(no subject)

[webofevil]

Yesterday the government suffered further defeats in the Lords, this time on the legal aid bill. In all fairness to the coalition, there are plenty of positive things that they are putting in place to try to deal with domestic violence, as the minister was extremely keen to stress during yesterday's debate, but that can suddenly count for very little if someone spots that your reforms mean, for instance, that someone who has made use of a women's refuge will no longer be able to use that experience as evidence of domestic abuse. (Yet another Con Dem “tough decision”, by the way, designed and expected to have zero impact on the people who took it.)

And who was the minister sent out to ferociously defend this plank of government policy? It was, of course, Lord "Fall Guy" McNally. The theory about his officials' evil template gains ground.

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Why do something so needlessly cruel? Or is that really their core voter - a wife puncher?

[webofevil.livejournal.com]

As I say, it's not that they're doing nothing positive, but they appear to want to ration out services like sweets. The initial Conservative brainstorm sessions most likely produced some sort of voucher scheme (they're obsessed with vouchers), so we should probably be grateful that this is all we've been presented with.

Lord McNally was keen to talk up the government's "Clare's Law" plans that would enable someone to find out easily if their partner had a history of domestic violence, presumably in the hope that this might one day become as normal a part of a burgeoning relationship as going to get tested for STDs together. The trouble is that this right already exists and, as this article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/06/clares-law-police-domestic-violence) points out, any such scheme isn't worth a fart in a wind tunnel if the police already aren't doing their jobs properly in the first place and taking seriously pleas for protection from women who are subsequently injured or killed by their current or former partners. Unless that changes, tabloid-friendly wheezes with ladies' names won't make a scrap of difference. Still, it gives the illusion of positive action, which the coalition will be content with at this point.