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Friday, August 20, 2010
Your Full Service Nanny State
De Tocqueville noted:
Over these is elevated an immense, tutelary power, which takes sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate. It is absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident, and gentle. It would resemble the paternal power if, like that power, it had as its object to prepare men for manhood, but it seeks, to the contrary, to keep them irrevocably fixed in childhood … it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their needs, guides them in their principal affairs…
I don't think he ever would have imagined something like this:
One local authority is using its budget to pay for the services of a prostitute in Amsterdam, while others have said visits to lap dancing clubs are permissible under new policies which transfer funds directly to those who receive care from social services.
Holidays abroad, subscriptions for internet dating and driving lessons have all been funded by the taxpayer under a national initiative introduced by the last Government.
The £520 million scheme promised to give elderly people and those with disabilities more control over the care they received, by passing on cash so individuals could choose the services they needed, such as home help, or mobility aids.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph can disclose that exotic holidays, internet dating subscriptions and adventure breaks, as well as visits to sex workers and lap dancing clubs have been permitted under the system.
Why not? Once you admit that government has a responsibility for "taking care" of its citizens, the rest is quibbling over details.
Posted by Richard Anderson on August 20, 2010 | Permalink
Comments
Seventy years ago to the day Canadian pilots of 1 RCAF and 242 Squadron plus other Canadians in Bomber and Coastal Command were fighting and dieing during the Battle of Britain, which would begin to turn the tide of tyranny. Yet not one mention on the WS blog, just more cut and pasting from the Telegraph. Libertarians seem to have forgotten where our freedoms come from. Pathetic.
Posted by: The Stig | 2010-08-20 8:03:09 AM
Tyranny is still with us and growing.
Posted by: don b | 2010-08-20 9:30:49 AM
Eventually a PhD candidate in social work will give her dissertation on the economy of training social workers (if needed) to provide for the sexual "needs" of their "clients". It's not as if it hasn't happened already and is entirely consistent with policy and the philosophy of altruism. "From each according to their ability to each according to their needs".
Posted by: John Chittick | 2010-08-20 11:52:36 AM
Stig, the WS Blog can't possibly comment on everything that everyone thinks is important.
Posted by: TM | 2010-08-20 11:59:45 AM
John, wouldn't that be interesting! Finally men would enthusiastically go for counselling.
Posted by: TM | 2010-08-20 12:34:08 PM
TM
That would likely depend on visual and other qualities of the service provider;)
Posted by: John Chittick | 2010-08-20 4:14:28 PM
The age of entitlements is upon us. Can we roll back the mighty hand of the state or should we depart to foreign lands?
Posted by: David | 2010-08-20 7:10:40 PM
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