Am I the only one...
...that's seen this coming for some time?
Sorry but this is a bit of a long one.
Without politicising the issue overly, surely we need to be taking a closer look at the complete breakdown of any kind of discipline, morals or respect these people have been brought up with.
Kids are being taught that whatever they do, it's ok - it's not their fault: there's always someone to blame. Success and aspiration aren't really necessary because you can make benefits a career choice and hey - it's everyone else's fault for letting you down.
Come on! I was brought up in a loving family with two parents. My old fella went out to work and my mum stayed home to cook, clean and look after my siblings and I.
You know what? We were quite poor. But then, so was the community we lived in and so were all of my friends.
I was taught right from wrong. If I did wrong, I got punished. And of course, being a typical boy I did a fair few things wrong.
I pinched a packet of sweets once. My mum found out and marched me to the local cop shop where I was given a very stern talking to and shown into a cell. At about 8yo that's frightening - well it WAS back then.
When my old man got home, I got a wallop - not a beating, just a slapped arse and sent to bed.
My dad worked from the age of 15yo to 65 - he retired recently. I was supported in my choice to study and get a job.
Oh and my first "real" job was a kicker - I mended electronic typewriters in what was little more than a sweat shop for what wouldn't even make minimum wage now (£75 a week, for 10 hours a day) - yep...£1.50 per hour.
Nor was this the 60's or 70's where that'd buy you a night out, a meal and change for a bus home but the early 90's.
I have worked my nuts off to get better positions to eventually find myself finally comfortable and able to enjoy small luxuries in life, and to ensure my kids are well looked after.
I started at the bottom of the career ladder and climbed. I didn't - ever - expect to walk into a senior job before I'd earned the right to.
I wasn't a model student at school, but again if I did wrong I was punished. I didn't query it - I accepted it as a direct result of my actions.
My own ethical mindset is, I think, fairly simple:
What consenting adults do to/with each other in the privacy of their homes is their business and shouldn't be inttruded on by the authorities;
Benefits should be a safety net, not a career. They should be in the form of tokens that can only be used to buy specific goods.
Ditto, teenage pregnancy should not be a career choice.
If you break the law you should be punished. Not cruely, not without cause, but the punishment SHOULD fit the crime.
If little Johnny commits crimes, and is too young to be punished - apply it after they become old enough. If it keeps happening, punish the parents.
There IS work. Most people are just too bone idle, or as one recently moved neighbour pointed out "we get waaaay too much from the state to make it worth my while getting a job..." Hmm...see my point about it not being a choice of career.
Restore discipline. Teachers and police and parents should not only be working together, but unless there is good evidence to suggest otherwise should be given the benefit of the doubt. If a student or parent assaults a teacher then they should go to jail. End of.
Liberals...smacking a kids arse really doesn't turn them into mindless slobbering victimes. There's a huge difference between abuse and punishment.
Restore accountability - if you want to take risks/break the law that's fine. But it's YOUR fault when things go bad, not everyone else's
Teach kids that not only is failing a part of life, that actually helps to build one's character but that not everything you do can be a "win". Nor, believe it or not, do you know everything.
Make people who have received long-term benefits perform community jobs for further receipt.
Teach these numbnuts that "I want it" does NOT equate to "I have earned it" and that destroying someones livelihood is NOT ok just to get a new telly that you cannot be bothered to go out and work and save for.
Let's teach them, that "being famous" isn't a viable choice of career. Or that footballers really aren't role models on the whole, but overpaid twats with the morals of gutter snipes (Ashley Cole can shoot a kid with an air rifle in a club changing rooms and not even face the sack?)
Take away their housing? No, probably not but make them repair their damage and pay them in vouchers. Let's see how long it is before they realise they have to work for their fags, booze and Jeremy Kyle fix.
I don't want a return to Victorian moral ideas, but a bit of common sense, common decency and respect.