Austerity

[Gandalf]

I am not making excuses for children getting in trouble. Some of it is just exploring and learning in life which include close calls with the police. Ultimately I never did cross the line because I was too afraid of my dad who would be working the night shift and the last thing he would want is a call from the police to pick his son up from station. Youth clubs were an important part of being able to socialise with friends and learn new skills. If it diverts people away from crime then it pays for itself in the long run.

You somewhat proved my point there. You had a strong father figure who I assume was a diligent and decent person. That is what I think young people need in their lives rather than government. Anybody can go and play games in an Internet cafe or a friend's house or kick a football around. I think a lot of the problems stem not so much from austerity but from broken families. A single mother has no way of controlling a volatile young man who needs that steadying male influence. Now some families with father figures also go horribly wrong, but the statistics tell us that single parent households have the worst outcomes.

Austerity hurts the poorest and most vulnerable in society whether you are a single parent, have a father figure or not. You can prevent “Broken” families by early intervention and support to stop them falling into a crisis. That was what our scheme did, it used trained volunteers who were/had been parents themselves and they provided a couple of hours per week support for the children and parents. This prevented children being put on the child protection register and ultimately going into care.

That is not my point. My point is that no amount of government funding is going to fix the problem of poverty which overwhelmingly comes in the form of single parent households. To break that cycle we have be stronger on it and in my opinion go back to policies of times past in order to make people more self responsible. You don't get rewarded for making bad decisions.

The UK has a minimum wage among the highest in the world. Anyone has it in them to get a full time job and there are no limitations on you choosing to study something very useful that will lead to a good income. If you choose a partner carefully, save your money, and then have children for the right reasons, then that sounds like a recipe for helping children.

Families end up broken because the parents are not suitable and we have encouraged an environment of poorly matched people having children and then leaving them without fathers. It has been normalized and in fact seems to be encouraged now in schools. There are men who want to get laid and there are women that want the man, or want the benefits, and what seems to come last is the child and that needs to be spoken about rather than brushed under the carpet. Not always of course, but far often than we want to admit.

Youth clubs? I wouldn't even know what one was. My happiest memories of being a teenager were on that cricket field being able to forget about home and laugh with my friends. We did not need the government to enjoy that and we did not turn to violence.