Influence the care debate?

Oscaruk has had a clear response to our question about care for the elderly.

You now have the opportunity to influence government policy on this issue, as ‘The Big Care Debate’ is being rolled out across the country. There is a website – www.careandsupport.direct.gov.uk - which gives details of the meetings which are being held for public consultation, and through which you can make your own views heard by the government.

There is also a leaflet with a questionnaire, which may be distributed through workplaces, or other organizations. If you want a copy of this, or more than one copy to distribute, go to www.orderline.dh.gov.uk and quote 297527/Join the big care debate – quick guide.

We get few enough opportunities to make a real influence upon government policy, and in such a massively important topic, it does seem worth the trouble to take an active part.

One little grumble; so many government questionnaires ask for our ethnic origin or group. I never fill this in on census forms, and it appears again on the questionnaire with this document. It is such a meaningless phrase, and is one of those attempts at political correctness which only go to make the underlying problem worse.

Since my recent discovery that one of my ancestors was a mounted archer during the Hundred Years War – on the English side – I guess English is my ethnic origin, even though one grandmother was Welsh. ‘Ethnic’ can relate to either a race or a nation, and I do wonder which the government wish me to use. Granny makes me a bit of a Celt, so to speak, and it is always possible that William Douce, mounted archer, was a French mercenary. Uncle Guillaume. That might mean he was Norman French, so he would actually be descended from Vikings.

Really, if they want to know what colour I am, I’m mostly pink with some browner bits during summer. I don’t know what information they are looking for with the question, and as someone who has worked on questionnaires since around 1968, if I can’t figure it out, nobody else will. Much better to forget about issues of race, and concentrate on delivering a robust system of care for the elderly.