A belated Happy New Year to one and all. As we head towards the Brexit that many of us have argued for over many a long decade I hope that 2019 marks a turning point in all our fortunes.
The blog has been on ice for many months and to be honest I do not know when or even if it will restart again. A lot happened in mid-2018 which forced me to suspend my blogging and now that my health has taken a further dip from bad to worse I do not know if I can face the grind of regular blog posts.
I was threatened with homelessness last summer when Mrs McRachman, my landlady, decided that she wanted her flat back and gave me notice to quit. Luckily, I managed to get a very nice housing association flat which should do me for the rest of my life, but the upheaval meant that keeping the blog alive was the last thing on my mind.
Now, many months later, we are still in dispute about the deposit that I want to be returned. The matter is under arbitration, but preparing the case for the arbitrator was not something that I could do in five minutes. I approached it as if I were doing university finals again which meant that everything else was just put to one side and ignored.
Then, as we headed into the end of the year, HMG wrote to me to say that my Disability Living Allowance was coming to an end and that I should apply for Personal Independence Payment. I have the medical examination for that to look forward to next week and then the appeal when my claim is rejected. I hope to win that appeal, but it will take about 18 months and will pretty much dominate everything during that period.
Why do I expect to have to appeal? Well, because PIP was brought in by the Tories to do over the disabled and save the government money.
So that's the situation with me. If I get my personal circumstances sorted out then I may restart the blog. If I don't then I won't, but I am still alive and still swinging punches as best I can against a regime and a system that I despise.
Have a great 2019 folks!
