A recent article in the Times of London tells us the next step the British government is taking to usher in a better world. We promise you that it will eventually be adopted in New Zealand as well. There is an ideological logic to these things that is relentless and will not be denied. We will not escape--at least as long as we continue to bow down to the State as our saviour and redeemer god.
Firstly, the UK.
Health and safety snoops to enter family homes
Robert Watts
Health and safety inspectors are to be given unprecedented access to family homes to ensure that parents are protecting their children from household accidents.
New guidance drawn up at the request of the Department of Health urges councils and other public sector bodies to “collect data” on properties where children are thought to be at “greatest risk of unintentional injury”.
Council staff will then be tasked with overseeing the installation of safety devices in homes, including smoke alarms, stair gates, hot water temperature restrictors, oven guards and window and door locks.
The draft guidance by a committee at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has been criticised as intrusive and further evidence of the “creeping nanny state”. . . .
The guidance aims to “encourage all practitioners who visit families and carers with children and young people aged under 15 to provide home safety advice and, where necessary, conduct a home risk assessment”. It continues: “If possible, they should supply and install home safety equipment.”
Could you see something like this happening in New Zealand? If you don't, you must be either an incurable Pollyanna or blind, or both. It will inevitably come here. We have seen the beginnings already. Family visits by state bureaucrats are already being conducted in this country where children are considered to be living in "at risk" families. This programme was started by the National government in the late 1990's. National also gave us the Health and Safety legislation.
The Labour appointed Children's Commissioner, Cindy Kiro called for a nation wide database of all children and regular home visits to monitor progress and identity "at risk" children. It was not followed through for reasons of cost only. The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) tells us that one in three accidents in New Zealand occur in the home. The ACC also is under the kosh to contain costs--which includes any and all efforts to reduce accidents as much as possible.
Put all these together and it is inevitable that bureaucrats will eventually start visiting families on a regular basis, representing the interests of health, safety, and welfare. There is broad consensual support, laying aside the de rigueur posturing of parties when in opposition. It could be legislated for either by National or Labour: both major parties believe in an intrusive paternalistic soft-despotic state that is to order our lives, save us from harm, and redeem us from all ills in this world. The only restrictions they face are economic ones at the end of the day.
Until New Zealanders repent of their idolatrous worship of the state such extensions of state power and instrusive regimenting of our lives are inescapable. What now seems horrific when proposed in the UK will be viewed here as normal, natural, and entirely appropriate within ten years. It's only a matter of time and taxes. Nations that hate God end up being enslaved in one way or the other. We, in New Zealand, are well down that road.
1 comment:
It is certainly interesting for me to read the article. Thanks for it. I like such themes and everything connected to this matter. I would like to read a bit more on that blog soon.
Post a Comment