http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6917328.ece

Surely it is not possible to stop every single accident in the home from happening, and can the small amount of accidents that they manage to prevent possibly justify the intrusion into every family home? What happened to the "An Englishmans home is a castle"?

Wouldn't they be better offering advice and support rather than enforcing and snooping?

Discuss :)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6917328.ece

Surely it is not possible to stop every single accident in the home from happening, and can the small amount of accidents that they manage to prevent possibly justify the intrusion into every family home? What happened to the "An Englishmans home is a castle"?

Wouldn't they be better offering advice and support rather than enforcing and snooping?

Discuss :)

Well we all know that they want total control over us. Why they have to interfere in everything is beyond me, we are becoming more and more controlled by nonentities who have managed to get a job with a little power.:rant:

As soon as I see the word ''database'' I get the shivers.

Shall we take bets as to which restaurant in South London one of the pi55ed up spooks will leave their laptop ?

An Englishman's home is certainly not his castle ... You'd think, that so long as you weren't hurting anyone else, that you should be allowed to do what you like .. not so ..

It is quite scary the amount of measures they are taking to remove rights and responsibilities from parents and taking them for the state. CRB's for parents who look after other people's children for more than 1 hour per week? That should put an end to any informal child care arrangements with your child's friends mum!

Here is another potentially problematic measure - it amounts to yearly licensing for a school place, and if your child has behaviour problems caused by special needs? :-

http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/21st_Century_Schools.pdf

"In applying for a school place every parent will
agree to adhere to the school’s behaviour
rules. Once their child is in school, the
parents will be expected to sign the
agreement each year and will face real
consequences if they fail to live up to the
responsibilities set out within it, including
the possibility of a court-imposed parenting
order. In turn, parents will also have the
right to complain if they believe the school
is not holding other parents to their
responsibilities."

This looks to be a load of hot air to me. HSE Inspectors have been cut back over recent years and we are now at a point where less than 1 in 13 fatal or major injuries reported to HSE are investigated.

http://www.hazards.org/deadlybusiness/escapingscrutiny.htm

The DoH may well want HSE people to have these powers to deal with extreme cases, but given the HSE's resources even if they got these powers they would not be able to do anything much with them.

Lack of funds doesn't seem to worry them or stop them attempting to pass more legislation taking more powers, which they will be very hard put to fulfill.

Today in the queens speech they have committed themselves to ensuring that all home educators are registered and inspected. This might sound reasonable until you read the proposed measures, which include us having to reapply every year for permission to continue home educating, for us to have to follow a yearly curriculum planned in conjunction with the local authority which is likely to be much more restrictive than the national curriculum and which does not take into account differing educational philosophies, and for local authorities to have the right to enter our homes and interview our children alone - even offenders have the right to have legal representation present at an interview! They plan to ask our children if they are happy being home educated, with the intention of making a school attendance order if they indicate unhappiness - of course there are no plans to ask children in schools if they are happy and making a home education order if they are unhappy! A parents right to choose the form of their child's education is a very long standing civil right which is now in peril.

All this because we dare to discharge personally the responsibility laid on all parents by section 7 of the Education Act to cause their child to receive an education, rather than us handing them over to a school (where many home educated children have previously been badly let down, which is why they are being home educated in the first place for many families). It is another movement towards taking responsibility from parents and handing it over to the state.

It will be interesting to see where they are going to take the money from to pay for these increased home visits and curriculum planning meetings etc, but they are counting on the home educators performing their part in the huge amount of tickbox paperwork completely unpaid, as well as being unpaid teachers, and often keeping up another job to help the family survive as well!

Well we all know that they want total control over us. Why they have to interfere in everything is beyond me, we are becoming more and more controlled by nonentities who have managed to get a job with a little power.:rant:

Strict liability, anyone?

The government want to make everything a crime, so if they don't like the look of you, they can arrest and charge you with anything they like...

But what did you expect from a government staffed by laywers?

Wouldn't they be better offering advice and support rather than enforcing and snooping?

Discuss :)

But snooping is what they like best, isn't it? ;)

Excellent points made by you commentors already...it seems to me to be a depserate attempt to regain some of the control that the state has lost over people and long term I cannot see it succeeding. People are free individuals and more and more are realising that now! They can try but they can't control us!

Excellent points made by you commentors already...it seems to me to be a depserate attempt to regain some of the control that the state has lost over people and long term I cannot see it succeeding. People are free individuals and more and more are realising that now! They can try but they can't control us!A desperate attempt to GAIN, not regain, surely? AFAIK, the State now, in the 21st c, has more power and control of everyday life of people than ever before. All the fun and individuality is being legislated out of our lives and we're just sitting like lemons letting them do it! They seem to want to know where we are and what we're doing at all times. It's like living at home with your mum and dad forever :D And all on the pretext that they're protecting us against bad people.

Meh, someone, somewhere is probably tasked with reading SF everyday just to see if we're harbouring any subversives.

They seem to want to know where we are and what we're doing at all times.

Exactly! And yet those sonofabitch / bitch MPS want to hide their expenses from us under the official secrets act!

:loopy:

"The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people." Benito Mussolini

Oops ! Forgot to add...

"The next fascists will call themselves anti-fascists". Winston Churchill

"The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values—interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people." Benito MussoliniThe thing about Fascist leaders is they all seem to end up swinging from a lampost ... thank god!

I'm always suspicious about the accuracy of articles which are short on specifics and long on giving voice to muppets like Matthew Elliot.

If someone can tell me an honest, objective difference between these two state of affairs:

New guidance drawn up at the request of the Department of Health urges councils and other public sector bodies to “collect data” on properties where children are thought to be at “greatest risk of unintentional injury”.

Until now, councils have made only a limited number of home inspections to check on building work and in extreme cases where the state of a house is thought to pose a serious risk to public health.

then I might listen to you. As it is, it's the kind of low-on-fact tripe that you expect from a Telegraph journalist like Robert Watts.

George Orwel was spot on in 1984






Big Brother is definatly watching

I wonder how many of the people up in arms about the news, are the same people who were so furious when it turned out that children like Baby P, Anna Climbie, and all the others, could have been saved if only the State had done a bit more intervening against the family's will. I certainly don't remember anyone arguing, at the time those deaths were in the news, that the family had a right to privacy.

I wonder how many of the people up in arms about the news, are the same people who were so furious when it turned out that children like Baby P, Anna Climbie, and all the others, could have been saved if only the State had done a bit more intervening against the family's will. I certainly don't remember anyone arguing, at the time those deaths were in the news, that the family had a right to privacy.

There's a difference between a totalitarian state wanting to take over every aspect of our lives and social workers not doing their jobs properly.

I wonder whether the agenda to turn the UK into a totalitarian state comes from the Labour government or from the dictatorship in Brussels? I suspect the underlying plan is to turn the all of Europe into a peasant economy to rival the emerging superpowers of China and India.

As soon as I see the word ''database'' I get the shivers.

Shall we take bets as to which restaurant in South London one of the pi55ed up spooks will leave their laptop ?

me too and there is no way they won't try and link all these databases to our ID cards and know everything about us.

freaky!

and judging by their past record, they will lose or completely mess up the many databases

There's a difference between a totalitarian state wanting to take over every aspect of our lives and social workers not doing their jobs properly.

The only way in which those social workers "didn't do their jobs properly" is that they didn't force entry to snoop on the families against their will - which is exactly what everyone here is saying they should not be allowed to do.

12.20 Fluffed. It smelt.
12.20 Fluffed again. That smelt worse.
12.21 Fluffed but this time i followed through. Now its really smelly.
12.22. Typing this when i should actually be cleaning myself up
12.24 Cant stand the smell any longer. Have to go and wash and change :(

I wonder how many of the people up in arms about the news, are the same people who were so furious when it turned out that children like Baby P, Anna Climbie, and all the others, could have been saved if only the State had done a bit more intervening against the family's will. I certainly don't remember anyone arguing, at the time those deaths were in the news, that the family had a right to privacy.

Certainly the cry of "its for the chiiiiildren" is used every time this government try to enforce more and more invasive powers. I am currently being told that I ought to willingly accept having to register for a yearly renewable licence just to be able to spend the daylight hours with my own children, because ..you know....if it saves just one child then it is worth it :loopy:

The small point that there is no evidence what so ever that home educating is a risk factor seems not to worry them. In fact all the evidence is that home educated children are at roughly one quarter the risk of the general child population of being abused. Yet my children are being classified as vulnerable because I am happy to spend my time with them.

The cases you mention above had extensive social work involvement and they were still abused. The Local authorities don't need more powers, or more low risk cases to have to include in their busy schedules, what they need is more resources to deal with the cases and use properly the powers they already have!

The cases you mention above had extensive social work involvement and they were still abused. The Local authorities don't need more powers, or more low risk cases to have to include in their busy schedules, what they need is more resources to deal with the cases and use properly the powers they already have!

This is the stupidity of the situation. Baby P was already on the child protection register and there was a failure of intervention. How a similar situation is likely to be prevented by diverting funds and resources to check on children based on no other evidence then their parents have a particular view on education is beyond me!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6917328.ece

What happened to the "An Englishmans home is a castle"?

Discuss :)

My home is my castle and before my visit I will have to remember to move the pot of boiling oil, hide the bow and arrows, remove the spikes from the fall traps, feed the piranha in the moat and clean out the dirty water. Chase the rats from the dungeon and hide the rotting corpses should surely pass after that if not theres always room in the torture chamber for the nosey gits. A spell on the rack should keep them occupied