Vulnerable suffer in lieu of proper policy

HAVING been denied Personal Independence Payment (PIP) after being assessed by a faceless bureaucrat, who seems to have ignored all the information submitted, I sent my query to Jim Cunningham MP, who forwarded my complaint on to the relevant government department, who in turn promised to deliver a response in three weeks. No chance.

Four weeks on and his team have had to contact them again.

I spoke to my vehicle supplier who said they had lost a lot of clients because PIP had refused nearly all their claims.

Theresa May and her team have decided to punish the vulnerable for her inability to have a proper economic policy.

We are having to pay for austerity, while she is busy sugar coating her Brexiteers.

She has attacked her own voters while still keeping bankers and her colleagues in clover.

Same old Tories – the Nasty Party. Simon Whitehead Cannon Park selection of best practice, fully tested “off the shelf” components which could be combined to provide a border control system which could be tailored to meet the requirements of the two countries concerned.

Mervyn also cites a comment to the effect that “an all-singing all-dancing system would take seven years to develop” which he claims was made by Jon Thompson. I can’t find a specific reference for this and I have watched several hearings to which JT has given evidence.

However, there are statements by him which do identify multi-year project timelines – but these relate to ongoing HMRC projects.

The bottom line is that there is a border in Ireland anyway. The UK and Ireland have different VAT, Currency and Excise rates. Similarly, vehicles are sometimes stopped but the stoppages are based on intelligence-led information not border checks. Even now, we don’t have a perfect border control system but, thanks to the goodwill and co-operation on both sides of the border, it works.

Sadly, since June 2017 when Mr Varadkar became Taosieach, goodwill and co-operation have been in short supply. Ironically, goodwill and co-operation are the key requirements that are stressed repeatedly in the Good Friday Agreement. John Finn Coventry