'She wasn't prepared to give someone else a chance': Brother of woman who killed herself 'over bedroom tax' says other families needed house more than she did . Daily Mail

  Stephanie Bottrill, 52, walked in front of a lorry on a motorway 

  The grandmother lived alone in a three-bedroom house in Solihull 

  She blamed the Government's housing policy in her suicide note  

  Her brother Kevin Owens said she wouldn't 'give somebody else a chance' 

  Believes it wasn't 'bedroom tax' that drove her to kill herself
  Also disputed claims she was given half an hour to decide about her house

The brother of a woman who walked out in front of a lorry and killed herself because of 'bedroom tax' has said she wasn't willing to 'give somebody else a chance' in a housing system that requires people to 'take turns'. 

Grandmother Stephanie Bottrill, 52, walked across a motorway on May 4 last year after her local council allegedly told her she had to move out of her three-bedroom terrace house in Solihull, West Midlands, because of the spare room subsidy.

A coroner has today recorded a verdict of suicide saying the Government's housing policy had caused her 'considerable anxiety and stress'.

But after the inquest, her brother, Kevin Owens - joined by Ms Bottrill’s sister, Josephine Trueman - told reporters she 'wasn’t prepared to give somebody else a chance' of a larger home.

He said: 'For social housing to work it needs for everybody to take a turn.'

'When you’re adequately housed by successive governments, and your needs are met, you must give somebody else a turn.

'It’s terrible that people in this country are cramped into one and two-bedroom flats with children while other people sit on three-bedroom houses.

'Our thoughts go out to the lorry driver whose life has been blighted by this, and we just wanted to pass on our thoughts to him.'

Mr Owens also disputed the claim his sister had made about being given half an hour to 'make a decision' on a house.  

He added: 'Much has been written about "bedroom tax" pushing her - it wasn’t, because prior to that she’d attempted suicide before and that hadn’t been reported before.

'It might have been the catalyst to push her but was it just an excuse she was looking for? - That’s all I’ve got to say.' 

During a hearing at Birmingham Coroners Court today, the Black County coroner, Zafar Siddique, said: 'Given the evidence of notes left of her intention,

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Depression, The Dark Fog of the Soul

Comment:

Whether or not you feel the so called “ Bedroom Tax” is unfair or fair, the tragic death of this lady, who suffered for a number of years from anxiety and depression felt no alternative but to take our own life,  however the so called “ Bedroom Tax” isn’t responsible for the tragic death of this person.

My Uttermost for His Highest, "Do not Quench the Spirit," Oswald Chambers Daily Devotionals

The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), so faint that no one except a saint of God will notice it.

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Go-it-alone Scotland ‘defenceless’: Nation will be left without any weapons if it votes for independence and refuses to take its share of UK debt, MP warns Daily Mail

  Chairman of Scottish affairs committee said Alex Salmond’s ‘cavalier’ plan to renege on Scotland’s debts would ‘poison’ negotiations with UK

  Mr Salmond has insisted monetary union with rest of UK would go ahead

Scotland  will be left without any weapons to defend itself if it votes for independence and refuses to take on its share of UK debt, an MP has warned.

Ian Davidson, the chairman of the influential Scottish affairs committee, said that Alex Salmond’s ‘cavalier’ plan to renege on Scotland’s debts if he does not get his way on the pound would ‘poison’ negotiations with the UK.

He warned that Scotland would be denied access to military equipment and could be left with ‘a navy with no ships, an air force with no planes and an army with no guns’.

Mr Salmond has been under intense pressure to give details of an alternative if Westminster does not agree to the share the pound, but he has said he has no intention of proposing a ‘plan B’.

All three main UK parties have promised to veto a currency union if Scotland votes for independence on 18 September.

But Mr Salmond has insisted that monetary union with the rest of the UK would go ahead and promised not to help repay British debt if it does not.

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Further Reading

Treasury: Tenth of Scots jobs at risk after Yes

Labour question how an independent Scotland would fund state spending after 37% fall in revenue from North Sea tax

Beyond the Scottish Independence Question, Looking at a Greater Devolution in The United Kingdom, A Perspective

O'Captain my Captain