Some of the greatest ideas in the history of liberty have come from Great Britain, from men like John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Algernon Sidney, Richard Cobden, and John Bright. Those ideas inspired our Founding Fathers to undertake the most daring experiment in human history.
That just makes it all the more distressing that things in the Mother Country have come to this:
Thousands of the worst families in England are to be put in “sin bins” in a bid to change their bad behaviour, Ed Balls announced yesterday.
The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.
They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.
Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.
Around 2,000 families have gone through these Family Intervention Projects so far.
Surely, you must be saying to yourself, there must be someone in the political leadership in Britain standing up against this. Surely, the Tories are against this. Right ?
Wrong:
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said: “This is all much too little, much too late.
“This Government has been in power for more than a decade during which time anti-social behaviour, family breakdown and problems like alcohol abuse and truancy have just got worse and worse.”
Am I missing something, or is this a violation of individual liberty and privacy even more egregious than some of the worst practices of the Soviet Union ?
Perhaps most distressing, though, is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be anyone in Britain willing to stand up for individual liberty anymore. One wonders how long it will be before this comes across the pond.
H/T: Coyote Blog
