Population Growth – Welfare Not Immigration

It was announced today that the UK population increased more last year than at any time in almost half a century. According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, the number of births in the UK is now at its highest since 1991, with 797,000 during the year to mid-2010 and this contribution to overall population growth is greater than that from net migration.

So why has there been a new baby boom without a war for an excuse?

Increased government support for families – notably the introduction of the Working Families’ Tax Credit (WFTC) in 1999 and greater generosity of means-tested Income Support (IS) payments – has coincided with a rise in births among couples who left school at 16 relative to those who stayed in education after 18.

According to research summarised in the Autumn 2008 issue of Research in Public Policy, the probability of having a birth increased by 1.2 percentage points among women with low education, which equates to nearly 45,000 additional births. The study also finds that the decision whether to have children – or when to begin having them – seems more susceptible to financial incentives than the decision over how many to have. The UK birth rate has increased steadily since 2001 and now stands at an average of 1.9 births per woman, the highest level since 1974.

Some women told researchers they had stopped using contraception. The more generous welfare system is being credited with contributing to an increase in the overall UK birth rate, which is now at its highest level since 1974. The report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies concludes: “We have shown that more generous Government support coincided with an increase in births among the group most affected by the [welfare] reforms.

The study says that the introduction of Working Families Tax Credit and an increase in Income Support between 1999 and 2003 triggered a rise in taxpayer spending on children “unprecedented” in the previous 30 years. Because the reforms were targeted at the poorest families with children, the value of their state handouts increased by 10 per cent of their total household income. For couples who both left school at 16, the reforms meant an increase in benefits of 45 per cent, from £39 a week to £56.76. This is a rise almost twice as much as the handouts for which a couple who went on to sixth form college would be eligible, which increased by 25 per cent to £37.27 a week. The researchers then looked at fertility rates both before the reforms were announced and after, for a sample of 101,330 women aged between 20 and 45. They found a large increase in the first year after the benefits were made more generous, particularly among women who had left school as soon as possible. The results show a 15 per cent increase in the probability of having a baby in the “low education group”.

People will have different views about whether a larger population is a good or bad thing. What cannot be rationally disputed is that dipping into taxpayers pockets to encourage the births of a whole new generation of welfare dependants can only take us closer to the economic collapse that state spending and borrowing has speeded us toward. Labour justified this handout on the grounds of reducing child poverty. The result will be lots more children in homes where inadequate parents don’t have the will or the ability to raise these children to be responsible and contributing members of society.

Related articles

• Britain adds half a million to population (ctv.ca)
• Population growth hits 50-year high (mirror.co.uk)

Family fairness index – get out of our lives

My first ‘news’ of today was hearing a twerp called Rob Williams from the Fatherhood Institute telling us that Britain is low on his Fairness in Families Index. This is because we don’t have enough paid paternity leave, men don’t do enough housework or spend enough time in child care  and we suffer from out outdated distinction between fathers as breadwinners and mothers as home-makers. According to him this means that we are not family friendly.
Only a few countries like Japan and Switzerland do worse than us on Fuehrer Williams’ index.
I was a pretty rubbish father, but that is a long time ago and as I am now retired I can make a bit of a contribution to keeping the house together, but the idea of ‘fairness in families’ is just infantile twaddle. I am reminded of P J O’Rourke when tired of his young daughter complainging of unfairness said:
“It’s not fair that you were born in the USA, it’s not fair that you have prosperous parents who love you, it’s not fair that you have a warm, comfortable home to live in, it’s not fair that you have a high quality education, health care, safety, friends and masses of opportunity for choices in your life. Shut up or I will start imposing some fairness.”
Of course Sweden came top of Williams’ index. Being a turnip he might fit in there, but I have some advice for him. Wind up your stupid institute Rob and get a proper job. If you stop wasting time and money  by pestering us with this drivel you might have a better chance of some contentment in your own life and that could contribute just a little bit to family happiness.
I suppose I wouldn’t have noticed Williams and his nonsense so much if it wasn’t for the last few days of being told that the government was going to measure the happiness of the nation. I can tell you Cameron & Clegg that what makes me really unhappy is wasting the taxes of a bankrupt nation on idiotic schemes like that. You are providing the perfect breeding ground for The Fatherhood Institute and every other ridiculous parasite group wanting to tell us how to live our lives.

Childcare Vouchers

 

Two parents who are both higher rate tax payers can receive up to £2,400 per year of public money towards their child care. Who is paying for these wealthy families to bring up their children while they follow their fulfilling lives? All of the rest of us of course, but the burden falls hardest on people with low incomes who still have to buy clothes, furniture and all the other necessities of life and for whom VAT is a bigger proportion of their commitments than it is for the wealthy.

 

In a cynical attempt to buy middle class votes the Labour Government introduced this mad scheme and now he has bankrupted the economy Gordon Brown is trying to stop it. His big problem is that he doesn’t command any authority in his own party and the Labour MP’s who are scared of losing their seats are threatening to vote against him.

 

Face up to it Gordon, you do not have the remotest chance of winning a general election whenever you call it. Having wrecked the economy, crippled business and swamped us with a multitude of idiot laws in your periods as Chancellor and PM you must spend your last months making sure that the debt burden you pass on to our children and grandchildren does not get any worse.

 

You must scrap the childcare vouchers. It will go through parliament because the Tories will have to support it. You have to ignore Caroline Flint and her mates, the country cannot afford to feather bed the wealthy. If they threaten to throw you out as PM just say thank you. Months of misery from the revolting Sun followed by a humiliating defeat at the polls will do your family and health no good. Better to go down now by doing the right thing.

Parents lie to get kids in school

Parents are being threatened with court action over telling lies to get their child into the school of their choice. I don’t advocate telling lies, but parents are absolutely right to try to get the best possible education for their children and it is an absolute outrage that the state should be threatening and intimidating parents to force their children into inadequate schools or ones which they consider to be unsuited to their child.

This is yet another example of how Britain has been turned into a soviet style tyranny where the state knows best, individuals are forced to do what the government demands and dissenters are criminalised.. The choice of education for a child is a matter to be decided between parents, their chosen school and the child themselves. It is nothing whatever to do with either national or local government, they must keep out of it completely.

Schools need to be freed from local education authorities and the dictation of what they can or cannot teach, but what needs to be done immediately is to provide vouchers to cover the cost of education for each child up to the normal school leaving age. The family will then be free to choose the schools that their children will attend irrespective of where they live, what religion they have or any other criteria. The voucher will cover the full cost of state education, but if the parents choose to send their child to a school in the private sector that has higher costs they top up their voucher from their own resources.

Education is too important for decisions about it to be stolen from families by authoritarian governments who insist that they know best when all of history tells us that they always result in the worst. The Soviet Union collapsed because it made the lives of its citizens a misery with wrong headed attempts to control every part of their lives. Our government is heading the same way. Throw it out before it is too late.

For The Love Of Little Children

A report was published yesterday on the abuse of children by Catholic Church organisations in Ireland. In many cases abusive priests were moved on and nothing done to stop the abuse or bring the perpetrators to justice.

 

For The Love Of Little Children

 

Hello! I’m Brother Blessed.

I have taken holy orders.

So that I may praise the Lord

and love the little children.

 

Straight out from the seminary

I was a brother teacher

Helping the sweet little ones

in learning to be good.

 

The wickedness within them

was the greatest of my burdens

The devil fought with vigour

before it left their

striped red cheeks.

 

I inject the love of Jesus

to the sobbing contrite cherub

and forgive him

for the pain he’s brought

by letting evil in.

 

My Lord the Bishop

thanked me for the

depth of my devotion

and gave me my own parish

to build the congregation.

 

I am Father Blessed

and all my little children

are angel faced, angel voiced

angelic of complexion.

 

My choir is a glory

of unbroken vocal chords

I love them each and every one

A love unknown, unspoken.

 

I devoted many hours

to more coaching in my room

bringing sacred music

to the mouths of

my best boys.

 

His eminence the cardinal

honoured my achievements.

On the holy Father’s orders

I was raised to greater things.

 

I am Father Blessed

Head and overseer

of the many teaching orders

spread throughout the land.

 

All the best and brightest scholars

are brought to my attention

that I might admire their qualities

and guide them on myself.

 

The lord has blessed us beyond words

with the beauty of creation.

I worship at the altar

of young bodies beautiful.

 

Now upon my later years

there is time for reflection.

Dear Mother Church has granted me

a care home and a pension.

 

I pray for the misguided

and the wicked lies they utter.

The dear lord will reward me soon

for I loved his little children.

Rise in UK teenager pregnancies

Teenage preganancies in the UK have risen for the first time in five years. Britain has the worst record in Europe although it is not as bad as the USA where Bush’s capitulation to the Christian lobby has placed emphasis on abstention from sex before marriage while removing support from anybody helping with contraception or abortion.

Here, the government is asking whether there needs to be an improvement in sex education in schools or classes for girls to show the burdens of motherhood.

I am not sure whether the idiots who suggest this stuff believe any of it or not, but either way it doesn’t matter. They are still going to throw away vast amounts of taxpayers money doing it and building their empires while the misery caused by immature, inadequates becoming parents will continue.

One thing that these children and their families do understand is the benefit and welfare system. Some of them have been living on it for generations and they share their experiences with all their mates. Kids who do not get on at school, have miserable experiences at home and do not see any prospect of doing well in the working world just don’t care about exams or putting effort into anything which is not pleasurable in their eyes.

When a young girl gets pregnant, the state rewards her with loads of attention, a support network, financial benefits and the prospect of a home for her and her baby. Even if she does not get pregnant deliberately to escape her own disfunctional parents or to create another living thing that loves her, she might be happy if it happens for completely rational economic reasons.

These kids are perfectly well aware of the facts of sex and no amount of education is going to make any difference. Still less will there be any point in telling them to save themselves for marriage.

It is really fairly simple. Stop rewarding children for producing more children. The welfare system needs to be dismantled, but a very good start would be to say that there will be no child benefit, no housing provision, in fact no benefits of any kind whatever for parents below the age of eighteen.

That will not stop under eighteens from having sex and it will certainly not stop all of them from becoming pregnant, but it will definitely make them much more interested in using contraception and for many girls, for whom motherhood would be a very bad thing, they will choose a termination rather than going on to face the full reality of what they have done.

I know this will be repugnant to many people. So be it. Let us discuss the issue and consider the consequences of our respective opinions.

The Fifth Commandment

 

Respect your father and mother

 

We are half way through and at last god has started looking at something other than his self obsession.

 

Most people would probably agree that children should respect their father and mother. I certainly hold that view in most cases, but really this commandment is such a generalisation that it’s value is very weak.

 

Humans are full of failings. Not because Adam ate a fruit or Eve was a temptress or that they were lead astray by a serpent, but because some people do very bad things.

 

Should a child respect a parent who abuses them? Sadly, some children are so badly treated that they are killed by one or other of their parents. Does respect for the abusive parent extend to the point at which the child should not tell anybody about their suffering and so allow it to continue until their life is taken or irretrievably damaged? Surely not.

 

I am in favour of laws being simple enough that they can be easily understood and enforced, but simplicity can be taken too far. In this case the exhortation to respect ones parents is fine for parents who respect their children. It is wrong to suggest that children have responsibilities to parents without reference to the responsibilities of parents to their children.

 

The commandments were a set of rules put together between two and three thousand years ago by people who lived simple, often brutal, lives in tribal communities without schools or any of the institutions of the twenty first century world. Children, like wives, were seen as assets of a male head of household. This demand of respect for parents is still worthwhile, but the relationship lying behind it in which children are not seen as deserving of the same should be put behind us as a more primitive stage of human development.

 

The fifth commandment stands up better than the four going before it, but it really isn’t very much use for the modern world and it suffers from the risk of giving an excuse to poor parents who demand undeserved respect from their children.

Hermione Pringle

 

“Hermione dear come here, come hear.

Now listen to what I say.”

“Your father and I have a wonderful plan

with a part for you to play.”

 

“We are going to knit a voluminous craft

to travel in, far away.”

Daddy will steer and pedal it too,

but you will show him the way.”

 

“We will journey at night, by the light of the stars,

and relax in sun beams by day.

I will ensure, as a mother should,

that you eat three times each day.”

 

“Off you go now and compile the route.

With my knitting I will stay.

Daddy my dear, just finish the gears,

and we’ll set off later today.”

 

As the sun went down on the Pringle yard

they flew off without delay.

Father pedalled and pointed the craft

while Hermione showed him the way.

 

They parked up at dawn on a goonibah beach

where a jerrimble nibbled away,

at the purl and the plain of the undercart,

while he burped and brungled all day.

 

With fresh spun cloud, and jerrimble horns

Mum knitted a new landing tray.

Dad pedalled awayfor all he was worth

while Hermione plotted the way.

 

The day and the night time rocketed past,

and the world was hurled far astray.

Father braked hard on the wonderful craft

so it came in to land on the tray.

 

High in the boughs of Venusian trees

the Pringles came out to say:

“here is the most deluptiful place

that ever we came to play.”

 

At Alpha Centauri they stayed for two weeks

in the forests of purple and grey.

Centaurans all loved them and copied their craft,

then waved as they went on their way.

 

It was horrid inside the black hole that they found,

when they toured the milky way.

It turned inside out, the fatherly drive,

and made all the purl into plain.

 

The Pringles decided this just wouldn’t do.

They simply declined to stay.

So mother refurbished the stitches, and then,

Hermione showed them the way.

 

In seconds they swept to the Pringle

front yard and screeched to a halt on their tray.

Close up behind them Centaurans came.

Three hundred decided to stay.

Phase Out Child benefit

 

Raising a family is a personal responsibility not a collective one. Child benefit should never be increased or extended for children already born. The benefit should be discontinued for any children born in the future.

Chemistry

 

 

Doctor twisting that child’s brain with

Ritalin.

Numbing the neurotic’s anxiety with

Prozac.

Vanquishing a housewife’s mind with

Valium.

Killing some junkie’s cramps with

Methadone.

 

Goes home and relaxes with

Alcohol.

Sucks stress out with

Nicotine.

Chews the fat with

Khat.

Keeps sleep’s curt call away with

Caffeine.

 

He puffs secretly with

Cannabis.

Condemns the kids who rave with

Ecstasy.

Abominates abuses with

Amphetamine.

Curses cretins corrupted with

Cocaine.

Heaps hell on those haggard with

Heroin.

In fact, he’s full of

Shit