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notgreyhair

Listed below are comments made by notgreyhair between Thursday, 19th February 2009 and Friday, 8th May 2009.

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Listeners' Opinion Poll 10:34pm on 08 May 2009 So that elderly and chronically sick people do not have to pay for their social care let's make it free at the point of need, (as with health care). Let's have a National Health and Social Service. I know it's said that people don't want to pay more taxes but if the question was phrased correctly I think people would be prepared to pay a bit more now to save themselves the worry about care home fees and having to sell their homes, later in life. People don't complain about paying for the NHS - and this is simply an extension of the same payment system. So my question would be:

Would you be prepared to pay for social as well as health care through the tax system so that all social as well as health care would be free when you need it?
Jury service, your verdict. 00:46am on 19 Feb 2009 One of the things that struck me forcibly about jury service was the way that as soon as you walk into that court on the first day and hand over your juror number, your life is completely out of your control.

You get told to sit and wait ... and sit and wait ... and eventually you are randomly selected for a case (or not, so you go back and wait again..), then you are selected again (or not) when you are sworn in. Then you get told when to go out of the court, come back into the court, when to go to lunch, when to come back from lunch, when to go home for the day and what time to come back the next. You're almost told when to go to the toilet - in fact you have to go when you don't want to, in case you get stuck for hours in court. Sometimes you even get told by the judge to find the defendant not guilty (for technical reasons).

There are very few circumstances in life when it's so not under your own control. And then suddenly it's time for a verdict and you are given this huge responsibility for and control over someone else's life.

It's fascinating to watch your own reaction to these incredible leaps from one end of the freedom spectrum to the other - and to watch how other people react. Some are like caged animals, unable to bear the uncertainty of not knowing, and boredom of just waiting, while others happily read, sleep, laugh or talk and relish the frisson of hearing those names called out ... are you going to be one of them?

Likewise it's interesting to see the reactions of people in the jury room - the different ways they participate, the way they make their decisions and react to this ultimate responsibility of finally, finally taking control and making that choice.

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