As I have noted on this blog before, I suffer from Type 1
Diabetes. I developed this in 1988 but
have only been considered disabled since 2005 when the law was altered to
encompass more ‘hidden disabilities’.
This did not prevent my previous employer from breaking the law, despite
the awards it had received for supporting disabled staff, and allowing my
manager to bully me on the basis of my health condition, one which I will never
be cured of. Generally I had thought
that British society was becoming more understanding of diabetes, especially
with the continuing rise in people with Type 2 Diabetes. However, the government seems to be going in
the opposite direction. In part I
imagine that stems from them wanting to cut back what is seen as support for
anyone who is disabled. They have
inherited a distilled version of the Victorio-Thatcherite ‘deserving poor’
perception and blended in elements of Nazism (or perhaps simply Winston Churchill’s
eugenic attitudes) that see the lives of the disabled as being less than those
of ‘normal’ people. Not only do we need
to do without assistance we need to be reminded that we are not as good as
these others, though as we age, even Conservative MPs develop one impairment or
another which moves them into this category.
I guess wealth buys you an exemption.
Since 1988 having Diabetes has meant that I have had to
renew my driving licence every three years.
My parents who are now both 75 have to do the same. There is clearly an assumption that the
authorities have to check in with you at regular intervals to make sure you
have not become a hazard sometime in the past 35 months. I find this ironic given how much dangerous
driving and horrific accidents I see on a daily basis driving into London or
even back and forth across South-West England, presumably committed by the
‘normal’ drivers. However, a minister,
one I have not been able to track down, apparently outlined in parliament by
Philip Hammond, Secretary of State for Transport in 2011 how hazardous diabetic
drivers are. I have not seen the
figures, but he felt the need to clamp down on these dangerous handlers of
vehicles, even more sinister because their disability is hidden and not seen
for all to see. Perhaps I should wear
some kind of triangle on my clothing so people know I am a diabetic, white
seems to be the common colour for diabetic products or perhaps a nice clinical
blue would be better.
As a result of this clamp down, not only do I have to
complete the form I always had to and send it back to the DVLA outlining how
even though it is difficult to register with a GP especially when you have
moved around as much as I have in recent months, four towns in nine months, I
have attended not only my GP to see about my diabetes but a consultant
too. Added to this, every time I drive I
must check my blood sugar level 30 minutes before I get in the car and then
every 2 hours while driving. As you can
see this begins to impinge on my life.
There is no ability to jump in the car to get some milk if we find we
have none; I must wake a certain time before driving to make sure all the
checks are done; I cannot rush someone to hospital in my car unless I have
delayed thirty minutes, though that is something easily done waiting to get an
ambulance. Yet all around me are drivers
dropping off at the wheel; drivers whose own blood sugar is so low (because,
yes, that does happen to non-diabetics too especially during the evening rush
hour) they cannot concentrate and drivers who are so offended by imagined
slights that they dissolve into an instant fury which is more dangerous to
other drivers than a hypoglycemic attack for which diabetics feel the onset and
can be tackling safely before it develops.
In fact contrary to what ill-informed ministers seem to believe, when I
drive my blood sugar actually rises leading very slowly to hyperglycemia rather than hypo,
but I guess that ministers stop bothering once they have got passed the ‘p’.
As a result of this new approach if I am shunted in a
traffic queue and the police are involved, I can be taken into custody even if
it was not my fault that the accident happened.
The driver who hit me, even if he fell asleep at the wheel or went into
a rage, is allowed to go home. I have to
bring my blood checker and prove all my blood levels for the journey and
undergo other blood tests. Thus, a
diabetic, unlike ‘normal’ drivers is assumed to be at least partially guilty,
even before there is any proof against him/her.
The consultant I used to visit in West London last year was convinced
that soon all his patients would lose their driving licence. Despite me stating that I had been driving
with diabetes for 25 years without an incident, he told me it was inevitable
that I would be banned and recounted a man who had had two lower blood sugar
readings when sleeping at home, not whilst driving and this leading to him
losing his licence. This attitude
discourages diabetics from checking their blood sugar levels for the fear of
having a ‘bad’ reading somewhere on their checking device, something apparently
the police can demand to see without a warrant despite it containing personal
data. With the numbers of people in the
UK with diabetes rising, a whole sector runs the risk of having our lives
wrecked by other people’s simply uncaring driving.
The new policy is based simply on ill-informed
prejudice. Where are all the statistics
about the thousands of injuries and deaths caused by diabetic drivers? Why is it that someone who keeps a close
check on what their body is doing is discriminated against when someone
‘normal’ still hung over from the night before or still partially stoned has no
such checks against them? They do not
have to check their blood and be able to show the police on demand what level
their alcohol or drug level is at even when they are not responsible for the
crash. I do recognise that anyone
involved in a traffic accident, even bystanders who have come to assist can now
have their blood alcohol levels checked: another clever policy from the
government which discourages people from helping out at incidents for fear of
being sucked in themselves.
I do wonder what step the government will take next. Will asthmatics have to blow into a bag,
video themselves on their phone and email it to the police in each constabulary
as they drive through? Will people who
suffer migraines have to whack their head against a government-issue brick to
show they are not suffering a migraine before they drive? Will people with eczema have to carry a
diagram of the areas of skin they have lubricated before getting in the car in
case some skin flakes fall over the steering wheel so distressing a ‘normal’
person as they speed past? The policy
does nothing to aid road safety, it is simply a policy which taps into the
paranoia that is such a vote winner in the UK. The consequences for the ordinary, yes normal
people who happen to have diabetes, caught up by this system can be a wrecked
life forced to travel on prohibitively expensive public transport and unable to
hold certain jobs making them more likely to be unemployed and dependent on the
government. However, is it any surprise
that we see irrational regulations coming from the clueless government of
today?
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