I've switched teh funnay off today, because something's got me angry.This week, you see, Dorset County Council will meet and will – with the finality of officials that have already made up their minds – close down Weymouth Women's Refuge, amongst other vital projects.
It takes a lot to get me agreeing with my Labour MP, NuLab being the personification of EPIC FAIL these last few years, but if this is what our newly-elected Conservative county council's got planned for us, then may the deity of your choice help us all when smiling David Cameron walks through the door of Downing Street next June.
The long and the short of it - if you're still awake – is that Weymouth has the highest rates of domestic violence in the county, yet our refuge for some of the town's most at-risk families is to be replaced with what they euphemistically term 'outreach services'.
Women need a place to go when they are in immediate danger from an abusive partner. Children should not have to live in fear. Not being a woman myself, I should imagine the last thing I'd want is to have to make an appointment with an outreach worker at a critical moment. And not being one for hyperbole, the words "blood on their hands" already been used by others.
Let us, then, take a look at a few scenarios:
SCENARIO ONE: As seen by Dorset County Council
Scene: Living Room, interior, day. Mr and Mrs Normal are sitting in a sofa. Opposite, in a comfy chair is Ms Outreach-Worker. All have Stepford Wives-type grins on their faces.SCENARIO TWO: Back in the real world
Mr Normal: So, what you're saying is this – instead of resorting to my fists, we should sit down and talk things through like rational adults.
Ms Out-reach-Worker: Yes. Yes, that's it exactly.
Mr Normal: And, perhaps, I should lay off the drink and see to my anger issues as well?
Ms Outreach-Worker: Simples! Here, take this leaflet.
She hands Mr Normal a leaflet. The cover has a picture of a smiling nuclear family under the slogan "Dorset County Council Outreach Services – Happy Families AND Value For Money!"
Mr Normal: Tuh! How could I have been so stupid!
Mrs Normal: Hooray! Hooray for Dorset County Council!
Scene: Living Room, interior, day. Mrs Normal cowers in a corner as Mr Normal enters.The vote on this is tomorrow, and – to be honest – I'm not hopeful of the outcome.
Mr Normal: Been talking to Brian over the road...
Mrs Normal (under her breath): ...bloody busy-body...
Mr Normal: …says you've 'ad that council woman in again.
Mrs Normal (avoiding eye contact): I... I... sent her away again. Said we were fine. Said we'd sorted it
Mr Normal: Good. Good. What's that you're holding?
Mrs Normal: She left a leaflet. Thought you might like to read it. Sort your anger issues.
She holds up a leaflet. The cover has a picture of a smiling nuclear family under the slogan "Dorset County Council Outreach Services – Happy Families AND Value For Money!"
Mr Normal cracks his knuckles, and narrows his eyes.
Mrs Normal backs further into the corner.
Fade to black
An unstoppable bureaucracy in the hands of either "Compassionate" Conservatism or Calamitous New Labour. Stone me, never have I been so disillusioned by party politics.
The Dorset Echo reports.
23 comments:
It's amazing how many people folk in power will fuck over to save a bit of cash. I wonder how much of an increase in payment the councillors are getting.
How dare they remove what is literally a life saving resource and replace it with something that is a tick box pointless response of uselessness. It's not going to work for desperate, terrified, battered and bruised women having to run to save their lives.
How many people will die for a relatively small amount of money.
(Sorry hit a big nerve with this one - I'm glad you posted it)
Glad you posted this too, mister Duck.
Mrs DM used to work as a counseller at the Womans Refuge in Reading..
It's disgusting that places like these are being closed. Surely saving lives is more important than saving money?
Bunch of savages in this town.
The rationale for council decisions is as follows:
1. Have I ever used this service?
2. Am I likely to use this service in the next five years?
Given that battered women with low-self esteem and no resources, in the process of fleeing their abusive partners, with or without kids in tow, are for some reason not participating in the decision-making echelons of local government, it's hardly surprising that this is considered a viable area for cuts.
My basis for this hypothesis is my own local council... all sorts of essential services being reduced or axed, except leisure activities for the over-60s which are steel-plated.
What is really clear is the message this gives. Some poor woman's life is not worth the cost of the refuge - because that's what it's going to take to open people's eyes.
You can see the councillors now, can't you? "Blah, blah, blah.. She'll only go back to him, blah, blah, blah, probably deserved it anyway, blah honk woof" at the same time as creaming off their expenses for a second Jag.
That's how much you're worth to these people, folks. If you're not earning for them, you're a liability. Get out of there, now. I did.
Followed up and posted :
http://www.stevedix.de/blog/785
Nice one Steve.
It's no better this side of the pond. Amazing how every time there's a budgetary "crisis", the politicians talk about how if we don't raise taxes, we'll have to lay off police and firemen, or get rid of services like your women's refuge. They never talk about the fact that they just voted themselves a raise or just went on some sort of junket--all on the taxpayers' dime. To politicians everywhere, of every stripe: get your head out of your arse, get your priorities straight, or get out of office!
Dorset Tories have always hated Weymouth, "not really Dorset, don't yew know, can't be having with all that seaside tat, common as muck, what"
Be different if the refuge was in Dorch or Sherborne, of, ffs that Wimborne!!
Geoff: In all the years I've lived in Weymouth, I've had the sneaking suspicion that the powers based in Dorchester always looked at the resort with jealous eyes.
So you got a two-year delay on the Weymouth relief road because the final 400 yards came under West Dorset council, who neglected to add it to their local plan.
Turds. Letterboxes. You know it makes sense.
It mystifies me that they chose this particular project instead of other less, or non-vital ones. I'm trying to remain uncynical and thinking it is only because it is poorer women and children who don't vote being affected.
Good luck then, next week.
As a denizen of Weymouth, who knows victims of domestic abuse myself, I am bloody disgusted myself. I personally voted Lib Dem at the last council elections, and this does nothing but underline my disgust of local Tories, which are far too numerous for my liking.
It's not just women who get abused in relationships.
But to close down a refuge like that is sheer bloody stupidity.
Not sure it's hate, I been here 65 years last muck-spreading and the first half of my working life was as a serf among the Tattersall Check and Cavalry Twill set and I think they would sooner we pick up our stuff and "just push off" someplace else, and "take that Portland with you"
Disdain is the word I wuz looking for
Duck, send this to the Echo if it goes the wrong way. Go on.
Good point, Audrey.
Also: I love you guys.
Any woman who suffers domestic abuse after tomorrow and has nowhere to go immediately, should sue the council for endangering her life.
Honestly, what a bunch of wankers. I hope they all get arse cancer.
Well you all know the rationale. It's not to save money, it's because a 'woman's' refuge is sexist. I read it on the web so it must be true. Please note the HUGE amount of sarcasm attached to that statement. What will the PC/H&S brigade think of next?
Good post Mr Duck, I second the motion for jamming this down the throat of your local Echo hack.
Also, Special-K, Arse Cancer is not nearly harsh enough.
Think Bigger, think giant hemmoroids, think salt. Think Brillo...
Pain is the only language these debased excuses for humans understand.
Just reverse the titles of 'Mr' and 'Mrs' in that account.
In my opinion they both need refuge facilities.
Husband-bashing is apparently just as common now in the UK as wife-beating is!
And silly leaflets from the local council won't change that fact.
We need more social help for those couples who got together purely on sexual attraction, but since found they otherwise absolutely hate each other as a person (including their bad habits) - the real source of the violence between them.
They were incompatible from the start - but the bed has always been far too accommodating! Hence they will always return to their partner.
Hence an idiot in the Council says we can save £xxx by axing the refuge facilities. And guess who comes out tops at the next election on spending cuts? And yet it was only a miserly 0.00001% cut into the total council budget!
What we see in the states is the difficulty in stopping the cycle. Father abuse the wives, and you get children who repeat the pattern, and so it goes generation after generation. We had a charity refuge center that became a joke because it started to get scammed. I knew a woman who fled from a wife beater. She went to the shelter and they couldn't do much for her because it was overloaded with scammers, that is women who went from shelter to shelter for the freebies. When they tried to do something the scammers started screaming racism. They gave up and shut it down. Now with the economy going down the tubes you just know the domestic abuse is going to increase. Can't get people to see you save money in the long run if you can stop the cycle.
Excellent post! I'm glad you wrote about this. Some outstanding comments as well!
It's disillusioning and infuriating.
Closing down things like this is a fucking disgrace.
I too fear for the future with the "least unelectable" political party winning the GE next summer. We think it's bad now. Just wait...
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