The State We're In

I have to share this story to show what a wonderful, wonderful village I grew up in.

Read: Volunteers clean up disabled man's home

The piece doesn't really tell the full story - how a very vulnerable person's care was dropped with no notice and no where to turn, but it does offer the tiniest glimpse into what has been a huge community operation by many people to transform this person's house into something more liveable and more manageable. There has been hours of work by so many to make it possible and many local businesses have also supported.

I have been following the progress from afar via Facebook and updates from my mum and am so proud to know the people in this village. And at the same time so horrified to learn of the gaping holes in social care in modern Britain.

David Cameron - take your social care cuts and your big society and peddle your filth elsewhere. We still cling on to small communities in some parts of Great Britain, thank you very much. We call it village life where, despite popular belief, not everyone forms their opinions from the tory-state sponsored Daily Mail. And we don't need a blitz to find our spirit.

The welfare state and social care system is the most precious, wonderful safety net in the world. It was never designed to give one person an advantage over another, but to allow disadvantaged people the same opportunities as what most of us accept as 'the norm'. Don't be blind-sided by dreadful headlines about immigrants and scroungers. THIS is the face of social care reform - vulnerable people falling through the cracks with no safety net. One day you or your family will probably need that safety net.