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SIN BINS FOR WORST FAMILIES
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Children's Secretary Ed Balls
Thursday July 23,2009
By Alison Little
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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.
But ministers want to target 20,000 more in the next two years, with each costing between £5,000 and £20,000 - a potential total bill of £400million.
Ministers hope the move will reduce the number of youngsters who get drawn into crime because of their chaotic family lives, as portrayed in Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless.
Sin bin projects operate in half of council areas already but Mr Balls wants every local authority to fund them.
He said: "This is pretty tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem. There should be Family Intervention Projects in every local authority area because every area has families that need support."
But 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."
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Mr Balls also said responsible parents who make sure their children behave in school will get new rights to complain about those who allow their children to disrupt lessons.
Pupils and their families will have to sign behaviour contracts known as Home School Agreements before the start of every year, which will set out parents' duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.
The updated Youth Crime Action Plan also called for a crackdown on violent girl gangs as well as drug and alcohol abuse among young women.
But a decision to give ministers new powers to intervene with failing local authority Youth Offending Teams was criticised by council leaders.
Les Lawrence, of the Local Government Association, said they did "crucial" work and such intervention was "completely unnecessary".
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
Dear god no. This is the most disturbing thing I've read in awhile.
What does defeat mean to you?
Nothing it will never come. Death before defeat. I don’t bend or break. I end, if I meet a foe capable of it. Victory is in forcing the opponent to back down. I do not. There is no defeat.
There is only one way of avoiding the war – that is the overthrow of this society. However, as we are too weak for this task, the war is inevitable. -L. Trotsky, 1939
Tyyr wrote:With a name like "Mr. Balls" I have trouble imagining this is legit. If it is, it should terrify anyone living in the UK.
Minister Balls does indeed exist, as Reliant pointed out.
I've not run across The Explorer before , so I can't say for sure how reliable they are. But they do indeed seem to be a legitimate news site, and I can't see them just making something like this up.
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
Apparently tis BS. Credit to Bounty on SDN for this:
Bounty wrote:
Step One: UK government announces more funding for a broad family-assistance project aimed at counselling and assisting families so they don't slip into crime and violence. This includes such draconian measures as:
* undertake annual consultation with local communities on what reparation work young offenders should undertake in their area
* ensure parents take proper responsibility for the poor behaviour of their children, including making sure that there is an assessment of parental need for all children being considered for an ASBO and introducing mandatory parenting support when a child breaches an ASBO
* change the way front line practitioners work with parents, so they don't take no for an answer when a parent refuses support
* continue £900m investment from Aiming High for Young People which is providing positive activities, facilities and resources for young people across the country at all times but especially on Friday and Saturday nights
* increase the drive to bear down on serious youth violence, including on knives and gangs, with £5m of additional investment in the Tackling Knives Action Programme in 16 areas
* give further support for young victims of crime backed by new investment in priority areas.
Step Two: The Telegraph reports on the statement and adds a (non-defined) "24 hours' supervision", which you can graciously call a bastardization of the original proposal's intent to provide continuous support:
Under the Government scheme, members of "Shameless" families are given intensive 24-hour supervision to make sure children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.
Step Three: The Express, a fine brand of toilet paper masquerading as news, gets hold of the article and, masturbating furiously, declares that 20.000 innocent families will have cameras forcibly installed in their bathrooms.
What source was that? Are you sure they're not just picking up The Express's story?
"You've all been selected for this mission because you each have a special skill. Professor Hawking, John Leslie, Phil Neville, the Wu-Tang Clan, Usher, the Sugar Puffs Monster and Daniel Day-Lewis! Welcome to Operation MindFuck!"
Rochey wrote:What source was that? Are you sure they're not just picking up The Express's story?
That 'The Young Turks' blog I watch. They said they didn't believe it at first either and double checked the source. *shrug* so far they've been pretty trustworthy.
Oh and they said its already started in 2000 homes.
How many Minbari does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
None. They always surrender right before they finish the job and never tell you why.
Meh. It'll probably be effective, especially in the short term. After some success Canada will probably pick it up quitely in a few years and than we'll have some thread about how backwards America is for not doing it.
I'm seeing this in other sources, but I don't know how good a job those sources are doing of getting to the truth of the matter vs running with what other papers have said.
Last edited by sunnyside on Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
