Everyday injustice has a familiar pattern

Take the parking ticket that “was definitely on the windscreen” when you know it was not. It often feels like we are caught in a web of misunderstandings and misrepresentations that can easily snowball into something much bigger. The camera angle that never shows the whole story, which can lead to a false narrative being constructed around our experiences. The appeal process that reads like a trap: you must say the right words, in the right order, with the right evidence, inside the right timeframe, to the right inbox - or you lose by default, leaving you at the mercy of a system that feels indifferent to your plight.

Consider the building application that is refused for reasons so vague they could apply to anything, all while your neighbour’s near-identical extension sails through with barely a hitch, raising questions about fairness and transparency. Or the benefits claimant who was sanctioned after meticulously following advice they were given by an official, only to be told later that the advice “was not binding,” a situation that reveals the cruel twists of bureaucracy. Or reflect on the job scheme promised to a certain group - veterans, care leavers, people leaving custody - that exists in brochures and speeches, but evaporates at the point where real help should begin, leaving individuals stranded without the support they were led to believe was forthcoming.

These are not always “mistakes”; they are not always malice either. They are something more ordinary - and, because it is ordinary, more dangerous: a system that too often rewards process over truth, while citizens are left to navigate the fog of complications and red tape. Paperwork is not neutral; it has the potential to empower or further marginalize. It is power. And when it is designed badly, enforced inconsistently, or guarded by people who do not suffer the consequences, it becomes a wall, an insurmountable barrier that can crush hopes and dreams beneath its weight.