Last Week's riots were a failure of big Government

In touch with his
feminine side?

Fiddling while 'Rome' burnt? The UK PM above may not be ideologically equipped to understand and tackle the situation.

The term big government needs to be defined of course, what I am referring to is the enormous shift in power from individual to state that occurred post 1945. 1945 saw the election of a Labour government with a major ideological programme to expand the state and develop an all-encompassing welfare system. They also had an electoral mandate to do so having won a landslide victory in the 1945 election. However no government since then has done anything to dismantle the more authoritarian aspects of Atlee's ambitious programme. For instance the NHS an enormous receiver of state revenue is generally well regarded in spite of the bloated bureaucracy and cash cow it has become.


But what of the numerous other 'benefits' that flowed since then. Child benefit which is paid to all mothers regardless of means (thus ensuring the father has no effective role or whatever role or interest he may have had is usurped by the state). Housing benefit another well intended idea that was supposed to remove the slums, however now the state is the landlord. Ultimately the over-reaching meaning of too many of these benefits is that the government is your provider, your father, your bread winner and your landlord. There was a time when families and communities looked after themselves and having strong family values and not excessive statism keeps the government at bay thus protecting liberty.

However the socialist paternalism induced through welfare makes people always look to the state as provider, not their families and themselves the state rules you. So where does this lead and how does it make the riots witnessed last week inevitable? Simple, if you look to the state for everything and then the state cannot provide everything or more of what you crave (due to a recession) then the state is to blame. So being in a state of dependence and feeling entitled to things (as opposed to aspiring for them which is admirable) then you take them by force. After all morally the state can never be an effective alternative solution for rock solid working class families, the likes of which existed in places such as Salford I know my father's family were an example.

However that era has been passed it is now the era of the benefits underclass. The problem with benefits is that they perpetuate poverty and strangle any sense of initiative or moral responsibility from those that receive them. If this sounds harsh I'll accept that not all benefits recipients are criminal scroungers nor were all of the rioters on benefits, but they have fostered a dependency culture tax payers subsidise. The last Labour government did all of this in spades. So the solution is to roll back the state and go back to traditional family values as one thing but there are numerous other things that can be done.


A few of my own suggestions are as follows:

1. Introduce tax rebates for working families, a couple in work will pay less tax each child they produce so long as they remain in work. They could spend the saving on childcare.

2. I've blogged on the oppressive and stupid hand gun ban previously, allow people with no criminal record to own a handgun and keep it for self-defence. They will need it as we have a police force that surrenders the streets to rampaging mobs for hours on end. I pity the shop keepers and others who have suffered as a consequence of the recent violence.

3. Increase the amount of time police officers spend on patrol through scrapping their paperwork, in short stop micro managing them.

4. Help create jobs and wealth for reducing corporate tax and scrapping the 50 pence top tax rate.

5. Celebrate our small business operators and other private sector workers as they are currently the underdogs, but they are the lifeblood of the British economy.

6. Make policing more localised and community based, increase the number of smaller police posts and re-establish foot patrols in areas. This may cost money, well the answer is simple stop foreign aid and spend it at home.


That's just a few ideas, inevitably however the solution amongst many will be for more statism but this must be resisted. Big brother would love to take more power and control social media and internet use, however the result would be truly Orwellian. Typically those on the left are stating that factors such as spending cuts are too blame ignore them, we pay too much tax as it is. Roll back the state and we will get back our streets as well as our dignity and pride. The situation in America would have been different and the debate more honest.

A sorry tale of exploitation and immorality now fully exposed... 'Alfie' is not a Dad after all.

It turns out young Alfie may have been led down the garden path.

I remember the story of teenage 'dad' Alfie Pattern when it was originally disclosed by the Sun in February. At the time I was shocked and a more than a little peeved to see the good use my tax money was being put to. However it was exploitation, a cynical attempt by the Sun to exploit the sorry antics of a very young and surely feckless couple. The story has bow been updated by the Mirror. Now it seems that young Alfie is not the father and the girl Chantelle has perhaps spun him (and the Sun) along. Is it fair to say she is a slapper? Certainly yes but the real culprits are her mother and the media who manipulated these muppets. See the full story below. A few questions need to be asked:

1. How much did the Sun pay to the 'parents' of Alfie and Chantelle for this story.

2. Why did the Sun report the story as fact in spite of the fact that 4' tall Alfie is clearly pre-pubescent and therefore unlikely to be a father.

3. Alfie in particular has been through the mill during this whole affair and was exploited by the Sun and utterly greedy adults who should have been concerned what their children were up to; not making a quick buck out of it.

Chantelle the 'mother' is from a family of welfare dependents as to an extent is Alfie. This case like the Karen Matthews case displays the utter moral fecklessness that excessive state nannying produces. A fecklessness that as taxpayers we all pay for. I am a libertarian and the last person to lecture people on sexual morality. My attitude is that what consenting adults get up to is their business as long as no serious harm is caused. However in a case like this involving children the state needs to come down hard and prosecute those involved starting with the guardians. Instead the state funds this behaviour through excessive welfare.

DNA tests show boy-dad Alfie Patten is NOT the daddy


By Euan Stretch 26/03/2009
Exclusive

The schoolboy alleged to have become a dad aged 12 is not the baby’s father, the Mirror can reveal.
Alfie Patten, now 13, had a £300 DNA test after half a dozen boys claimed to have slept with schoolgirl pal Chantelle Stedman, 15.
It proved the 4ft-tall pupil was not the father of her seven-week-old girl Maisie Roxanne.
The result will be a blow to Alfie who was “devastated” by the boys’ claims and “adored” Maisie.
He was convinced he was the dad after a single night of unprotected sex with Chantelle.
Before he took the test, he said: “I didn’t know about DNA tests before but mum explained it’s when they do a swab in your mouth and it tells if you’re the dad. So if I have it, they can all shut up.”
His mum Nicole, 43, added at the time: “It had not even crossed Alfie’s mind whether Chantelle had not been faithful to him. He’s absolutely devastated that these lads say they slept with her.”
Chantelle became pregnant aged 14 after she “forgot to take” her contraceptive pill last May.
At the time, she claimed: “Alfie’s the only boy I’ve been with.”


Alfie insisted: “I am the only boyfriend Chantelle’s had and we’ve been together two years. I must be the dad. When she found out she was having a baby, I asked her, ‘Am I the dad?’ and she went, ‘Yeah’, so I believe her.”
Last month it was claimed Alfie had been the victim of a cruel con.
Chantelle told her half-sister Jodie O’Neill, 17, the father could have been one of a number of boys she slept with at her parents’ home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
She said her mum Penny, 38, ordered her to keep saying she had been a virgin when she slept with Alfie, from Hailsham.
The baby scandal began when Alfie and his dad Dennis, 45, gave an interview to the press days after Maisie was born last month.
A succession of politicians, including Tory leader David Cameron, bemoaned the nation’s declining moral standards.
Mr Cameron said at the time: “I hope somehow they grow up into responsible parents but parenthood is just not something they should be thinking about.”
Dad-of-ten Dennis regularly spoke on his son’s behalf. After Maisie’s birth he said: “He hasn’t a clue what a baby means and can’t explain how he feels. When I spoke to him he started crying.
“He said it was the first time he’d had sex, he didn’t know what he was doing or the complications that could come. I’ll talk to him again and it’ll be the birds and bees talk.”

Inspector Gadget on the Consequences of the Welfare State

Note to the real 'working class'.

£400 a week tax free for doing nothing. Result? Carry on doing nothing.

I intend to cross post a few things in the future from Inspector Gadget. Gadget is a serving Police Inspector who highlights the stresses of serving as a front-line cop in today's society. A society where the control of the Police appears to have passed to the New Labour Islington classes. Every day he documents more and more PC restrictions and bureaucratic time wasting. To his bosses and the New Labour machine he must appear quite reactionary. To me his is a sane voice of common sense in a wilderness.

Gadget has expressed his thanks to Karen Matthews for demonstrating what is wrong with the Benefits class in this country. Few people can deny it the problem is we cannot really fix it, so we have to put up with people like this. I am entirely willing to accept that before the launch of the welfare state in 1945 that there were serious problems and desperate poverty in many areas. But the excessive and expensive state nannying has exacerbated rather than solved the problem. Furthermore what is the point in giving out hand out after hand out, all it leads to is a despondent lack of moral responsibility. For instance Matthew's and her entire clique/family. If I am wrong and my taxes should be given with abandon to such people then I welcome such a discussion and invite others to comment below.

Inspector Gadget is here: or

http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/

BBC with a Damning Indictment of the Welfare State! 'No one in our house works'

I'm tremendously surprised by this as the BBC has published a piece that actually goes firmly against the grain of their liberal/left bias. I'm of the opinion that a 'safety net' to prevent people from starving is one thing. However an entire benefits culture that nanny's people from the cradle to the grave is another. The result an entire class of people devoid of pride, self worth and motivation. The shame is the family here do not seem to be unintelligent they are however lazy and Mrs Malcolm herself admits herself she is a drain on society. If she worked she could be a proud member of society instead of a sponging free loader. I need not comment further, people in the US who consider that Obama may introduce Socialism over there need only look here for one of it's consequences.

'No-one in our house works'
By Paula Dear BBC News








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With redundancies rising and job vacancies shrinking, unemployment is back in the headlines. But for millions it never went away. As part of a series on Britain's jobless, one family explains how and why lack of work has touched their lives.
Elizabeth Malcolm, 43, has never had a job. She lives in a two-bedroom council flat in Glasgow with her three children, one grandchild, two cats and a hamster.
Neither of her two working-age children have a job.
BRITAIN'S JOBLESS
Our series asks, who are Britain's jobless?
Read more about the issues - Britain's jobless: who cares? - here
Interviews with five people who are out of work will be published on the BBC News website in December and January
Week beginning 15 December - ask a government minister your questions about unemployment
Q&A: Who are the jobless?
Key statistics
The family is what the statistics gatherers call a "workless household" - one of three million in the country. In reality it's not quite so easy to put every jobless person into a neat little box. This is their story.
Elizabeth, known as "Biff" to family and friends, wishes now that she had got into work or college back in 1980, when she left school at 15.
It was hardly a great time to be a jobseeker, especially living in Easterhouse, a part of Glasgow long synonymous with deprivation and unemployment. But she concedes that she doesn't really know why she didn't get a job, and that there was an element of just "not getting round" to it.
She doesn't think school wanted her to stay on because she "wasn't too bright" and used to bunk off a lot.
Without any qualifications she assumed she wasn't able to follow her chosen path and join the Army. She never actually made it to the recruitment office to ask.
I did try, but nobody took me on
Elizabeth Malcolm
Send us your comments
After signing on the dole, she was nagged to find a job by her parents - who both worked until redundancy and illness stopped them in their 50s - and says she tried to find something.
"I did try, but nobody took me on," she says.
By 17 she had met the father of her three children and by 22 had their first son William. From then on family, home life and dealing with a failing relationship took over, she says.
While Elizabeth "feels angry" at herself for not getting into work when she was younger, at the same time she believes looking after the kids and the house has been a job in itself. Labour market survey figures for the last quarter showed more than two million women gave the same reason for not working.
Now a lone parent, she shares her bedroom with her son Jon, 13, daughter Danielle, 17, and Danielle's son Rhys, 11 months.

Next generation: More on William, Danielle and Jon
In pictures
William, 21, who served in the Army for three and a half years and went to Iraq and Afghanistan, sleeps in the small second bedroom.
The family survive on a combination of Income Support and Child Tax Credits, claimed by both Elizabeth and Danielle. Both also receive the universal Child Benefit for one child each. It all amounts to about £270 a week between the five of them.
As no one in the house is actively seeking work, they don't count as "unemployed" and none claims Jobseeker's Allowance.
Things will change for Elizabeth next year, when she will no longer be entitled to Income Support for being a lone parent. She is already being asked to attend interviews at the local job centre.
"They send for you every month to ask you why you're not working and if you've been looking for work. I've told them my situation, that I've been having panic attacks when I go out - which started after my dad died - and they've written it all down.


"They said I'd be better off if I was out working because Jon's at an age now where the money I'm getting will stop soon. I'd need to sign on [for unemployment benefit] again and I don't want that because I think I'm too old to sign on."
Elizabeth says she would most want to work in a caring job, with animals, children or elderly people, because she has looked after people all her life.
Jobcentre staff have told her if anything comes up they'll "send her a letter", she adds.
Having a job would help "keep her mind off things" that have happened, she says.
Although there's always been a degree of struggle to get by, the family recently went into a complete tailspin, says Elizabeth.
A catalogue of events have left her and William suffering from panic attacks, while Jon has "gone off the rails" and started truanting from school.
I'll just need to get it out of my head and start going places, or else I'm going to be stuck in the house for the rest of my life
William, 21
Elizabeth lost both her parents in the last four years, with her father's death hitting her and William particularly hard. After his grandfather fell ill William became depressed and left the Army.
"He was his granda's blue-eyed boy," says Elizabeth.
In 2006 the children's father, John Purcell, who was separated from Elizabeth but had been visiting the kids, was stabbed to death. Soon after, William was savagely attacked by local gang members and stabbed several times. After a second attack he stopped straying more than a few feet from the house, and started drinking more and more.
It's left William so afraid to go out, he can't sign on.
"I'll just need to get it out of my head and start going places, or else I'm going to be stuck in the house for the rest of my life," he says. "I can't keep living like this, living off my mum." I'd like to have my own house, and my own wee family... definitely."
'Downhill'
For the time being he plays uncle to Danielle's baby, Rhys.
With no dad on the scene, Danielle relies on help from the family. She says she hopes to learn to be a hairdresser or beautician.
"All my pals are looking for work as well. But it's not that easy to get a job straightaway, you've got to write out your CV and everything and then hand it in to places."
Day-to-day she spends her time going to the shops for her mum, collecting her money, or visiting friends who also have children.

Elizabeth - who is besotted with her cats - would like to work with animals
"Some days I'm just sitting in the house. That's what I do, morning til night, unless I go down to see my auntie or something. It's not really a life."
Elizabeth is aware there are some who would criticise her life. She would agree, she says, with those who say it is "terrible" that taxpayers should be in the position of paying for those without work.
"I'm sorry they have to pay tax money to me. If I could get a job... give me a job then and I'll work, and then they won't have to pay me."