Big Sister is Watching You!
The Logical Conclusion of the Welfare State
A frightening article in today's UK "Daily Telegraph" (here) - "State has a role in family life, says minister".
"The government has the right to intervene in family life because there are social implications in the way parents bring up their children, one of Tony Blair's closest allies said yesterday."
In this interview with Margaret Hodge, the children's minister, the case is made for state interference in the home because the state has to "pick up the pieces" when parenting goes wrong.
The whole tone of the interview is that people don't know what's best for them and how to live their lives successfully, so the benevolent state has to step in and help them out. What utter nonsense and arrogance!
I suppose this is logical in a way. The collectivists have, over the last 50 years or so, created a culture of dependency and dis-empowerment so that the ordinary person has become increasingly unable or unwilling to take responsibility for themselves. Having created the problem in the first place, the advocates of state control now use that as a justification for further interference.
The interview contains such gems as this:
"In her view, many parents want government advice on how to bring up their children.
"You take home this little bundle of joy from the hospital and you don't know where to start. People want the state to help them." The Government is to launch a campaign to improve the way parents raise their offspring.
The Department for Education and Skills will publish a booklet, which will be given to all new parents, telling them how to bring up their child."
The idea of a bunch of inept bureaucrats (the "Department for Ignorance and Bungling"?) telling people how to raise their children would be laughable if it wasn't so frightening.
As I observe the UK from afar, I almost can't believe it's happening. Almost in slow-motion, a once proud and strong nation is being reduced to ignoble servitude.
As an aside, I notice that despite their blood being spilled in Iraq, the "Black Watch" regiment will not be spared under the government's defence "reorganisation" (= "cuts"). I can only imagine that a simmering resentment is building up in the armed forces.
A frightening article in today's UK "Daily Telegraph" (here) - "State has a role in family life, says minister".
"The government has the right to intervene in family life because there are social implications in the way parents bring up their children, one of Tony Blair's closest allies said yesterday."
In this interview with Margaret Hodge, the children's minister, the case is made for state interference in the home because the state has to "pick up the pieces" when parenting goes wrong.
The whole tone of the interview is that people don't know what's best for them and how to live their lives successfully, so the benevolent state has to step in and help them out. What utter nonsense and arrogance!
I suppose this is logical in a way. The collectivists have, over the last 50 years or so, created a culture of dependency and dis-empowerment so that the ordinary person has become increasingly unable or unwilling to take responsibility for themselves. Having created the problem in the first place, the advocates of state control now use that as a justification for further interference.
The interview contains such gems as this:
"In her view, many parents want government advice on how to bring up their children.
"You take home this little bundle of joy from the hospital and you don't know where to start. People want the state to help them." The Government is to launch a campaign to improve the way parents raise their offspring.
The Department for Education and Skills will publish a booklet, which will be given to all new parents, telling them how to bring up their child."
The idea of a bunch of inept bureaucrats (the "Department for Ignorance and Bungling"?) telling people how to raise their children would be laughable if it wasn't so frightening.
As I observe the UK from afar, I almost can't believe it's happening. Almost in slow-motion, a once proud and strong nation is being reduced to ignoble servitude.
As an aside, I notice that despite their blood being spilled in Iraq, the "Black Watch" regiment will not be spared under the government's defence "reorganisation" (= "cuts"). I can only imagine that a simmering resentment is building up in the armed forces.
posted by Kevin Francis at
1:19 pm
