Very, very stupid idea

I haven't had the chance to write about this yet, but yesterday in his conference speech, Brown proposed putting all young, single mothers on benefit into supervised homes. If there wasn't proof, you wouldn't believe he'd have said it...Well, maybe you would've. It's just the kind of stupid idea this party comes up with nowadays:

And I do think it’s time to address a problem that for too long has gone unspoken, the number of children having children. For it cannot be right, for a girl of sixteen, to get pregnant, be given the keys to a council flat and be left on her own.

From now on all 16 and 17 year old parents who get support from the taxpayer will be placed in a network of supervised homes. These shared homes will offer not just a roof over their heads, but a new start in life where they learn responsibility and how to raise their children properly. That’s better for them, better for their babies and better for us all in the long run.

We won’t ever shy away from taking difficult decisions on tough social questions.

Some funny newspaper I read this morning called the homes "Victorian workhouses"! That description is right on the money. Yes, he said "all" 16 and 17 year old parents. Because all young women who get pregnant lack a support system of any kind, and are terrible mothers. And no, this isn't a waste of the taxpayers' money at all.

What? We're in a deficit??

About time!

I just read in the Telegraph that David Cameron is hinting that if elected, the Tories will not seek a Lisbon Treaty referendum...under certain conditions.

The Treaty has to be ratified by all other EU countries first.

I don't see how likely that is, given the word is Ireland is still not down with the Treaty, even after a little extra time to think about it.

Me, I think it's a brilliant idea to scrap the Lisbon referendum idea. All that was doing was telling moderate voters that the Conservatives were still a bunch of Eurosceptics. And the fear of that extremism goes along with what Labour and the LibDems have been saying, that the Tories are really much more conservative than everyone thinks - think Thatcher-years conservative.

I absolutely couldn't agree with this more. I am a Conservative, but I can't garner sympathy for the view that the EU isn't a good thing for Britain. Or that it needs to be stopped, because it's taking too much power away from the UK to govern itself.

Inverted Bowl Re-vamp

Hello all!

From today, I will be shifting the focus of The Inverted Bowl to encompass more issues - especially about Britain, and about being an American in Britain.

I hope you will enjoy being able to catch up on the news of the day. Politics in Britain is simply fascinating these days.