Tim Worstall

Oh Brave New World

This rings bells:

"If we are not prepared to predict and intervene far more early then
there are children that are going to grow up in families that we know
perfectly well are completely dysfunctional, and the kids a few years
down the line are going to be a menace to society and actually a threat
to themselves," he told BBC News. There could be sanctions for parents
who refused to take advice, he added.
…
Tony Blair has said it is possible to identify problem children who
could grow up to be a potential "menace to society" even before they
are born.

Perhaps not Brave New World, where only the "natives" are allowed to have children naturally, everyone else coming from the State Podding Hutches. Rather another sci-fi novel from the 50s or 60s in which a pregnant woman, who has conceived naturally against the rules, is chased and harried so that the baby can be aborted.

I wonder how long it will be before the sanctions include forced abortion? After all, there are already those who say that the results of certain pregnacies would be better off dead rather than alive.

Update. Curious Hamster has a much better headline.

In

6 responses

  1. Nick (South Africa) Avatar
    Nick (South Africa)

    I’m split on this one there is the natural recoiling of the draconian state implicit in this approach. This cuts against my libertarian tendencies.
    But then we licence firearms – completely inanimate objects with no will of their own. If this is OK, why is a ‘licence to breed’ somehow anathema? Delinquent individuals are far far more dangerous than guns – they are animate and DO have a will of their own.
    On the basis that crime prevention is cheaper and better than the alternatives, why not prevent criminals being created in the first place?
    But then who gets to decide, on what basis… just that thought makes me uncomfortable and recoil from the idea.

    Reply
  2. Tim Almond Avatar
    Tim Almond

    Nick,
    You don’t stop criminals being created, because children are not, by nature, criminal. It’s more about parenting and their environment.
    Blair’s answer of more social workers dropping in, and I guess, sending parents on parenting classes etc. is all wrong.
    The answer is to address the culture of people living on income support for life, where there is no pressure on the child to behave, because whatever they do, the state will provide.
    You probably need something draconian like giving people an income of food stamps to deal with the problem.

    Reply
  3. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    I suppose we should be eternally grateful to TB – and I’ve no doubts at all that he thinks we ought to be. But then I think we should be grateful to him for reaffirming again what some of us concluded early on, namely that his natural political instincts are fascistic. It was no accident or mistake that the provenance of the Third Way goes back to Mussolini.
    While he focuses on “his” historic achevement of winning a third term of government for New Labour at the election last year, the facts are that compared with 1997, he lost 4 million votes and half the membership of the Labour Party. The turnout at the election in 2005 was the second lowest since 1918 and Blair won the election with the lowest ever recorded share of the total vote. A larger percentage of the electorate didn’t vote in the 2005 election than voted for Labour candidates. Only a quarter of the electorate voted for Labour, so much for Blair’s claim to have an electoral mandate.
    The ring of truth:
    ” . . For Labour’s investment in public relations has produced a devastating effect. After nearly a decade the British public now mistrusts the government machine to a degree unmatched in the democratic era. In 2004 a survey for the committee on standards in public life found that a mere 24% of the public trusted government ministers to tell the truth (only estate agents and tabloid journalists were more mistrusted). It would be surprising if trust were not now lower still. . .”
    http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1861665,00.html

    Reply
  4. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    Update from today’s news:
    “CHILDREN as young as five are among thousands of youngsters across Yorkshire who are having their fingerprints taken at school. Primary and secondary schools in the region are beginning to collect biometric details from their pupils at alarming rates – in many cases breaking Government guidelines by not first asking for parental permission.”
    http://www.ypn.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1735844
    Perhaps it’s as well – from the Yorkshire Post on 20 July:
    “VIOLENT crime in Yorkshire soared by nine per cent last year – more than anywhere else in the country – and the region is now the burglary capital of the UK.”
    http://www.ypn.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1639620
    But with the mounting pressure to curb rising crime in Yorkshire, they’re focusing on the perennial challenge of catching criminals by using police resources more efficiently and with less effort:
    “Police Review reports that officers are posting written invitations to suspects asking them to come into the station for questioning. In one month, 65 suspects received letters; 35 of them attended appointments and there were 21 sanction detentions – where a person is convicted, cautioned or reprimanded – as a result.”
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8164-2332056,00.html
    Of course, having the finger prints of children on file will be an immense help.

    Reply
  5. JO Avatar
    JO

    Tim Wrote..
    “why not prevent criminals being created in the first place?”
    Because not all thugs and hooligans are born from the “underclass”.
    This is a nasty little idea from the mind of a nasty little man.
    If he wants to stop hooligans being “created”, then its easy. Reward proper two-parent families with decent tax breaks, and stop rewarding single mothers. They did it in the States, and it worked.

    Reply
  6. james C Avatar
    james C

    The mother comes from a bad family.
    The father is under police investigation.
    They have a young child from an unplanned pregnancy.
    Surely they could benefit from the wisdom of Tony Blair.

    Reply

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