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January 08, 2006
Baroness Warnock.
This new Observer thingie, the change to the Berliner edition. Theyâve managed to do something that profoundly shocks me.
Mary Warnock
I don't know how successful tagging and curfews
are, but at least I thought I knew what they were for: to keep petty
criminals under surveillance without incarceration, and to protect the
public. What possible relevance have these intentions to men who
default on payments for their children? Their offence is serious and
causes great harm, but not to the public. I seldom rely on
slippery-slope arguments, but I see a pretty dramatic slide here. If
defaulting fathers are to get the treatment, what about other debtors?
The Child Support Agency rightly fears that sending fathers to prison
will make them less likely to pay. Feeble as the CSA is, it must resist
the absurd demand to go down this road.
Mary Warnock saying something sensible? Is this a sign of the Coming of the End Times?
(It might have been useful if sheâd accepted slippery slope arguments rather earlier in her career as well.)
January 8, 2006 in Media | Permalink
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» It feels somehow ... different. And yet the same from Observer Blog
Thank you for all the comments, especially the nice ones. There is also some discussion of the merits of the Berliner-sized Observer over on the Guardian's Media Blog. A quick trawl around the blogosphere nets at least one positive response to the new ... [Read More]
Tracked on Jan 9, 2006 10:59:18 AM
Comments
For my part, I can’t understand how, given our lousy socio-economic system, fathers failing to support their own children is not a direct attack on the public good. Noreena Hertz’s suggestion that we deduct payments at source is rather good (at first appearances), though.
Posted by: Contradictory Ben | Jan 8, 2006 4:40:49 PM
