September 2008 Archives

 by Allan Norman

This week, the UK Government finally announced it is to begin the process of lifting the Reservations it put in place when signing the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This is a move that has been widely welcomed and commended, not least by UNICEF, and rightly so since it is a positive and beneficial step. Somewhat ungraciously, therefore, let me explain my reaction, that this is too little, too late.

 by Allan Norman

Yesterday, the National Health Service (Directions by Strategic Health Authorities to Primary Care Trusts Regarding Arrangements for Involvement) Regulations 2008 were laid before Parliament.

Did you know? Do you care? Has it anything to do with social work?

I've written before about the dog in the night-time. The dog in the day-time is proving curious too. It features in a most surprising way in the judgement of the House of Lords in London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm [2008] UKHL 43 (25 June 2008). It's about disability discrimination, or what's left of it after the guide dog got mauled.

By Nigel Leaney

The birth of a grandchild can fill in some of the missing bits of family life, particularly for service users with mental illness

by Simon Heng

Disabled people rely disproportionately on public transport but access to buses, trains and taxis remains an area of disadvantage

 by Allan Norman

Many civil court cases boil down to arguments over money. Even those with origins in arguments about injury to person or reputation end up with arguments about the financial value of the harm. When a case is genuinely about - for example - the welfare of a child, we can feel warm and fuzzy. But how acceptable is it, in other contexts, to be arguing about money? It happens all the time, and for a variety of reasons. It happens because we believe someone else should be footing the bill, or no-one should be footing the bill. What exactly is the law on avoiding responsibility?

There have been several recent social care cases to point.

 by Allan Norman

Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong
How can the law forbid my tongue to curse?
Shakespeare, King John, Act III, Scene I

The judgement of the Scottish High Court of Justiciary last month in Anwar, Re Possible Contempt Of Court [2008] ScotHC HCJAC_36 (01 July 2008) comes as something of a relief to me. I'm still allowed to blog!

If there are any regular readers out there, you may know I mentioned this case before. Anwar is a human rights lawyer who was referred for contempt of court after criticising his client's trial. Specifically, he asserted that his client "was today found guilty of doing what millions of young people do every day, looking for answers on the internet."