People who found their lives emotionally or otherwise unsustainable, albeit, as they thought, temporarily, could 'switch off' or 'Suspend' their lives - until things got better. 'Take a break from life's problems!' was Government UK's slogan, or, when it was in sterner social policy mode, 'Breaking the cycle of life dependency.' The suspended could leave instructions for friends or relatives as to when, or in what specified circumstances (should they eventuate), they were to be revived so that their lives could be 'Resumed'.
This was initially seen by government partly as a response to growing discontent and social maladjustment ('broken families', 'lost generations' and 'failed models' were much in mind), and partly as a diversion of the growing demand for legalising assisted suicide that was becoming both unmanageable and insoluble in the face of medical ethical and legal complications, despite the removal of objections by Church England. However, it was probably mainly hoped it would somehow cap the burgeoning costs of the welfare budget (especially state pensions - otherwise sacrosanct) and it was introduce as a rather obscure part of Government UK's 'Universal Benefit'.
The 'mini-break from life' seemed the answer to so many problems, social as well as individual, but it did not develop entirely as anticipated. There was initial customer suspicion and most of the early adopters of Suspension were young people and 'Non-Aspirers' thought to be using the facility irresponsibly. Taking a 'Monday break' became part of the recreational drugs scene, and was sometimes sponsored by clubs and festival organisers. However, especially as the economy dropped into recession for the seventh time, as 89.9 per cent of individual bank deposits were 'taken into protective custody' by Bank England and as the 'free at the point of delivery' principle was abandoned in Health England (formerly the National Health Service), more serious and long-term use of the Life Suspension facility grew.
It was not, however, without problems. Initially the government had regarded it as a private arrangement with little state involvement beyond light-touch oversight - and little cost to the state - but the 'home based suspension management facilities' proved insufficiently robust or economic and, after the press seized on some embarrassing individual cases, the Suspended soon had to be housed in more technically sophisticated, purpose-built facilities, whose building was of course out-sourced.
In the early years, when the scheme could still be presented as a bright and optimistic social development, the Suspension Homes were things to which physical attention was to be drawn as part of the Great Infrastructure Renewal project (GIRP - delivered by the 'Girp Trinity' of VirginGirp, SercoGirp and CapitaGirp). But it was superstructure rather than infrastructure, and the natural architectural form was of course the pyramid, and the desirable material self-cleaning, ligt-shimmering glass. These 'light-ascending pyramids', based on a design from the country's most eminent architect, were conspicuously erected along the many new high-speed rail routes that were criss-crossing the country as part of GIRP. Life Suspension was somehow seen to have a material affinity with high-speed rail travel and both were claimed to be 'carbon friendly'.
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| Pyramids of light |
But as both the numbers of the suspended and the problems with the scheme grew, new facilities came to be located instead in undistinguished converted disused industrial and retail buildings in the former 'business parks', providing one of the few bright spots in the property market. Rumours that some of the Suspension maintenance was being out-located to what used to be known as the developing countries were strongly denied but never dispelled, even when the routine telephone calls from the Suspension Homes to the nominated next of kin came to be less often in sub-continental accents and more in Scots. (Scotland itself was of course by this time not just one but two foreign countries following the breakaway of the United Clans of the Highlands and Islands - UCHI, famously and disdainfully pronounced "oochee" by Elected King Alex the First - after the bitter post-independence civil war fuelled by disputed claims to the potential riches of North Atlantic mineral nodules - DAMN - that quite put the dwindling North Sea oil in the economic shade and lead to the endless disputes over the Right of Return of the Scottish diaspora - return to which Scotland?)
Despite the problems the government was unable to retreat from what had been originally presented as 'a new human right' and written into the much disputed Constitution England. It had eventually been taken up by a significant portion of the population and somehow, for all the individual complaints, come in rapid order to the love-hate status that used to be enjoyed by the old National Health Service.
Initially Resumption had been expected to be a simple matter. The Suspended would instruct their friends or family who would Resume them when the time or circumstances specified were met. However, very soon there came to be disputes about Resumption being made prematurely or else being improperly delayed. Suspension was not without cost and there were financial as well as social pressures in both directions.
The government was forced to step in as regulator (Offbod) and inaugurate a system of Resumption Permits. Initially these were granted automatically if the Suspended's wishes were deemed to be met, and certain economic, social and health conditions would be available for the Resumed to enjoy. Those conditions, stipulated by government order, became steadily more demanding and there were initial protests when the government ruled that the Suspended could not be Resumed unless there were full-time employment and suitable housing available for them. However, the discontent fairly quickly died down to a manageable level and the government was able to increase steadily the qualifying wage level of such employment.
Management of the scheme became increasingly complicated, with Offbod responding to difficulties in an ad hoc fashion as, for example, with the introduction, in certain individual cases of a Presumption Against Resumption for the Protection of the Vulnerable. Some of the Suspended were 'Prearsed' so that, even if both Elected and Universal Qualifying Conditions for Resumption could be shown to be met, these Suspended individuals could not be Resumed without specific licence from Offbod. Although no figures were ever issued, such Permits Against Presumption (PAPs) were thought to be very rarely issued. The government nevertheless maintained that the system was a necessary precaution aginst abuse. Yet because the safeguards were, it maintained, expensive to implement it was consequently necessary to charge application fees for PAPs. These were indexed to the national average wage and were eventually capped at a 7.5 multiple.
Complications, cost and embarrassments multiplied out of control (including a large computer management programme that eventually had to be scrapped as non-performing after many millions had been spent), but the ILSARP scheme came to be woven into the social fabric of the nation as once had been the NHS, both politically indispensible and unmanageable - and, many claimed, unaffordabe. The bright Pyramids of Light became shabby and dilapidated until they were sold off and converted into luxury appartments by the property developer Urban Resurrection. But every attempt at a radical political solution seemed doomed and many a government was brought down by the issue, until finally, in an unexpected and rapid commercial coup, the world's largest computer devices company mobilised its 15 trillion dollar reserves and bought out the whole programme which it promptly renamed Windfall. Thereafter things took a very different course.
