Thursday, June 06, 2013

The state drifts ever closer in Scotland

This is a disturbing development:
Under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill, every child from birth will be given a “named person”, charged with keeping an eye on that child’s interests until it reaches adulthood.
Every child will be assigned a named individual by the state to oversee the interests of that child. This role, of overseeing the interests of a child, once fell naturally to the parents of that child.

What is this named individual going to do? According to the Bill, the named person is responsible for:
doing such of the following where the named person considers it to be appropriate in order to promote, support or safeguard the wellbeing of the child or young person—

(i) advising, informing or supporting the child or young person, or a parent of the child or young person,

(ii) helping the child or young person, or a parent of the child or young person, to access a service or support, or

(iii) discussing, or raising, a matter about the child or young person with a service provider or relevant authority

The politicians who have queried the measure seem most interested in how a personal relationship will be developed between the named person and the children they are responsible for:
SNP MSP John Wilson asked how children would be made aware that they had a named person, and how that named person would be identified to the child.

"How do we make sure that this named person is actually identified to the young person, and the young person has the confidence and the ability to actually directly speak to that named individual?" he said.

Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw suggested the measure is "a very huge enterprise".

"How many named persons do you anticipate there will be? What will the turnover be in named persons? And how in practice does that really establish a bond of confidence on which people feel they can rely?" he asked.

The main intent seems to be to have a personal contact between a child in need and one named individual responsible for the child's welfare. For children from highly dysfunctional families who are in some kind of danger, that might be a good idea.

But it's an unnecessary and dangerous extension of the role of the state to have a named individual for every child. Can we really trust the modern administrative state to direct its intervention only to those children in real danger, once an administrative structure and authority has been established over all children? Especially when the role of the named individual is defined so broadly, as being to promote the wellbeing of the child they have been appointed to look after.

It's dangerous too to have such a measure at a time when the family is being redefined in a way that diminishes the importance of the "filial" connection between child and parent. This is not the time to further undermine the significance of biological paternity in establishing in normal circumstances both authority and responsibility in relation to a child.

12 comments:

  1. I am Scottish, and I absolutely hate the SNP and Alex Salmond. It's as if their policies are tailor made to ruin Scotland.

    The concept of Scottish independence has been hijacked by leftists. Glasgow has been described as the most left-wing city in the UK, but not all Scots are so passionate about left-wing ideas. Actually, I would say the average Scottish person is not even particularly interested in politics or political ideas.

    I live in Aberdeen and know a few young women (born in 1987, 1989, etc), younger than myself (I was born in 1986), who are single mothers. And some of these girls have got alcohol problems, they live on benefits, and they don't look after themselves well, so I hate to think what life is like for their kids. Although these young women may be in their twenties, their maturity level is quite low and so I don't see their kids doing well in the equation.

    Class matters. A child who grows up in a poor estate which looks like this:

    http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/37/11/3371179_3c073199.jpg

    ...is going to have a lot less chance of one day going to university than a child who grows up in a place which looks like this:

    http://www.mortgageandproperty.co.uk/site/files/propertydata/propimages/781-Springdale-Road-12_161-11.JPG

    ...but why would you want to go to university these days anyway?

    To get the chance to learn how to be a good Cultural Marxist? To get the chance to join pathetic "anti-fascist" groups which are full of ignorant rich kids who don't have a clue about the real world?

    ...anyway, Salmond's SNP is almost as bad as the UK Labour Party.

    The SNP is keen to cuddle up to third world immigrants, that's for sure.

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  2. So it's finally happening. The state is to become parent to every child in the land.

    I don't know how they have the gall, these politicians, to assume that they are supremely placed to supervise parents, or that they are better placed than a child's parents to know what's best for the child...

    Not only that, it sounds like a brilliant scheme to massively bloat the state payroll.

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  3. Aberdeen is colloquially nicknamed "The Oil Capital of Europe".

    Funnily enough when walking down the street today I saw an oil driller of a different kind...

    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Oil%20driller

    Ha ha ha!

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  4. This is why the game of white nation against white nation is worthless even in the best case, in which union or independence can be decided peacefully. The traitors are inside the gate.

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  5. If anyone wants to pay Alex Salmond a visit, he lives in or near the village of Strichen in Aberdeenshire in a converted mill.

    I'd like to ask him why he approves of mass third world immigration to Scotland for a start.

    Even if he sees it as a good thing, many ordinary folk in Scotland do not:

    http://www.nfscotland.co.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/demo2.jpg

    http://www.nfscotland.co.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/demo88.jpg

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  6. Class matters. A child who grows up in a poor estate which looks like this:

    http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/37/11/3371179_3c073199.jpg


    Doesn't look too bad to me. Of course, the photo has no people in it, and who knows what the inside looks like.

    The second photo looks like a really ordinary house, not a palace of privilege.

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  7. Whereabouts are you from, Huh?

    Alright, since I have been on the inside of a flat in that very same block and have got photographs (no I don't live there but I know someone who does), I can show you what it's like on the inside...

    http://imgur.com/jBdNJEK,yDFtKje,xDHScKD,zeSaavg,vMisQMr

    There you go - there's a gallery of the kitchen.

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  8. I was also talking to a guy this evening about this:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2332998/One-country-religions-telling-pictures-The-pews-churches-just-yards-overcrowded-mosque.html

    A 50-year-old man I was talking to in Aberdeen in Scotland just this evening, a middle class married guy, was saying he'd read this article in the Daily Mail and was seriously unimpressed with the way that these Muslims and foreigners were having loads of kids and taking over our country. He also expressed strong scepticism for the SNP and Alex Salmond, and said he wouldn't even vote because he thinks politics is a waste of time.

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  9. Not Scotland. The USA. Where public housing doesn't even look that good on the outside.

    Scots ain't much for housekeeping, it seems.

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  10. That gallery of images I posted is nae really representative of your average Scottish family's kitchen.

    It just shows you how much squalor some people put up with in some of the worst areas.

    And for what it's worth... the owner of that particular household is actually English.

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  11. That the UK is lost became written in stone about two decades ago. Good people should leave; let the rest sink beneath the sea.

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  12. Thank you for highlighting this issue. Please consider signing and sharing this petition which is helping to get the word out.

    https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/members-of-the-scottish-parliament-reject-girfec-surveillance-and-named-person-for-every-child-in-scotland#supporters

    For background information and the latest news please visit this forum thread.

    http://www.home-education.biz/forum/general-discussion/12948-big-brother-scotland.html

    ReplyDelete