I was initially in a right quandary about this.
A crackdown on 'Shameless' families could see state officials turning up at people's homes to get them out of bed for work and make sure their children go to school.
Yeehah! That'll teach the lazy, freeloading bastards.
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said the Government was prepared to take drastic steps to tackle a 'hardcore' of workless neighbourhoods where no one has a proper job.
Way to go, ginger dwarf, give 'em hell!
Sources say council staff would be given the power to enter homes to get people out of bed in the morning, or turn up with rubber gloves and detergent to oversee the cleaning of filthy homes.
Oh, actually. No. I think I've changed my mind.
Is it just me, or is this a straw man of huge proportion? Listen, Labour, you have no right whatsoever to enter anyone's home, for any reason, unless they have broken a law. And by that, I don't mean one of your thousands of new laws that have been created to punish those that disagree with you.
It is the choice of the 'Shameless' to do as they please. I would applaud you in trying to stop them doing so, but not by overriding their personal freedom, in their own home, in what we somewhat laughingly call a free country since 1997.
Miss Blears is working with Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell on measures that would see families who refuse to take part stripped of their benefits.
'We need to be bold and innovative, because it is clear that for "Shameless" families the current system does not do enough to get people into work.'
Bingo! There you have it. It is the system that shovels money in the direction of these people, simply for sitting on their arse in their Kappa trackie bottoms, that is the problem. You could stop that tomorrow. In fact, you have even touched on it in the 'stripped of their benefits' bit. You don't need some new scheme (probably expensive in itself) to do that, just cut the money supply.
What you certainly do not need to do, is claim that because people are habitually not working, funded quite adequately by yourselves, you now have the right to enter their homes. Take away the financial incentive for being lazy and see how quickly they run to the job centre.
Surely this is as plain as the nose on the little one's face? Or has the Labour predilection for control and authoritarianism taken so much hold that common sense is now irrelevant. Blears is not only a physical midget, she is an intellectual one as well.
