h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whats the matter

Nothing at all lovely girl, for God's sake don't get all serious and touchy on me! You know I'm 'Pots for Rags' as they say in Wigan
(locally pronounced Wiggin). They're cummin' to take my away.......!!


Ron

Wigan !

I'm NOT getting serious and touchy

Chips

'Wiggin'.... Just a little up the M6 from here!

They have a pier there you know! It juts out over the canal!!

Just my northern sense of humour coming out. Don't mind me!

I know your not. It was just your 'What's up!' that worried me!

Ron

Let's see......if I can remember you seemed strange.

But, I think you'd been drinking ??

No chance. I used to like a pint of bitter. The operation put paid to that due to lack of capacity and its tendency to create ....!
I can take a glass of sherry occasionally, or at Christmas and on special occasions a glass of Champagne.

Tiredness was my problem last evening I think.

Ron

The explosive powers of Especially with your reduced colon.

Anyway, I forget what we were talking about.

Quite... talk about Wind in the Willows!!


I've forgotten too!

What were we chattering on about, now?

Wind in the Willows.

God, jokes about wind,I am so polite, have my hysterical. Really, I am an embarrassment.

All you said was, in effect, that my pint of bitter would create flatulence in my reduced colon (or semi-colon?) My pints, sadly, came to a full stop. Must dash!

.

I'm sorry Ron, I have lost the thread.......

Punctuation....semi-colon (not a full length of gut). (My drinking came to a)....full stop....(said I must....dash!)

Pathetic, I know, but I'm doing my best!


R

Your best is still very good..........

Sometimes, things have to be spelled out for me.

Like Mikey said, you really do want to make it clear that this entry is about Power of Attorney in the UK. There are significant differences in how it works in other countries. In the United States, for instance, a Power of Attorney can become effective immediately upon being signed, with no court action, or can specify that it is to become effective upon the diability of the person granting it. It can then further spell out how that disability is to be established (letter from one or two doctors or court decree, usually).



NBY

Hello NBY,
Thank you for your interest in my article.
You are quite right, as is Mikey. I have immediately amended the title and added an opening paragraph to clarify your point. I just forgot to implement it after Mikey had pointed it out!
You make some interesting points about the P of A in the United States.
Normally, or usually there is some involvement with any country's legal authorities, usually the courts; especially upon, or preferably before the originator or person who it is designed to protect becoming infirm, and can no longer make his/her own decisions on any logical basis.
My original intention was to help those specifically in the U.K. I do not have the required knowledge of U.S.law to be able to comment confidently on the American provisions in relation to these matters.
My sincere thanks for your input are due to both you and Mikey.

Ronbloggs

No worries, Ron.

Actually, in the United States, a Power of Attorney doesn't prevent a person from acting on his/her own behalf. It just authorizes someone else to do act on that person's behalf as well, leaving the person granting POA the option of reversing a decision made by the person receiving it, if practically and legally possible.

There are two levels of legal protection afforded to a person who cannot make her/his own decisions, both of which do require court orders. One is Conservatorship, in which the authority to make financial decsions only is granted. The other is Guardianship. A person whith guardianship has all the rights and authorities granted to a parent over a child.

Conservatorship trumps POA. Guardianship trumps Conservatorship.

NBY

Hi NBY,
The American system looks complicated.
If that system had been in force here it would have left me in a very difficult and worrying position.

My mother, who lived many miles away, had been conned out of significant amounts of money even before she contracted dementia. Overcharging; being told of repairs and problems that did not exist (such as on the roof where she could not gain access to in order to verify the facts); and even people doing a job (tarmacking her drive without her permission and charging her a ridiculous sum for so doing), together with threats to her person if she did not pay. We had to act to protect her, in her own interests, whilst she was sane enough to legally sign a P of A. ie before she was medically diagnosed with the condition.
If she had been still allowed to act on her own as well , that would have negated any protective cover and would have left her open to such continuing financial abuse.
English Law gave me absolute control over all her affairs.
As her attorney, I was not free to use any of her money or property for anything other than her direct personal benefit; and all cash was still in her named accounts; but I had sole control.

I could have been audited by order of the courts should I have broken any of the rules of financial conduct relating to her estate.
Thank God for the old English system! Other systems have been distorted by the machinations of unscroupulous so called lawyers in the name of their own financial reward. I name no country in this connection!

Ron

Hi Ron, are you still working on this? It looks like it could use a little more expansion, though you seem to be moving along...

Just about the only thing I know about power of attorney is that Chaucer gave it to John Gower when he (Chaucer) went abroad to France and Italy. Not that that would be much help to the entry, though, I suppose.

Hi emr,

Thank you for your interest in my Entry.
I do intend to look at it again soon. I have further information on the procedure of obtaining the P of A when I've got the time to give it more thought. I have my solicitor's guidance notes to interpret and to re-write whilst trying to avoid plagiarism! The procedure is a fairly complex one, and can be very complex in certain cases. Our case wasn't all that simple.
It largely depended on the existence of close (blood) relatives. My mother's 7 siblings were all deceased, and so it fell upon me to give the solicitor the names and addresses of all her (many) nephews and nieces, some of whom live abroad. The emphasis here is on 'all', as the legal mumbo-jumbo insists that they all have to be written to by the solicitor to give their permission and recommendations that I am a 'safe pair of hands' to entrust my mother's estate with! Even though I am my mother's chosen Executor of her Will!
Were you looking to become involved in some way with the Entry?
Or have you any suggestions that you are willing to impart to your's truly?
By the way, I just love reading Geoffrey Chaucer's writings. I have his full works in a hardback I bought 2 years ago entitled: 'The Riverside Chaucer' which has full footnotes, bibliography; the whole academic approach. A fully definitive edition; the main text consisting of Chaucer's own words and early English spellings; fascinating stuff.
I started becoming interested after reading 'The Canterbury Tales' translated by Nevill Coghill. His version is really beautifully written, I couldn't put it down until I'd finished all the Tales. I cannot, however, quote any Chaucer, or anything else, verbatim. I have no memory for words in that sense, even though I love beautiful English and thrive on it!

See you around,
Ron (alias f.)

I haven't really got anything constructive to offer. I was just breezing through to resurrect entries from the bottom of the Peer Review listings and bring them to the top. And show off my knowledge of Chaucer. I wrote a paper on him a little while ago, you see.

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour.
When Zephyrus eek with his sweete breathe
Inspired hath in every holt and heath
And pricketh nature in hir courages
Then longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.