, dying from...
Look I get it, people don& #39;t like paying tax, I don& #39;t! But the realities of cuts and UC are seeing our citizens dying, dying from...
cold on the streets, dying from suicide because they can& #39;t cope and dying from neglect because our welfare state sees them as a burden rather than helping lift them up or a societal safety net. My point about tax, is that your bit that you pay to the Government goes to...
helping these people, it literally can save lives, not just the people I mention above but our family and friends who are saved by the NHS. Your taxes shouldn& #39;t be seen as you missing out, they should be seen as a duty, a duty to your fellow citizens from the armed forces to...
mental health professionals. Now I may not earn a lot but I could probably afford a bit more (even if that means one less double JD and coke at the Brexit supporting Wetherspoons), so I don& #39;t see tax rises as something to be scared of, especially if that extra money will be...
used in education, social services and our NHS.
As I said, I don& #39;t expect to change anyone& #39;s mind but I do want you to think about where you put that cross, do you really want to live in an intolerant society who blames those less fortunate than themselves for the way...
As I said, I don& #39;t expect to change anyone& #39;s mind but I do want you to think about where you put that cross, do you really want to live in an intolerant society who blames those less fortunate than themselves for the way...
things are or do you want to try to make things better? I& #39;m not saying any party will succeed in making things better but I do know a party that over the last 9/10 years have made things worse...
See and I didn& #39;t even mention Brexit once...
See and I didn& #39;t even mention Brexit once...
I must confess to wondering whether or not to post this, as its a bit personal and honestly I moved on pretty quickly from both of those calls I mentioned above and whilst I acknowledge many of the...
homeless I pass in the morning or when I go to the shop, I rarely give them money (although tbh with contactless I hardly ever have cash anyway), so I am just as guilty as all, in the non-caring stakes.
