Passport and psychic probation officers

I was issued with my new Dutch passport yesterday, and aren't I glad to have it! Renewing it always brings the question to the fore whether I shouldn't 'go with the flow' and apply for British citizenship. Today, however, I am glad indeed that I resisted the obvious temptation. This country is getting scarier by the day. Today's new threat: psychic probation officers. Let me explain.

Barry has received a copy of his pre-sentencing report and his sentence plan. They both make for very depressing reading, if only for the reason that neither author can be said to have had anywhere near sufficient time with Barry to make the sweeping statements that they do. And they contain some gems. For instance: The fact that Barry considers himself to have been a respected member of the fencing community is an indication of his low self-esteem. (How do you work that one out?)

This kind of statement reminds me of that of Judge Simon Freeman, telling my husband he was "reprehensible, dressing in a flamboyant fashion to stand out from his peers". Remember this was being said by a grown man wearing a silly horsehair wig and clashing, bright purple and orange robes, which I understand he wears to distinguish himself from other law men. (I believe the scientific name for this is transference: attributing your motives to others' actions.)

Barry's probation officer too picked up on that theme: Flamboyance. Barry is flamboyant. (Must be that low self-esteem again!) She cleverly picked that up after 20 minutes of talking to Barry through a video link. Barry would have been in his prison get up. The most flamboyant thing he owns in that is a turquoise poloshirt. And she isn't of course. Flamboyant. There are after all plenty of excellent reasons beside the search for a little flamboyance that probation officers decide to dye a shock of their hair bright purple.

But this is not the only feat the woman was capable of: She made several sweeping statements about me too. And she has yet to lay eyes on me, or speak to me even! Psychic, I tell you. How else would you explain the unmitigated gall to say that I "collude in Barry's crime"? If I hadn't developed this acute aversion for lawyers and the British legal system, I would consider suing. Did she pick up on the fact I'm Dutch and reasoned that we Dutch are so permissive we are game for anything, including sexually abusing children? Am I the new Mrs. West?

She tells us that I am Barry's main obstacle for accepting his guilt. But for fear of losing me, Barry would comply and 'fess all'. She further says that I am unwilling to comtemplate the possibility of Barry's guilt. She must have seen that episode of the Mentalist, recently.

As I said, where does she get the nerve? But isn't it truly terrifying that so-called professionals are allowed to develop this level of irresponsible arrogance that lets them make statements about people they barely or even don't know using cheap pseudo-psychology? And suddenly, you can see something tragic like Victoria Climbie or Peter Connelly happen. Were life altering decisions about people in these cases too made by people who just didn't bother to find out who they were talking about?

In that vain, let me make a few sweeping statements of my own. My credentials: I have known Barry intimately for twenty years. Years. Not minutes.

Barry isn't flamboyant. He likes colour. Barry does stand out from the rest. He can't help it. What is it the bard said? Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em... I guess Barry is of the first ilk. He is kind, intelligent and funny. That is what makes him charming. He isn't charming to achieve some evil end. He just is. And he didn't do what he was convicted of for reasons I have explained earlier.

Mrs. Baldwin, like many of the professionals we've come across on this journey, allows the tail to wag the dog. She is making the assumption that since Barry has been convicted, Barry must be guilty. She is attempting to explain everything about Barry (and me) in that light. She is unable to speak to Barry or to look at anything objectively and come to her own conclusions. The only question remains: Is she doing so through sheer inadequacy, or in a questionable desire to support the system, which we so far have experienced as being extremely good at making it extremely hard for people to point out that it may have made a mistake. But then, the system doesn't make mistakes. The jury always gets all the facts, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And the Guildford Four didn't happen either, or the Birmingham Six, or Ian Lawless or ... As I was saying: scary country, Britain.

Six months already and electronics wizzardry

It was six months yesterday that Barry was 'put away' as they say. We're both pleased to have have reached this 'milestone', but this pleasure is laced with bitterness. None of this should be happening to Barry anyway.

Since his move to Littlehey, Barry has been involved in the electronics workshop there and again has made a success of things there. He's become a wiz with the soldering iron and has been managing his own little group for some time now, to great success. Again, production has gone up drastically with him on board, so much so people came to visit to investigate. He is proud of his group, proud of their work and proud when they tell him that of the batch sent out, none of the circuit boards showed faults that were due to their administrations.

It made me laugh when he told me some time ago that he understood now why I spend time cleaning and looking after tools. Good soldering only happens with a clean soldering iron! And we're talking Barry here: Barry of the 'couldn't draw a straight line if his life depended on it' variety. Barry now drawing straight solder lines and other electronical marvels, which he explains to me at length and which I'm sure I'll understand fully the minute he shows me a board when he gets out. :) It was really nice to see him develop a new image of himself, a manually dexterous Barry, who has started to include drawings (!!!) in his letters.

He is now also getting into diagnostics of it. Finding out where in the circuit faults are occuring and such. The puzzling involved, beating the fault, repairing what was broken, beating the system, all these things stimulate them no end. And yesterday he told me proudly that his team were given two non-working machines and asked to attempt to turn it into a single working one. They did! He was so pleased. Now they have a machine that helps adapting bought components to the specific needs of their applications (which I understand help adapt various items - kitchen scales, clocks, etc - to be of use to people whose sight is impaired). Working as hard as they had, they had been asked to slow down, as other departments, such as those that make the parts they need, couldn't keep up the demand. Now they might.

Meanwhile, back at home, I will be entertaining my 12 year old niece for a week. It will be difficult to explain to her that Barry can't talk to her on the phone, that she wouldn't be allowed to visit, that the sweets she brought for him from Holland wouldn't be allowed through. That none of that means that Barry is angry with or disappointed in her. She loves him a lot and struggles with the situation. Another victim of this supposedly 'victimless crime'.

My tip for the day: In a real court, people don't assume that if a person has lied about half her statement (and is proven to have done so), the other half might be a lie to. They just suppress that bit. Turn the rest into a plausible story et voila. Why does a jury not as a matter of routine get to see people's original unadulterated statement to the police?