10 October 2019
I’m a Waspi. A 1950’s woman who has been told that I have lost about £40.000 through two alterations to my state pension age. I have never received a letter from the DWP notifying me of these changes. Discourteous and sloppy at the very least. Unjust and unfair regarding process, penalising one group of women disproportionately, at worst. Recently the organisation Back to 60 lost their judicial review challenging the changes and the way the process has been conducted. The outcome is extremely disappointing for about 3.8 million women across the UK. I was particularly interested in one of the arguments of the government. The QC Sir James Eadie stated that the ‘Parliament has no substantive free standing obligation to fairness’. Sadly, the judges appear to have agreed with this statement. I found it quite shocking. Logic indicates that if there is no obligation to fairness and justice, then there is a right to be unjust and unfair. There is therefore no moral accountability at the heart of our Parliament and administration. Perhaps this goes to the core of some of our problems in this country? Perhaps it helps to explain the appalling responses to various scandals e.g. Hillsborough, Mid Staffordshire, Morecambe Bay, Gosport, Southern Health, deaths of children in Northern Ireland and the shameful failures regarding the contaminated blood. People fighting for years to get answers, and some fairness and justice. Governments displaying differing degrees of ‘deafness’. It seems almost impossible for people to get justice and redress for parliamentary and institutional failings. A shocking failure to deliver timely accountability. Delivering fairness and justice is not our natural default in the UK. Withholding and trying to block it seems to be. That needs to change. ‘When justice rules a nation, everyone is glad; When injustice rules, everyone groans.’ Proverbs 29 v.2 The Poverty and Justice Bible
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