Nemo me impune lacessit...

No one provokes me with impunity, Scotland's Motto.  Or better understood by Scots as Wha duar meddle wi me (who dares meddle with me...definitely a dare rather than a question! :-))

I mentioned earlier this week that I have felt compelled to paint thistles.  I had no idea why.  I think I now do.

Today when I sat down at my table, I had every intention of attempting to paint a cat for a friend who has a special birthday on Sunday, but today's blip is what came out of my brush.  And I knew as soon as I framed it, Scotland's motto would be written below.

I felt immediately better after finishing it and I realised just how the antics of Farage and Co at the European Parliament yesterday had really upset me.  Waving his little Union Jack flag in the air and his puny leg with his Union Jack socks, as well as delivering his mean, ugly, divisive message of goodbye.  

I actually feel really strongly about him and his cronies waving the Union Jack, not just because National flags are banned in the EU Parliament, but because the Union Jack represents the nations of the United Kingdom, and Scotland and Northern Ireland most certainly didn't vote for this, I will be polite, .F*CK UP.

This on the day I read the following article by Steve Donnison from Benefits and Work...

"ANOTHER CLAIMANT STARVES TO DEATH
John Pring’s Disability News Service has uncovered another shocking death by starvation of a vulnerable claimant whose ESA was stopped.


Errol Graham, 57, had a history of serious mental health issues which had led to his being sectioned in the past.


He had been in receipt of benefits for many years because his condition meant he could not work.


In August 2017 he failed to attend a work capability assessment.The DWP made two home visits to Errol but got no response.They then stopped his ESA in October 2017 and made no attempt to contact social services or any other agency, in spite of the fact that he was now a vulnerable claimant with no means of support.


The only people who came to his door were the bailiffs in June 2018, when they broke it down to evict him from his council flat for non-payment of rent.  But when they got inside they found the emaciated body of Errol, who had died weighing just four and a half stone.


The DWP hired one of the country’s leading barristers to represent them at the inquest. Errol’s family couldn’t afford any legal representation at all and could not get legal aid
A review of safeguarding procedures that the DWP promised at the inquest would be completed last Autumn has still not appeared."


That this can happen in the 21st century and barely make the national news far less the PM lose his job over it, makes me fear for the future of not just the vulnerable in our society, but the everyday man and woman trying to live a decent life.