International Law

The benefit of discretion

By John Hirst

I should have signed on at 3.55pm yesterday but I forgot and did not remember until it was too late at about 5.30pm. The annoying thing is that I was aware at 2pm that I had to sign on just as I was taking Rocky for his afternoon walk. But, then I discovered that he had a bad limp in his left front leg and this concerned me. I am aware that he has had a broken leg before I got him and that sometimes he tends to favour the leg a bit. When I returned from his walk and opened the kitchen cupboard to give him a treat, I was assaulted by the strong smell of mice coming from within the cupboard. I set about dismantling the cupboard to get at the nest I believed to be underneath the enclosed bottom shelf. Of course it wasn't a simple unscrewing job but required getting out the Allen Keys. I did find that the mice have been using this place and set 4 mousetraps. Last night I caught 4. Two years ago I caught 7. With all this going on I forgot I had to sign on.

So this morning I had to go and explain why I missed yesterday's appointment. Luckily, I got Rosie who was very understanding and sympathetic and after hearing my tale of woe used her discretion not to sanction me for the lapse of memory and mind distraction. Apparently, they can penalise you by deducting a day's benefit. But, she said I did not need sanctioning and given the recent price hike in gas and electric supply I could have ill-afforded a financial penalty. It made me think why couldn't the police have adopted the same attitude over Rocky and state that I do not need sanctioning?

I am in a bit of a trough at the moment. Not the same trough that all the Tories have got their snouts into.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on January 08, 2008 (boomark / email).