An Englishman's home is not his castle then.....

Today brings news of yet another Cameron 'invasion' into people's lives with the announcement that 'problem families' will be having an 'adviser' visiting them to set them on the straight and narrow in order that they can return to being productive members of our society. According to Robert Winnett, who pens the article in the Telegraph, these advisers, or troubleshooters, will draw up a plan with each of the families to turn around their lives with targets to return parents to work, stop them from drinking or taking drugs, and ensuring children go to school and do not behave anti-socially. This is, indeed, an odd policy coming from a party that used to believe in people managing their own lives and thus looking after themselves; that preaches a loosening of government central control;  - oh wait, we no longer have a Conservative Party..........

Just how will these advisers/troubleshooters change an ingrained life of state dependency on housing, income, food, free health care etc? Still, it creates yet another quango, with the required bureaucrats, the creation of which will no doubt give birth to another 'charity' or two to assist them. And just who will be paying for all this, a policy which logic dictates is doomed to fail? Inspector Gadget makes a good few points in his post when he states, for example, that perhaps problem families should stop randomly having children they cannot afford and then expecting the state to raise them. IG continues:

"30 million other families who never do any of the above seem to manage. Don’t they? Maybe not. No one fits me a new kitchen free of charge when the appliances are out of date. No one fits my home with double glazing and insulation for free. No one pays for my children’s school meals and no one rushes about paying me endless attention, treating me as a ‘service user’ and generally wiping my arse for me at the drop of a hat. If you add to that fact that the government will probably take my house off me to pay for my care when I am elderly while the problem family receives it for free, it makes you wonder who the mugs are after all. And therein lies the reason why so-called problem families will never change. Why should they. It’s a gravy train."

Cameron is quoted as stating that we (presumably the country) cannot afford to keep footing the bill for what he terms is 'this social failure'. Err, who caused this social failure by allowing the education system to be treated like a 'political football' since the days of Anthony Crossland? Just who has overseen the demise in said education system; of standards and the teaching of discipline? Just who has overseen the breakdown of our society whilst simultaneously practising 'social engineering'? What we see here is a situation whereby politicians, having 'controlled' said demise with misguided policies, issue yet more misguided policies - and in so doing, continuing to heap yet more 'control' on that already exercised. A further question arises and that is if a government disapproves, as it does in this particular instance, of a certain type of lifestyle; how long before, at the behest of 'charities' and other 'social-improvement' organisations, those of us who do drink, smoke, watch television, like certain types of food - all in moderation - are 'visited' because our lifestyles are not considered 'correct'?

Inspector Gadget believes these problem families will never voluntarily change their habits as they are on a gravy train - bit like our politicians, really. One could pose the question who is the greater drain on the public purse - but I digress...............

Just saying.........................