Feeling Guilty

I didn’t vote in the local elections. I feel really guilty as I believe in the moral duty to vote. I had tried to forget about it but today one of my students bought an article carefully saved from the Times titled ‘Why It Matters’. As I’ve lectured them about the importance of voting; the key features of liberal democracy and the relationship between central and local government; he assumed I would be interested. He assumed I cared.

The working woman fought long and hard for the vote; as did the working man. The last 100 years has seem an enormous social upheaval- almost a revolution that has taken power from the property owning minority to the many. Now we have that power we should use it.

So why didn’t I vote?

Is it because it was local elections?

No; I do generally agree with the article that local government still has some significant powers that affect local quality of life.

Is it because it was too damn difficult?

No; Its a 3 min walk on safe well lit streets to the local school; I’m on the elctoral register. All I have to do is turn up with my card and put a cross in a box. I should be able to make the effort.

Is it because I don’t know who to vote for?

Partly; my local council is inefficent and overspending. It has poor control of resources and a lack of independence in its finance function. It is however controlled by a party I feel ideological affinity too.

Is it because I don’t care?

Again partly; my local seat is not threatened my any extremist parties and I don’t really think it matters which of the other parties gets in. Also I don’t consider myself to be at home; I don’t feel that I’m permanent here- that I care about this town. Which is just silly as I live here, work here and send my son to school here.

However this is not enough to excuse the dereliction of my social duty. I will vote next time.

 

Childcare and pedantry

In the Guardian last weekend an ‘interfering’ sister had written in to complain that her sister was saving money by leaving her kids with their grandparents and therefore avoiding childcare costs. The sister was unsure what to do as she felt her parents were being taken advantage of. The winning response stated that childcare costs could be reclaimed through tax credits and that 80% of childcare costs can be reclaimed in this way. This is a common misconception and its NOT TRUE. At least not for most of us. The reality is that you can reclaim 80% of childcare costs if you earn less than £13,000. Most of us receive no help at all.

 

And childcare is expensive- its like a second mortgage. My nursery fees were about £600 per month. This was considered cheap- especially by my London friends. When I had my son I resolved never to moan about childcare costs and I’ve tried to stick to that but it annoys me that there is a perception that the government is helping with costs.

 

The expense of childcare makes it difficult for people in lower paid (but not poverty level) jobs to make sensible decisions regarding work and chidcare; with woman often having to compromise their careers or standards.

 

I would also like to point out that I arrange my life in such away that I can afford childcare and do not think the government should help me. However I do think that misconceptions about childcare help to hide the real situation for many families.

 

And whilst I’m in a pedantic mood the following website is a test of your vocabulary. For every question you get right they donate rice to starving people.

 

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

 

However they define pedantic* as ‘bookish’, which is incorrect. As a pedant I feel the need to point this out. Although even dictionaries sometimes fail to meet my pedantic standards; I once got very annoyed with the pocket OED as a word in the preface wasn’t then defined in the dictionary.

 

 

* Pedantic: person who is excessively concerned with minor detail or with displaying technical knowledge.

Medical Choice

The current political agenda emphasises the need for medical choice. Recently I’ve been confronted with this choice and not really known what to do with it……I am intelligent, professional and relatively well informed but I don’t feel qualified to excercise choice

Scenerio 1

I went to the opticians and they found some scarring on the back of my eye and said I should go to the eye clinic. They contacted 2 eye clinics both of which wrote to me to arrange appointments. Nobody had told me that this might happen….I don’t know anything about either clinic. I phoned both and picked the one that offered me the most convenient time. They then changed the time at short notice on two occasions so I went to the other…..But I knew nothing about the care that I would receive (which was excellent).

Scenario 2

To treat or not to treat….My son has a slight speech impediment. I went to the doctors to see if he should have a hearing test as I’d been told that children normally have a hearing test before they start school. The doctor said no…but that he could be referred (infact it was a locum and he said he didn’t know who we could refer him to but he was sure that there was somebody)…the referral came through to the speech and language therapist. The doctor who referred him never heard him speak and I’m concerned that he may not need to see anybody and that the process of going to see a speech therapist may make him self concious.

Scenario 3

The dreaded eye injury…when I injured my eye recently I attended 2 A+E departments. They both saw me quickly, were friendly polite and efficent….but offered slightly different treatments. The first gave me no pain relief to speak of but recommended follow up treatment. The second recommended no follow up treatment but gave me pain killers, a tetnus injection, eye drops and an eye patch. They both felt that the eye ointment was very important and this was given by the first and checked by the second. However I’ve no idea which of the other two approaches was more appropriate….

Incidentally I saw an eye doctor and everything was fine! 

Scenario 4…the dreaded MMR debate- need I say more?