KEY POINTS:
It's not often I'm happy to rewrite a column. But there it was, ready to go, full of fury and fire and brimstone, fulminating furiously against the decision by the Residence Review Board to deny a 103-year-old man the right to live out his last days in New Zealand with his son.
The old man was in good nick for his age, had plenty of money to pay for his medical care, and his son was his only relative.
But that didn't impress the board. Au contraire. In its decision, the board said "the appellant's age, his financial resources, the fact that his son lives in New Zealand and the fact the appellant has no family in Great Britain do not make him special". They went on to say "there is no evidence that the appellant could not have continued to live in Great Britain alone and without his son, as he had done for many years".
What a pack of miserable bastards! I have a 98-year-old grandmother
who used to be at the centre of a group of friends but she's outlived the lot of them and if she didn't have a supportive family, life would be pretty lonely.
I was apoplectic with rage when I read about the plight of this gentleman so I'm delighted that Clayton Cosgrove intervened and asked the board to review its decision. One time when I'm very happy to support Government interference.
