My values and passions~ The motivation for my blog

For many The first of September signals the end of summer and the beginning of Autumn, though others try especially in today’s beautiful London sunshine to hold on to summer for as long as possible.

I have recently moved house and have been off line for a time, as I came back to my blog I was delighted to see that I have a new follower, and I welcome Ann Cheryl Watkins to my blog and to all my readers I wish a prosperous and successful Autumn season, especially for those beginning studies at the start if the new academic year.

Some time back, I wrote an article about living a better life, being a better you while you are job hunting or trying to start a business. The article focused on such things as identifying your values and knowing your passions and developing these things to maintain your confidence and help you to get work.

When writing a blog and so communicating regularly with your readers online, it is good to let them see and learn something about your personality and character, what is it that drives you and inspires your writing.  Blogging is about building a community, not just about writing articles, So, I am republishing the article updated for my new readers.

I was inspired to write my blog by the experiences and discoveries I have had as an older person with disabilities trying to make a career as a writer, and I began the blog as I tried to make an income successfully from home, thinking that my knowledge and experiences could benefit the millions of others in the same position as myself, older and with health issues but needing to work whether this be in or out of the home.

Some time back, in a Facebook group that I admin, we had a day of sharing with each other the things that inspire, prompt and motivate us to thought and action, and seeing that many of them are relevant to my blog, I decided to give you my readers an insight into some of the issues that inspire me to action. 

   1.)   I am for respect and equality of access to services for everyone as long as who they are  and what they represent does not harm others by criminal violence and terrorism. I am for gay people and Muslims and for everybody even if I don’t actually want to be gay or Muslim myself or encourage it …I don’t have to pair them all up and find them friends and go and join them but I do have to respect them as people and I do NOT have a duty or right to convert them.

    2.)    I am for fair government that treats the genuine poor and sick and disabled with compassion and fair play and helps them to have what they need in the way of resources so that they can then access things to help them be more independent. You cannot go to an employment training scheme for the disabled, even if the Jobcentre is forcing you to do so at peril of losing your benefit if you do not, if you have no benefits and cannot afford the transport to go there because you need your last little bit of money for food. I am for a government that rather than force the sick and disabled to risk their lives and quite possibly as many have, die due to the stress of looking for work or attending workfare schemes, recognises that the sick and disabled do have extra living expenses and need help, not have their benefits cut or removed altogether to force them to work. I am at home for most, often all of the day and I know that this adds to the expense of energy bills and there are no free lunches like I had when I was working. Energy costs are higher as those on a limited income due to being on benefits often end up being forced on to pre- pay meters, the most expensive form of paying for energy consumption.

      3.)    I am for access to legal services for all…not just for who can afford to pay the best lawyer or pay one at all!! Everyone is entitled to access to legal representation, there should not be situations where people cannot appeal a loss of disability benefits because they can no longer get legal aid for it and they cannot afford a solicitor, so they end up being forced on to Job seekers allowance and die in the process of attending workfare schemes or due to the stress of job hunting. 

Victims of domestic violence as I was, should not be told as happened to me, that as I was on legal aid, my abusive ex would be allowed to apply for a divorce and would be granted it as he could pay and I was legally funded. I was told by my solicitor that the opinion of the court would be that as the marriage had failed in any event, and I was legally funded but he was paying a solicitor, he would be the one granted the divorce. In effect all my solicitor did was act as a postman for my husband’s communications from his solicitor. Abusive partners should not be able to buy innocence and as my divorce papers do, make the abused partner the guilty one.

      4.)    I am for access to effective medical care and treatments for ALL, Not just if you can afford it, if you have the right medical insurance or if you live in a health authority area where the cure or treatment you need is funded rather than one where it isn’t…like what happens in my country , it’s not on that you can’t have a treatment  for your cancer or blindness or heart condition or Multiple Sclerosis  but someone in the next town can, or that indeed you can have it because you can afford to buy it but someone down the street cannot have that chance because they cannot pay for it .

      5.)    I am for education opportunities for every child and person such as they are able to benefit from them according to their ability and interest. Getting a degree should not be the privilege of the rich.  Continued education is not right for everyone; I am not advocating that everyone no matter what they want to study even if it has little or no practical use should be allowed to study at the expense of the state. Some people are just not cut out for an academic education and this is why education systems such a technical and comprehensive schools came into being, to give appropriate opportunities to every child. However, The UK is now seeing a return to what affected my education chances as a teenager in the 1970’s, bright children who would have benefited from an academic education and a degree are having to leave school and get a job way beneath their capabilities and aspirations, because their parents cannot afford to keep them or indeed are unwilling to put pressure on themselves by trying to do so and need them to be financially self-supporting.

Also, education should not be seen as the prerogative of the young and that it is wasted on older people. If, as indeed is happening, people are being told they must work way past their expected retirement age, but they lose their job or are physically unable to continue in their field as they age, then they in my opinion have a right to free education and training for work that they can do. However, many local authorities are making adult education one of the first budgets that they cut as central government cuts their budgets and the money paid to them to provide services. A degree in Sociology that I was unable to study for as a teenager, would go a long way to helping my confidence and open doors, as I hopefully develop a writing career in the field that I want to break into, disability and age related employment issues. However, while I began a BA with the open university, I was unable to take advantage of free fee transitional arrangements due to personal issues and when I was ready to do my next module, free study for those on benefits was no longer available.

   
6.)    I am for the sick, the disabled, children and the elderly and for those who are carers, I do not see why the lady who began the organisation in my borough for carers should say to me, Valerie, there is a world of difference in being a carer on a low income at our end of the borough and being a carer who can afford to pay for whatever is needed and not freely provided, living at the other end, the wealthy end of our borough.   I am for helping those who need and deserve it, because helping them helps them to help themselves and not only themselves ...but others too as I have discovered on my journey and while writing this blog to help others in the same position as myself. 

      Valerie Hedges