It has to be a conspiracy.........

Hello,
In my last post I mentioned only half in jest that events were conspiring to force me to become a fascist only to visit my parents and make the terrible error of reading one of their newspapers.

Oh yes imagine my joy as I picked up The Sunday Mail to see a comatose junkie lying on the ground with his unfortunate toddler lying beside him and his baby about six feet away in her pram. The chap in question is still 'responsible' for the children concerned -only a fiend with a heart of stone would wish to break up such a happy family. It is, of course a matter of public policy to leave children in the care of drug addled parents as children are always better off with their parents. A lucky 120,000 children in Scotland are as I write currently being 'better off' with their drug addled parents.

I was also bloody delighted to note that in addition to being a junkie daddy is also a convicted sex offender. Leaving aside the drink and drug consumption for a moment. Can I ask why anyone convicted of any sex offence is allowed to have unsupervised contact with children? I suppose we should just be grateful the half bottle of vodka he admits he consumed rendered him unconscious rather than sexually aroused. You'd never guess that we live in age of unprecedented concern for children and anti-paedophilia hysteria would you? Take a picture of your child in the school play and the authorities will swoop, commit sex offences and drink and drug yourself unconscious and it would appear no-one in authority minds much at all.

Daddy did agree to speak to the newspaper concerned, rather than doing the decent thing and die of shame and it is very revealing. It's all there -the gibberish I listen to week in, week out from a good 20% of my clients. It's the most curious thing but life just happens to them. There poor daddy was on his way to see his own dad in hospital when he popped into Spar for a half bottle (evidently grapes were too expensive), drank it and thinks he must have passed out. Well who'd have thought it? And to think I regard myself too selfish and irresponsible for child-rearing. On the rare occasions I'm in charge of children I do all sorts of wacky stuff like not smoke in front of them and stay sober.

However let's remember it's not just the children's father that is at fault, they do also have a mother who voluntarily exposes her children to this man. I expect if you asked her why she has so little regard for her children's welfare she'd be grossly offended. I am quite certain that if I asked my work colleagues about it it all I'd be told that poverty is to blame.

That being the case I have good news for mum and the children. If she were to leave her useless husband she would be better off! One less mouth to feed, rent and council tax paid, free prescriptions, income support, child benefit and child tax credit, a community care grant to set up a new home and access to budgeting loans. She wouldn't be rich but she'd have a few more quid to play with.

In the event it's lack of education then I have yet more good news! She could undertake an Open University degree course free of charge as she's on benefits, if that's beyond her she could do something more practical at her local F.E college again free of charge. If that's still to academic she could do a bit of voluntary work with any number of charities. It was the two years of voluntary work and an Open University degree that landed me where I am today- still irritated but earning almost twice what I was before.

How could I have been so silly? I've overlooked the most obvious explanation. ABUSE!!! Domestic violence. Poor mummy is afraid of daddy. Yes that must be it! Even so I still have good news. Housing services all over Scotland take domestic violence so seriously that any woman requesting rehousing will be rehoused that very day! Albeit in temporary accommodation but no-one has to sleep on the streets because their partner is a monster. So seriously is any claim of domestic violence taken that checks aren't made. In other words one could lie and still get housing. Admittedly not the best housing but surely living in a drain is better than subjecting your children to at best witnessing violence and at worst being on the receiving end.

It is my guess that the real reason children are left with scum and that is what they are, is lack of foster carers and places in children's homes. That being the case could we not divert all the £10 weekly tax credits payments that are issued to people who don't really need them to caring for children whose parents can't be bothered. We could also divert the money we'd save from stopping the parents child tax credit and child benefit to services for children born in squalor. Why not nip future social problems in the bud before they start? While we're at it we could do more to press home that children are a privilege not a right. You never know that might focus a few minds. It might also be a justice of sorts for children who didn't live long enough to sue or escape.

Finally would you think I was a sentimental oaf if I told you I cried from top to bottom of that article? If so may it comfort you to know it was impotent anger rather than any sugar coated view of childhood. It's just a dreadful waste of potential and an abuse of human rights. We seem to hear more and more about people suing for abuses of human rights. In the post below I refer to the possibility of prisoners suing for poor prison diet. The article I link to below refers to the victory of the prisoners suing for slopping out. I've yet to hear of anyone suing for being exposed to a disgusting and harsh childhood of shameful neglect with the full knowledge and consent of social services. Whilst as a tax-payer I can think of better things to spend my money on than legal fees and compensation, I'd fully support such an action with the thousands of copycat cases that would follow if that's what it takes to stop filth being allowed to stunt and abuse children.

Cheerio