tonga

Do I really live in a country where four men use a battering ram to break down the door of a hard-working woman, married in this country to a lawyer, to search her property for proof that she is an illegal immigrant from a Commonwealth country?
It is a very long time since many of us on the Guardian opposed the new immigration laws which stopped Commonwealth citizens coming freely to this country. The tales of wrongdoing to "illegal" immigrants are so numerous that they are not reported anymore, not since one woman flung herself out of the window of her home to escape immigration officers and was killed.
But this one, Mrs. Tapui, worked as housekeeper for the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland. So there were political motives for the break-in by the immigration officials.
Which makes me ask again whether I am really living in a country that does this, as well as helping to pay the taxes to make this possible. The taxes are also paying for nuclear weapons defence whose power is the equivalent of 1000 Hiroshimas, and for the mistaken and unwinnable war in Afghanistan, as well as the one in Iraq.
Yes, I am existing in this country and am a Brit, but it is not a life.

More laughter in church

At the Lizard in Cornwall, on the very tip of England, a joint Anglican and Methodist church service was held this morning. It was in a small marquee flying the black and white flags of Cornwall in the centre of a rally for veteran steam engines and cars. The rally had opened at the same time as the normal church services, so the ministers moved their service to the rally.Sylvia, the Methodist minister, wore highly coloured patterned Wellington boots with her dog collar. Bill, the Anglican rector, brought a small kettle to demonstrate on a camp stove how a head of steam could be brought to personal faith as well as to the steam engines outside. There were guitars and wind instruments to accompany the hymns. The kettle took a very long time to boil. One of the guitarists gave a whistle which seemed to come from the kettle - but it hadn't. When it did, there was applause. The mike broke out with an explosive noise just as Sylvia was talking about powerful expression of faith.The result was laughter. Instead of the usual small group of Sunday worshippers, at least 100 were crammed into the tent and more came in as the service went on. They sang and laughed until the tears ran down their faces. They stayed totally silent for prayers and personal thoughts.So why can't Church services often be like this? How about holding question times instead of giving sermons so that people can ask about their doubts and dilemmas? And why, in most churches, is there no laughter? This is may seem all Revivalist in concept, but laughter and music and participation in church could be the solution to bringing back the congregations.

Are Icelanders Terrorists?

So Gordon Brown has said he is willing to use anti-terrorism legislation to freeze the assets of Icelandic companies operating in Britain. He wants to recoup money lost by public bodies and charities here who invested in the Icelandic banks.Which confirms the suspicions of the sceptical among us that the "anti-terrorist laws" are seen as a useful tool more easily to control the already over-controlled population. It's already been used for local offences against parents and people careless about their litter. What next? The proposal to bring in 42-day detention without trial? (Now, happily, that has been defeated!)Pity, in that case, that Gordon didn't use the handy anti-terrorism laws to bring those reckless speculators in the City into line. It might have helped to avoid the crash?

Speaker's procession

When moves finally go ahead to bring Parliament into the 21st century, the first idea might be to get rid of the weird daily procession, complete with lavish robes and trainbearer, as well as a mace bearer dressed in 16th century uniform, which crosses the lobby at the House every day on the Speaker's way to the chamber. What is the point? Why should so many people be involved in this simple walk?

dementia scandal

This is dementia awareness week throughout the country. But how aware are we likely to become about dementia? The subject - and the people who suffer from it - are brushed aside, tidied away where they cannot be seen or thought about.

If they aren't lucky enough to have a "carer" - one of those stuck with the label which means they are usually unpaid and unappreciated - they are in "care homes."

Let's go into one of them, in the West Country. It isn't one of those which are the subject of scandal stories of "residents" being neglected and abused. This has a star rating and views out on to a lavish and well-kept garden. There is no one in it, even though it is a sunny day. Inside the old, converted manor house is a dayroom lined with armchairs and holding a widescreen TV set, currently turned off. Sitting in them are about 20 white-haired old ladies and two men.

There is a continual loud cry of "Help, help" from two of of them who cannot get out of their chairs except by a mechanical hoist. Another one

is calling "Take me home. I want to go home. Please help me." Another one - "Where is my daughter, find her for me," and another "I want my mother, where is my mother?" There are numerous care assistants, getting them into hoists and wheelchairs to take them to the toilet or to their well-appointed rooms, but there would never be enough of them to console these lost souls. Only a continuously loving hand could stop them, or the weekly sing-songs organised by the home's entertainer, who tries to improve their lives with games and trips out in the mini-bus.

Unless paid for by their local authority or the State, this costs each resident £750 a week each if they have incomes over £23,500 plus. For many of them, the money can only be found by selling their homes.

Why are they like this? They are suffering from dementia, an umbrella term which covers a multitude of medical conditions, but which are not routinely treated as medical by the government which treats it as a "social care" problem and not a medical one to come under the National Health Service.

Long ago, at the start of the New Labour government, their manifesto promised better care for the elderly sufferers. A Royal Commission made proposals which were never carried out. Now they are being looked at again and being brought before Parliament. But still it deals only with "social care."

The scandal is that dementia does not have to be forever an untreatable and unmentionable condition as TB and cancer once were.

In Cambridge, research teams are at breakthrough points in finding cures and prevention for dementia. But they are short of money. The Government subsidy is only one-eighth of that given to cancer research. Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, says:

"The government expects its strategy's dementia care measures to save £1 billion over the next 10 years. If the government was really committed to social justice and financial prudence it would reinvest this money into dementia research." World leaders in the research, she said, were struggling for want of funds.

But, unhappily for the dementia sufferers and those of us, like Terry Pratchet, a supporter of the campaign, fated to join them, it is easier for any government to call for social care measures than for free medical help under the National Health Service. ends