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

Hi SC

I didn't want to derail the main thread so I hope you don't mind me posting here. I work 2/3 evenings a week with Victim Support - http://www.victimsupportsco.org.uk/page/index.cfm Basically I help people affected by crime and/or anti-social behaviour access services designed to help. Often I'm just someone to talk to though. The people who use our services are predominantly from poorer backgrounds or the elderly. I visit them in their homes and often become someone they can trust to help them through the criminal justice system. Anything they tell me is in confidence and I couldn't possibly abuse that trust.

Hope that makes things a bit clearer.

It does indeed, thanks! I always find what you say interesting, albeit sometimes infuriating (), as I'm a leftie. I know we'll meet again in some thread somewhere. I love that most discourse on Hootoo is civil, unlike almost all similar discussions online of this side of the pond.

I think my attitude towards welfare and the treatment of the people at the pointy end of the economic spectrum has been shaped by the experiences my late husband and I had battling for his benefits (and me, later, for mine), after he had a catastrophic stroke, at age 38. It took out 2/3s of the left side of his brain, and he could obviously never work again, yet it took us more than 18 months to get his benefits. It also about broke my heart, as he'd worked his a** off to get his architect's license, and only had it one year before he was disabled.

My disability is a combination of 31 years as a Type 2 diabetic, a stroke, and a heart condition which resulted in a heart attack and triple bypass at the ripe old age of 55.