Friday 1 July 2011

Knowing the law is half the battle...

Did the housing councillor lie to me? Did he? Didn't he? When he said the allocations policy was legislative and couldn't be changed by the council?

Old Soak at the pub (who isn't an old soak by the way, only ever has 2 pints of guinness and can sometimes have an extra half if we're chatting. I like him, and he does me, in the human to human sense. "How are you?" I once said when I was new. "Grumpy," he mumbled and I laughed because he reminded me of my brother. Since then, we're mates.)

Anyway, Old Soak had a bad week so I told him about mine. I can bore him about housing because because oh, I don't have time today!

So Old Soak told me that allocation policies might be up to the council but but BUT they are following guidelines from the state, so there would be a statutory instrument about it.

The lawyer did fob me off and she fobbed me off because she was probably too busy (as opposed to didn't want) to help. She knows the law, not me, so she could talk over me with it and keep returning to the fact the councillor had dealt me a 'red herring'.

There are two main statutory instruments she said, but if one imagines a branch, many twigs shoot from it and the instrument I want is one of those. Twigs are mighty things you know, you can make wands out of them for starters.....

The lawyer may have known she was fobbing me off because at the end, when I'd dried my eyes, she suddenly said I should volunteer for the Law Centre.

Wow, I didn't expect that, I didn't quite know what to say thinking the summer holiday's are coming up and I'm struggling to find childcare so I can do my pub shift during the teachers' strike.

She said I could volunteer for national policies too, though not with them.

I'm going to ponder on it. Local may too hard. I'll work on cases of families being helped with housing when mine wasn't helped. Still, when it comes to our next eviction...

Got to think about it, it's a good idea and I'd love to work in research and policy, just not fecking volunteering; hard cash is what I want.

But hey, tis a New Moon and what should one do on New Moons?

Let go or Start again
Start again
Start again....

2 comments:

Frankie Parker said...

Hey, volunteering may not be a bad thing, might help you to get "heard" by the new people you meet, that is if you can sort out childcare.. Just a thought....

Stigmum said...

Yes, I do want to ask some firms for it but am worried about the timing with summer holidays coming up...