We are often told that it’s the choices we make that shape our lives.

It’s true.

What distinguishes the basis of those choices is the circumstances of the individual.

What a lot of people don’t realise is the diversity of backgrounds of everyone, and that in a minority of cases, the few that really have no choices at all.

Yes, some have no control over their circumstances, and therefore no choice whatsoever.

Inevitably, the people who are first to criticise those who apparently made the wrong choice are those who have never found themselves in similar circumstances.

And probably never will.

This, perhaps, is the biggest problem with governments that are staffed with advisors who do not understand the plight of the common man.

I never had the same opportunities as those who could afford a university education.  My family were working class and was relatively poor.  Had I not had a scholarship, who knows what sort of education I would have got, if any.

Certainly, my father never got an opportunity to get a good education, but, at the time, during the great depression, his choices were limited, whereas those with any sort of wealth had a different story.

And his lack of choices reflected on us, and that lack of opportunity haunted all of us as time passed.

It was always a case of the haves and the have-nots.

Yes, we all have choices, but sometimes it really is the lesser of two evils, and not whether we will have the fillet or the rib-eye steak.