UK Report: First the Garbage, Now Household Searches
Liberals, Social Issues — By Harrison on November 23, 2009 at 6:00 am
The Nanny State: What Liberals crave
It was reported here earlier how, in the UK, contractors hired by the State were snooping through people’s rubbish bins in order to complete a “survey” as to what types of things were being thrown out (my assumption is to lay the groundwork for fines down the road). Now we have another disturbing report of Liberalism run amok… this time the excuse is to “protect” the children:
Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents.
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”.
Council staff will then be tasked with overseeing the installation of safety devices in homes, including smoke alarms, stair gates, hot water temperature restrictors, oven guards and window and door locks.
The draft guidance by a committee at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has been criticised as intrusive and further evidence of the “creeping nanny state”.
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.
Nice also recommends the creation of a new government database to allow GPs, midwives and other officials who visit homes to log health and safety concerns they spot.
The guidance aims to “encourage all practitioners who visit families and carers with children and young people aged under 15 to provide home safety advice and, where necessary, conduct a home risk assessment”. It continues: “If possible, they should supply and install home safety equipment.”
The proposals have been put out to consultation and, if approved, will be implemented next year.
Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is a huge intervention into family life which will be counter-productive.
“Good parents will feel the intrusion of the state in their homes and bad parents will now have someone else to blame if they don’t bring up their children in a sensible, safe environment.”
About 100,000 children are admitted to hospital each year for home injuries at a cost of £146m.
Perhaps the UK should ban ladders (people slip and fall), bathtubs (same reason), and maybe even life (it leads to death).
We expect the usual refrain of:
But it’s for the children!
I once heard a great quote from an engineer (whom I cannot remember) that goes:
If you idiot-proof the world you make a world full of idiots.
Does anyone care for a game of Lawn Darts?
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8 Comments
What ever happened to those strong independent people who used to inhabit the British isles? Are the current inhabitants even related to the ones who came up with the saying “An Englishman’s home is his castle” or the ones who told Hitler that he would not cross the English Channel as long as there were still Englishman able to hold a rifle or fly a plane? It’s so sad and our country is heading down the exact same road.
Forgotten Liberty´s last blog ..You Know You’re a Redneck When…
They are being turned into sheep. Let us hope people in this country will not stand for it!
I heard a phrase similar to yours;
“You can always idiot proof something, but God will just make a smarter idiot.”
Here we go again with liberalism thinking they can legislate human nature. Intellectual defectives that accept paternalism as an acceptable replacement for true liberty.
theLibertyPen´s last blog ..A New Site and Blog
“Creeping nanny state”? That they would define it as “creeping” speaks volumes about the current state of British governance.
Whatever happened to Admiral Nelson’s final words: “England expects every man to do his duty.”
Maybe that should be modified to: “Every man expects England to do its duty.”
How sad.
I am not pro nanny states, but I do think that if government is called in to check on children or adults who have been at risk or abused, some semblance of reporting can save a life. I once worked for a government agency and was assigned to check out possible fraud by a home health care agency. I went to the home in question and found the “caretaker” smoking around a patient who was on oxygen. Several oxygen tanks were around, including the one he was currently using. Had I not come along, the caretaker could have blown up, not only that place, but the adjoining units of the building. A report was made and the caretaker and agency were replaced. Sometimes oversight can be a positive. It should not, however, be intrusive.
askcherlock´s last blog ..Women: Pawns in Health Care Debate?
Time and time again we see how children left to the “welfare of the state” are abused, murdered, mistreated, etc. Sure, there are some success stories, but going into everybody’s homes to make sure they are “child safe” is a gross violation of privacy.
So does the question become, “Where do we draw the line?” Perhaps some intercedence is acceptable, but it never stops there. Time and time again we see the metamorphosis of power invading, and eventually leading to, the complete usurpation of liberty. Sometimes from a singular act of benevolence. The problem with liberalism is that the precipitation of action is never afforded a thorough intellectual discourse. The common good, however fallaciously perceived, will always be at the detriment of those deemed as acceptable collateral damage.
theLibertyPen´s last blog ..A New Site and Blog