The deepening scandals around the care of the aged in private care homes has revealed callous comments and attitudes from the 2 major parties. It is almost beyond belief that they can inflict so much harm on themselves and their parties, especially since pensioners are numerous and amongst the most active voters in the country.
These 2 parties have actively sought to privatise huge parts of care of the elderly as part of their political strategy without ensuring that there is proper regulation in place, and without sufficient resources to oversee the activities of these businesses. There appears to be less that 20 inspectors to cover the whole country – far less than the public body that regulates animal care!
The situation has also been made much worse by snide comments from the senior management of these companies who have just remarked there have only been a few odd few cases of poor treatment, when we now know that criminal negligence has been widespread. This has put dynamite under the credibility of these 2 parties.
Criminal proceedings are being considered by the authorities because it appears that the duty of care has been all but forgotten in the race for even more profits.
The impact in the polls has already been seen and the Social Democrats have an even stronger position, with the 2 parties in power falling even more. We can probably expect further falls win there coming weeks.
