‘The law’ was never the gold standard, anyway. It’s well known that we have protective legislation regarding accessibility and so on but good luck to anybody that thinks it’s the fix to every step or narrow door they encounter.
Rules are necessary for peace and order; that much is true, but they aren’t forged in perfect form. They shouldn’t need to be perfect either.
The recent High Court judgement concerning the bedroom tax is a case in point. This was always a losing game since the High Court is only able to examine whether the Government followed correct procedure in drafting the policy. The High Court does not have remit to make a ‘moral’ judgement. The idea that the tax is discriminatory against disabled people was therefore thrown out.
Surely, the imperative to make that moral judgement and any subsequent stand, is with the people – and no legal precedent should be needed. Whilst it won’t affect the outcome of this legislation (unless it becomes an election
issue) it’s up to us to ‘do the right thing’ if only, because it’s the right thing to do.
I wish the Government could see, more often, that rules without sensible exceptions aren’t sensible
at all. Exceptions ‘prove’ the rule (of law) and show the competence, character, flexibility, strength and common sense of the rulemakers.
My gut feeling tells me that on the whole people don’t mind making sensible exceptions. I remember as a teenager queuing for the best part of half a mile to get into a music festival. Everyone had tickets but
there was a bag search policy that seemed to take aeons. Anyway, seemingly out of nowhere, an old man with tanned skin, a ragged red toga and a long wispy beard began to pick his way through the queue – saying
with every breath, “I can’t stop, I must never stop.”
Of course everyone thought he was some kind of exotic Swami and nobody uttered a word of objection as the queue parted ahead, as did the Red Sea for Moses, before closing up again behind him.
Nobody even challenged the validity of what the two or three hundred of us thought were his religious obligations, irrespective of how unlikely they were. We accepted his difference. We all made an exception. All of us.My feeling is that as more and more disabled people try their hand in the workplace so more and more exceptions and exemptions will be volunteered. Don’t wait for a new Government policy, or a legal crackdown – it may never arrive. Do it now. You’ll
be surprised at what you
