If theres one thing anyone thats had mediation will tell you about it - its that its a waste of time and doesn't fucking work.

The UK government introduced mediation so squabbling families can sort out their differences without resorting to going to court. The UK government also, apparantely, do not want to see people going homeless as a result of squabbles and fights or whatever. The government puts pressure on local councils to "do something" about the rising levels of homelessness. Little old me enters the picture, homeless because of Mr Bastard-Face, with my daughter of 14 months, also homeless because of Mr Bastard-Face. Solicitor refers case to mediation, because a court application will not be processed until mediation has taken place (government covering all the easy-way-out scenarios). It takes 6 weeks to get an appointment. Mr Bastard-Face doesn't show up.

Sensible thing to do here then would be to process court application, as for the last 8 weeks i've been shuttling my daughter around different houses all over the bloody place depending on where friends and rellies live. She has very little stability and her behaviour and diet are starting to reflect that fact, and there's fuck all I can do about it. So - I go back to solicitors to put in court application, quickest route of action, likely to take 4-6 weeks before I actually get to court. Pretty quick compared to how long some things can take. But this is a homeless situation with an easy solution - get Mr Bastard-Face out of my house - so it won't take long. But - what do the solicitors say?

"Second attempts at mediation are often more successful than first attempts; in the situation where your first meeting is unsuccessful, we will usually make a second appointment. We will not make a second appointment if your circumstances denote that urgent action is needed..."

That was a statement from a handbook thing I was given. Consider that this was written, and accepted, by the government. In my circumstances, urgent action is definitely needed, otherwise my daughter and I will be spending christmas in a shop doorway. Government are pressuring councils to do something about the rising levels of homelessness - yet instead of considering my circumstances "urgent" - I am told that my court application will not be processed until I have attended a second meeting. They gave me an appointment, on 15th December! Which is actually very inconvenient for me, and its in 10 weeks! Another 10 weeks of shuttling around from house to house - Kira is not going to cope with that. Shes getting stressed out, and her stress is affecting everything from behaviour issues to medical stuff - they won't give her the MMR jab yet because shes underweight, and shes underweight because shes stressed, and shes stressed because of Mr Bastard-Face, and Mr Bastard-Face is getting away with it! Kira's eating habits are worse than mine, and thats saying something. Despite my wonderful ability to conceal everything that goes on in my head, I know i'm stressed too. My hairs falling out for fuck sake.

But what do the government care? They certainly don't account for the fact that the new "mediation" technique and their "homeless" policy (at least in Medway) are currently contradicting themselves. Their mediators don't think homeless babies are important.

As far as theyre concerned, me and Kira are just statistics. This country is obsessed with statistics.