More on British government supervision of problem families

As explained in the Daily Express, this intervention in Britain’s “worst” families (also discussed here) does not consist just of Nineteen Eighty Four-type cameras in their homes, but of total surveillance and control over their lives.

Does anyone in the British establishment have the presence of mind to recognize that the removal of traditional restrictions on people’s behavior over the last 40 years has led directly to this totalitarian control over people’s behavior?

No. Not a single leading British figure recognizes it. Because to recognize that modern liberalism with its belief in total personal freedom leads to massive social breakdown which in turn leads to totalitarianism would require the rejection of modern liberalism and a return to traditional society.

Modern liberal society is truly like Dante’s Inferno, in which the damned in hell, eternally clueless, keep committing the very sins for which they are being punished,

SIN BINS FOR WORST FAMILIES
Thursday July 23,2009
By Alison Little

THOUSANDS of the worst families in England are to be put in “sin bins” in a bid to change their bad behaviour, Ed Balls announced yesterday.

The Children’s Secretary set out 400 million pound plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Around 2,000 families have gone through these Family Intervention Projects so far.

But ministers want to target 20,000 more in the next two years, with each costing between 5,000 and 20,000 pounds—a potential total bill of 400 million pounds.

Ministers hope the move will reduce the number of youngsters who get drawn into crime because of their chaotic family lives, as portrayed in Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless.

Sin bin projects operate in half of council areas already but Mr Balls wants every local authority to fund them.

He said: “This is pretty tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem. There should be Family Intervention Projects in every local authority area because every area has families that need support.”

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: “This is all much too little, much too late.

“This Government has been in power for more than a decade during which time anti-social behaviour, family breakdown and problems like alcohol abuse and truancy have just got worse and worse.”

Mr Balls also said responsible parents who make sure their children behave in school will get new rights to complain about those who allow their children to disrupt lessons.

Pupils and their families will have to sign behaviour contracts known as Home School Agreements before the start of every year, which will set out parents’ duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.

The updated Youth Crime Action Plan also called for a crackdown on violent girl gangs as well as drug and alcohol abuse among young women.

But a decision to give ministers new powers to intervene with failing local authority Youth Offending Teams was criticised by council leaders.

Les Lawrence, of the Local Government Association, said they did “crucial” work and such intervention was “completely unnecessary”.

- end of initial entry -

Jake Jacobsen writes:

As I’ve been reading your various pieces on the devolution of the English lower class and your frequent references to “The Dead Island” I’ve had a niggling feeling I couldn’t quite put my finger on which for some reason this story has brought into clarity.

Like in the old anti-drug commercial from the eighties, couldn’t we say, “This is your country…. This is your country on socialism”?

Isn’t the ultimate effect of socialism to enervate the public and render them into hapless children to be watched over (now literally) by the state?

Also, you have on many occasions lamented the passivity of the modern Brit, wondering what it would take to wake them from their somnolence. Contrast that with the palpable anger and intensity of the Tea Party movement. It may all come to naught, but they don’t appear to be quitting any time soon, though our elected weaselsnakes most likely wish they would.

Again, I just have to wonder how much the socialist system itself is to blame for the limp passivity of the modern Brit.

LA replies:

A great deal. I think you’re on to something.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 04, 2009 01:08 PM | Send