This profile in the UK Telegraph is just creepy and disturbing. The woman in charge of the “troubled families programme” (yeah, that’s how they spell it) is saying the darnedest things.
If this isn’t demonizing large families, I don’t know what is.
Check it out.
Louise Casey, the head of the government’s troubled families programme, said that women in problem families have to accept that having another child “might not be the best solution”.
She suggested that instead of having more children they should “do something for themselves” such as “getting a job” or “improving their health”…
England’s 120,000 problem families cost taxpayers an estimated £9billion a year in benefits, crime, anti-social behaviour and health care.
Previous research has suggested that many of them are larger-than-average families. Miss Casey is leading a scheme to turn their lives around after they were blamed for the riots in 2011.
Miss Casey, who previously advised Tony Blair’s government, said: “My own personal experience is that families with lots of children across lots of different age groups are stretched.
“Managing a 21-year-old that’s still living with you that’s committing crime down to having another one that’s two, anybody would see that that’s a challenge…
Asked whether that included accompanying women to go to the doctor to get advice about contraception, she replied: “Yes that’s right. I’ve come across cases where that’s what some family intervention project workers have done, definitely.”
Eric Pickles, the local government secretary, hailed the number of families whose lives have been turned around as “phenomenal”.
He said that officials should not be afraid of “inflicting pain” on troubled families to stop them from “ruining” their lives.
He said that the traditional approach to troubled families has been “a lot of empathy” and “a lot of feeling people’s pain”.
“Louise is not afraid of inflicting that pain,” he said. “It’s tough love. I think we’re not doing this to be unpleasant to people, we are doing this to say you are ruining your life, you are ruining the lives of your children.
“If we don’t do something now 25 years from now we’ll be dealing with your children. That gives people a chance.”
The average annual cost to the state of such a family is £15,000, but ministers say the worst cost as much as £330,000 a year.
Good to know she’s not afraid of “inflicting pain.” Is that a prerequisite now for government officials? Or maybe it always was?
Look, there are families that are problems but they absolutely seem to be conflating large families with problem families here, don’t they? And maybe it’s me but anytime you have government officials assigning people with a cost or a price tag I get a little nervous.
