Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Illiberal of the week

Or maybe illiberal of the day (I'm sure someone will turn out to be more illiberal by the end of the week) is David Cameron on his youth scheme:

"If it isn't compulsory or if it isn't universal it could tend to be something else that well-off families do because it's good for their kids but it would not actually reach some of the most marginalised families and excluded children who actually would really benefit."

Translation: poor 18-year olds (and their families) can't make their own decisions about what they want to do for three or four months after leaving school, so I'm going to make those decisions for them. I'm one politician in London who doesn't even know them whilst they're living their lives 24/7 so OF COURSE I can make life decisions on their behalf. Rich people won't need coercion because they will all agree with me anyhow - isn't it great being right?

[Thanks to Angus for drawing my attention to this latest attempt by Mr Cameron to attract liberals to the Conservative party].

2 Comments:

  • At 12:02 pm , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Thanks - that tells me all I need to know about Cameron's instincts. It's no different from Communist schemes for compulsory volunteering.

    His statement that 'there is such a thing as society; it's just not the same as the state' clearly has as much value as his other pronouncements...

     
  • At 2:51 pm , Blogger LibertyCat said...

    This proposal is forced labour. Nothing more, nothing less. Cameron's gulag has about as much going for it as the Soviet one.

     

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