Monday 28 March 2016

Chipping Away At Dependency…

Plans laid out in Essex County Council’s consultation on Sure Start centres would see one of the district’s two 50-hour-a-week centres closed. The plans are part of county hall’s consultation on reducing the number of Sure Start centres across Essex from 37 down to just 12.
Oh noes! Disaster!
The consultation, even with a month still left to run, has already faced a backlash.
See? Try to pry the state teat away and there’s all sorts of squalling and kicking of tiny feet…
An e-petition calling on Mr Madden to rethink plans to close the centres has already got nearly 10,000 signatures.
Ooooh, an e-petition! The laziest form of ‘protest’ ever invented, besides taking a selfie in a protest T-shirt and Instagramming it.
Margaret Montgomery, of Rayleigh, is one of those to have signed, she said: “These centres are a lifeline for many people and are cost effective as they can help to solve problems early in a child's life.
“If left, these could become more complex problems resulting in the need for more support for the family.”
Ah, yes, the ‘spend to save’ theory. Which can only work if you’re sheep-dipping everyone, rather than targeting those that need the extra assistance.
Mum-of-two Sally Robarts, also of Rayleigh, was not impressed by the plan to close a full-time centre. She said: “I think this kind of support network is vital to young families and mothers.
“In a world where families are living further and further away from one another and we have parents raising kids with no outside family help, these centres are a lifeline.”
Good lord, we can’t have families raising kids on their own! Anarchy will ensue! Help us, Big Nanny State, we implore you!
Fellow mum-of-two Kassie Wharton, of Rayleigh, is a user of the current services and does not want them to change. She said: “I have two children under two and love everything the children's centres offer. It would be awful for this to stop.”
Yes, you’d miss your ‘Jeremy Kyle’ if you had to do some parenting yourself, eh?

10 comments:

andy5759 said...

It has taken just a few short years to create a generation of parents who are ignorant of what being a parent requires. I thought Fabians worked a bit slower than that.

andy5759 said...

Sorry, I intended to write 'slower' rather than 'faster'.

Scrobs. said...

The best parts of Essex are beyond the M25, like Kent where we have the wild west of awfulness around the motorways.

Get out to the east of somewhere like Rayleigh, and life is much better - for some...

In Kent, my county, we pay rates to keep these immigrants happy and warm, and it ain't comfortable for us.

Lynne at Counting Cats said...

If they got off their arses instead of lying on their backs they wouldn't have anything to moan about. And we wouldn't have to support the buggers.

How the hell did I manage to raise my family without resorting to State handouts and taxpayer funded services? If you don't want to look after kids then don't have them. If you can't afford to look after kids then don't have them. Why should everyone else be expected to pick up the bill? Feckless bints.

Trevor said...

Frightening that it took just one psychotic monocular Scot to effectively nationalise child-rearing overnight.

Thank God we elected a Conservative government to sort it out.

Oswald Thake said...

That's a keyboard you owe me, Trevor!

Nice Mr Pierrepoint said...

'Sure Start' would be a good name for a program of sub-dermal Depo Provera implants, allowing Kardashians fans to embark on their sexual careers without the risk of producing brats.

Greencoat said...

The sooner these hellish ‘Soviet Start’ child programming units disappear, the better.

JuliaM said...

" I thought Fabians worked a bit slower than that."

Clearly, we're devolving... :/

"Get out to the east of somewhere like Rayleigh, and life is much better - for some..."

The quiet, pretty, so-far unspoilt bits.

"How the hell did I manage to raise my family without resorting to State handouts and taxpayer funded services? "

How did all our parents manage it!?

"Thank God we elected a Conservative government to sort it out."

We did...? :/

JuliaM said...

"'Sure Start' would be a good name for a program of sub-dermal Depo Provera implants..."

Heh!

"The sooner these hellish ‘Soviet Start’ child programming units disappear, the better."

Cut faster, cut deeper!