Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and UNICEF declares the whole country unfit to raise children:
Britain is the worst country in the Western world in which to be a child, according to a recent UNICEF report. Ordinarily, I would not set much store by such a report; but in this case, I think it must be right—not because I know so much about childhood in all the other 20 countries examined but because the childhood that many British parents give to their offspring is so awful that it is hard to conceive of worse, at least on a mass scale. The two poles of contemporary British child rearing are neglect and overindulgence.
[…]
I suspect, however, that the main consideration inhibiting elite criticism of MacKeown is that passing judgment would call into question the shibboleths of liberal social policy for the last 50 or 60 years—beliefs that give their proponents a strong sense of moral superiority. It would be to entertain the heretical thought that family structure might matter after all, along with such qualities as self-restraint and self-respect; and that welfare dependency is unjust to those who pay for it and disastrous for those who wind up trapped in it.
“I suspect, however, that the main consideration inhibiting elite criticism of MacKeown is that passing judgment would call into question the shibboleths of liberal social policy for the last 50 or 60 years…”
Exactly.
Given the increasingly litigious nature of most Western democracies–in large part, due to their lib-left-lawyer-dominated governments of the past 25-30 years–no government would want to state the obvious which is that
“family structure might matter after all [in reaching for optimum child-rearing conditions], along with such qualities as self-restraint and self-respect.”
Individuals and groups who have voiced this opinion in Canada are usually given the cold shoulder and, worse, are considered to be “anti-single moms,” “intolerant,” and “bigoted,” when all they’re trying to do is say, “HOLD ON A MINUTE. LET’S LOOK AT OUR KIDS. ARE THEY BETTER OFF THAN THEY WERE BEFORE ALL OF OUR SOCIAL ENGINEERING AGENCIES PUT THEIR ALL-FAMILY-TYPES-ARE-EQUAL POLICIES INTO PLACE?”
There’s more concern about helping so-called “adults” in our society save face than in naming obviously disastrous family configurations which badly damage children. To fix these situations is also low on the priority list of our so-called leaders because improved families and improved conditions for children would cut off the gravy train for a whole lot of “professionals” on the therapeutic gravy train.
Both my sister and I agree that the best lessons in life can be seen by watching Cornation Street – all you need to know about human behaviour, family dynamics, friendships are revealed on Cornation Street. So that is Britians gift to the world1
“””””Both my sister and I agree that the best lessons in life can be seen by watching Cornation Street – all you need to know about human behaviour, family dynamics, friendships are revealed on Cornation Street. So that is Britians gift to the world1″””””
mauree, you are an excellent example of how things should NOT be done, you don’t learn life by watching the telly
I watched Coronation Street from 1973 to 2002. After 30 years of amusement I couldn’t stand the plot lines anymore.
If Coronation Street is a refection of modern Britain then they are dead as a society.
Anglo Saxon spirit has moved on to the new world. What is left on the Sceptred Isle are the landed gentry and the lower classes that are content with what ever life dishes them.
“HOLD ON A MINUTE. LET’S LOOK AT OUR KIDS. ARE THEY BETTER OFF THAN THEY WERE BEFORE ALL OF OUR SOCIAL ENGINEERING AGENCIES PUT THEIR ALL-FAMILY-TYPES-ARE-EQUAL POLICIES INTO PLACE?”
That,batb,is the question,and the answer is a simple one: NO!!!!! We had girlfriends/boyfriends in Grade 1. We played tag at recess,had fights,made friends and lost friends.Rode bikes without helmets and swam in rivers without lifegaurds.
The social engineers have stolen the most precious thing we can give our kids and grankids.An unfettered,for better or worse,aches and pains and laughter and joy and sorrow.We have let them steal their childhood.And that is a damnable,detestable crime for which we are now paying.
Since this report comes from the UN, it’s a safe bet that Britain is one of the best places in the Western world in which to be a child.
After half a century of being exposed to Socialist Governance, it’s no wonder the parents don’t know how to raise their children. They were raised by the Nanny State and now expect their kids to be so, as well.
The best part of Britain and Scotland emigrated to America long ago.
The best part of Britain and Scotland emigrated to America long ago.
Posted by: Malcolm Cross at August 23, 2008 4:39 PM
That’s very accurate.
My ancestors left Ireland before the famine. Many Irish ended up in Boston, New York, Montreal, well before the decline of the Irish. Just look at the Irish-americans from back then. Cops, labourers, prize fighters. Big strong healthy people, willing to work hard and suffer great hardship. Drafted into more wars than almost any other ethnic group.
Look at Ireland today. The average Irishman is quite small, with funny ears. The Brits are overweight drunks that can’t even defend their culture any more. Yes Malcolm, you have a valid point there.
But in their defense, I have to think all the casualties from 2 world wars didn’t do their gene pool any good. The middle east, on the other hand, has been busy breeding like flies while we fought for western freedom. They’re tanned and ready to take on the west. I think the west might have a surprise up the old sleeve for them. You don’t fight the hordes all these years without learning a few tricks.
Anecdote time. (about the way it used to be…)
Setup: Circa 1963, older brother aged 7 or 8 is sitting on chesterfield beside visiting Uncle and Aunt (he from Austrian lineage, she being the older sister of my grandmother).
Brother John reaches for sweet on table. Hmmm. Reaches for second sweet. Hmmm. Reaches for third when uncle Arnold abruptly slaps his wrist and says ” discretion” John is disappointed but learns lesson that keeps him to this day.
My point being that there’s a point to how ‘liberal’ one can be. Collectively, we should learn personal responsibility or ‘discretion’ before we consider leaning on government for its service.
Wow, powerful stuff from Theodore Dalrymple, as always. Fiona MacKeown is a pig. Someone has got to say it. Unlike the Guardian journalist, you can put perfume on her all you want, she’s still a pig.
Britain has devolved into a wretched place. Go to any of their media sites and it’s nauseating to scan the headlines, worse are the brain dead zombies that comment on their liberal rags. We owe them nothing past our blood, sweat and tears in WWII. I spent one evening explaining to my girls how WWII shaped my parents. It’s hard to believe that today’s Brits are descendants of those people. I personally don’t think they can turn the rot around.
Socialism is a destroyer of families, cultures and nations. It’s as rotten to the core as the big other “ism” that seeks to destroy us, the Islamofascists.
Eastern Canada is almost at the same place on the down ward dial as Great Briton. As is lower BC i.e.: Vancouver-Victoria;
With the new CHRC policies they will shape education even more towards this horrific model.
This was PETS hallucination. To me its a vision of hell. America is becoming the same way. Time we stopped the coddling. Not the kids as much as the adults. I figure its time most of these delayed adolescents become adults, than take responsibility for there own lives. Leave others to themselves.
We have a gigantic task to turn this sludge of an ideology into dust while cleaning ourselves of its filth. As some have observed taking the children’s lives from them in an attempt to over protect them deforms the individual. If they have no real childhood with all its joy’s , cruelties with the inevitable heart break, the first love. At least its real living, not a dead conformity that the only escape from, is to numb ones brain all day long.
Look at England to see the future our elite has planed for the hive as they see it. Don’t worry though, this will not last long. To fill the vacuum will come an aggressive power that will destroy civilization. From the rot inside by home made barbarians with those outside the gates joined with those inside.
The aristocrats with their governments are always last to know. They assume that all will work for them as always. To such as those it has for the most part which generates the hubris. Only now there will be no one left to defend them .They will have abolished the very group that would have fought for them. Made them into timid cowards that will fight for nothing or even care for any one but themselves . How could they not be, never learning to think as free people. Using the CHRC’s & CRTC’s to render the populace docile by intimidation, ignorance threw education.
All for an insane ideology merged with multiculturalism, doused in false language, that has never worked & killed mega millions. Its nutty!
JMO
I used to enjoy visiting the UK years ago and simply have no taste for it anymore. It just feels like a defeated nation for lack of a better explanation, and is the canary in the coalmine for Australia and Canada.
An article I read the other day (UK Telegraph or somewhere) said +/- 680 skilled tax paying Brits are abandoning the UK every day now, almost ½ a million per year and growing exponentially. Replaced of course with much less skilled third world immigration and the “unmentionable” drain on the countries social services.
“White flight” an American phenomenon is becoming dangerous enough now that it’s a regular topic of discussion. Unlike the US where whites moved from the inner city to the suburbs then acreage communities, these taxpayers and skilled labor are gone for good.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/15/nwhite115.xml
Then there are the side shows, we can look forward to in our own future……..
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3140
It’s just to politically incorrect to discuss the real and genuine issues degrading a once great society as England was. We ourselves better wake up and learn from their cultural demise…………..
Okay, only one comment of 12 is showing. What’s going to happen when I post this comment?
‘Same pop-up: “To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has blocked the website from displaying content with security certificate errors.”
What, exactly, does this mean? And why can I not see all of the comments. The last one to post on this thread was @ 1:08 p.m YESTERDAY, and that was comment #1. #s 2-12 don’t show.
Yup! Magic!
Whoo-hoo!
Revnant Dream: “ignorance threw education”
A wonderful malapropism!
In this case, “threw” works far better than “through”!!!!’
RIGHT ON, REV.
Good comments. First and foremost – whenever a country other than the U. S. takes a beating by some far-left group of bleary-eyed reprobates, it must be true! In reality, anything, ANYTHING, coming out of a United Nations construct is total rubbish even if a few accurate inferences dot the narrative.
Second, don’t forget the good Doctor Benjamin Spock from the ’60s and ’70s. That jackass did more harm to childraising norms than any institution until Hollywood started with the Porky’s ‘vandalizing private property is fun’ theme. One hates dating oneself, but this guy was pervasive in the U. S.
Finally, England hasn’t been England for quite some time. While still intrigued by the lands of my distant countrymen, Scotland and Ireland, I was underwhelmed and frankly disappointed by my first trip to England. But, we did it for Blair, a man of massive political courage during the Iraq war. Granted one trip doesn’t represent a sample but impressions in Paris and France, a city and country both of which I hold in extremely low esteem, was fascinating. We’ve been back to France since. So you won’t think poorly of me, we actually use Paris as a departure point for our main destination, Italy. Italian politics are so inexplicable it is hard to hold a grudge.