Vulnerable being demonised to justify cuts
MUCH of the debate around the introduction of Public Space Protection Orders (PSBOs) and, indeed, a lot of the support for the measures, has centred on this idea of ‘personal responsibility.’
Issues such as homelessness, drug addiction and alcohol abuse are being treated as lifestyle choices or individual moral failings while the notion that these are societal problems is scorned upon.
I do not wish to dispute that personal responsibility is a factor in both causing and solving these problems.
However, the idea that the society around each individual - the society that we as individuals make up - has no influence on the circumstances of each individual, is deeply fallacious and damaging.
Indeed, what we have here is the nature-nurture debate put into a political context.
Any rational discussion on the nature-nurture debate has to concede both nature and nurture are interconnected in many complex ways.
We see this in psychology and sociology and it is long overdue that this logic should be applied also to politics.
What we are seeing in Rochdale is the demonisation of vulnerable people in order to justify savage cuts to the very services that would help these people.
Homelessness is not a lifestyle choice it is a housing issue which relates to an increasingly vindictive welfare state.
Drug addiction and alcohol abuse are more rightly treated as medical issues than criminal matters.
Where there are behavioural problems these could be medical or psychiatric.
It is counterproductive to shift this burden onto the police, who are themselves subject to cuts in resources.
It has been said (Rochdale Township Meeting 22/03/17) that should PSBOs be introduced that extra wardens would be recruited to patrol the town centre.
No indication has been given as to who will pay for this.
One cannot help but feel that if the money is there to victimise vulnerable people and the money is there to award a 34 per cent increase in the councillors’ allowance that these decisions are being made for political reasons rather than economic reasons.
We need to ask ourselves who really benefits from these decisions while bearing in mind that councillors are personally responsible for the decisions they make and the impact of these decisions. Daniel Clayton Rochdale Green Party
SAVE SUPPORT FOR HOMELESS
MANY people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness need specialist support to rebuild their lives.
This expert support is provided by dedicated staff in supported housing hostels.
Government plans to change funding could cause irreparable damage to essential services for homeless people. They may even cause some to close.
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Damian Green, have the power to make sure that this doesn’t happen.
The next two months will be crucial, so we must act fast.
It will only be a few months before proposals will be presented to government so we must act fast.
Please could concerned readers of Rochdale Observer take a moment to sign the St Mungo’s petition to Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Damian Green.
This can be done in a few moments at: https:// mungos.e-activist.com/ page/7151/petition/1?en_ chan=tw&ea.tracking. id=twitter&en_ ref=54040218 Andrew Wastling Drake Street
MEMORIAL IS AT MUSEUM
ROCHDALE’S ‘missing’ memorial (Looking for Memorial, 29 March) is now located at the ‘Fusilier Museum’ in Bury.
This is slightly strange, not all of the soldiers commemorated on it were Lancashire Fusiliers and the vast majority were from Rochdale (as opposed to Bury).
If your reader asks one of the helpful staff at the museum, they will know which memorial he/she is referring to and be able to direct them to it.
It is a beautiful wooden memorial and the Museum itself is well worth a visit!
I hope this helps. Elsie Wraighte
KEEP THESE LANDMARKS
SO, RMB want to demolish some of the Seven Sisters for redevelopment.
Surely this is going to cost thousands.
Use this to remodernise the blocks and keep these landmarks, which are dominant to Rochdale’s skyline, to be seen for miles and miles. Name and address supplied