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Letters

Letters: Starmer went after the Daily Mail vote – and looks intent on keeping it

The idea of sending job coaches into psychiatric wards is not proving very popular

Starmer delivers his pre-budget speech. Image: Number 10 / Flickr

Big Issue readers have a few things to say about the Starmer government’s idea of sending job coaches into psychiatric wards.

Ward it off, Starmer 

I thought I was seeing things when I read the government’s latest idea to send job coaches into psychiatric wards; well it was late at night. Have they forgotten how many lives have already been lost to benefit sanctions?

This is a ridiculous idea, and the last thing that anyone will need when they are recovering, from what has probably been brought on by a lack of mental health care in the community, and long waiting times. The threat of benefit sanctions, they should try living on it, and see if any of them could manage to not be triggered by high levels of anxiety and depression. 

Just go away. Years of Tory doom, and now this! Sorry for the rant.  

Sandra Knowles, Facebook 

Together with fat busting jabs for the obese this an example of a mindless idea

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Laurence Elton, Facebook

The government continues to waste billions yet continues to put the most vulnerable in society at harm.

Raisingawarenessofsarcoidosis, Instagram

I’m so sad at all these stories I keep hearing. There was a time when I’d defend them and assume the stories were fake… not any more.

esthermaria5901, Instagram

Starmer went after the Daily Mail vote and looks intent upon keeping it.

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waynethewanderer, Instagram

Thatcher closed down the asylums and made us all socially vulnerable too.

lanah.p, Instagram

[Asylums] were actually a place of safety, refuge and routine for a lot of very vulnerable patients. I had this discussion with a very well-respected psych consultant who raised some real eye-opening issues with the closure of asylums and the movement to community based care. It failed a lot of people.

el.unsworth, Instagram

Human cost 

It’s so sad that the 21st century has not brought improvement but a cycle of decline for ordinary people. The fact is not so many people are needed in workplaces – for example shop assistants, bank clerks and factories. So human life is devalued because it’s not required and people, who once served oligarchs, are discarded as surplus to requirements. 

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The standard of living has become degraded too. Those who work are fleeced by landlords and robbed of a future because climate change is ignored. 

I was reading about the financial and environmental impact of decommissioning Sellafield nuclear dump. Inefficiency means it will be leaking low-grade waste until 2050. That seems like an example of the state of the whole country. 

Jane Catherine Pawley, Facebook 

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Police academy 

With cuckooing, there’s a wide range of crimes going on. Usually, it’s an abusive agreement where a drug addict allows their home to be used by drug dealers in exchange for some of the crack and heroin being moved through their address. Usually, the addicts are threatened with violence if they report the activity, but the actual handling of the drugs will be done by non-addicts (often vulnerable kids being drawn into the gangs) because they won’t try to consume the products themselves. 

Often the addicts or other vulnerable people can become victims of false imprisonment (when they aren’t allowed to leave) or physical violence if they’re believed to have given away their address’s use to the authorities. 

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The police (hi) usually tackle these problems with search warrants under drugs legislation, combined with social services referrals for the occupants to try to get them relocated. If they’re not willing to cooperate with safeguarding and keep being cuckooed, we can also get something called a closure order which bans them from having “guests” in their house (which would let us take action more easily if people are coming and going who don’t live there). 

I’ve been to addresses before where the same victim was cuckooed six or seven times in a couple of years, and we could have the same suspects awaiting multiple trials for cuckooing-related crimes for months at a time. It’s a big problem. We can only really tackle it effectively if people around the address notice and contact us to report it. 

@Acting_Constable_Sek, Reddit  

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