Right, I’m going to do an extra long post on Trafigura at some point soon, but in the meantime, please feel free to enjoy this from Hadleigh Roberts and others. Shockingly, it says that Alan Johnson is actually wrong.
More about Vetting and Barring
In Uncategorized on September 17, 2009 at 9:36 amThis legislation means that, in order to for instance drive your kids & other local kids to football training on behalf of the club, you will need to be investigated & registered.
It’s yet another big-govt infringement of civil liberties; an unnecessary intrusion of the state into our affairs; an expensive and pointless exercise which will do virtually nothing to protect children, but will deter volunteers. A state-appointed and state-funded commission will determine who is and is not suitable to look after your kids – why is this responsibility being delegated away from parents themselves? Also a total waste of money given our nation’s financial state – abandon it now
That is the text which goes with the Downing Street petition against the new Vetting and Barring scheme. All the parents out there will note that the signatories to the petition expect you to reach individual judgements on every adult each of your children come into contact with in an institutional setting. That means you are expected to reach decisions about possibly hundreds of people.
As for the first paragraph, I’m no legal eagle, but I can think of a very simple way to get around that problem.
The VBS scheme surely only infringes civil liberties if it infringes some sort of right and since liberalism doesn’t imply any sort of right of access to children and vulnerable adults, I can’t see what the problem is.
The small state would be an environmental disaster
In Uncategorized on September 16, 2009 at 8:12 pm“You can’t be green if your only vision of the good society is the small state”
- Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change
He’s absolutely right. If we have a small state, the chances of reducing our carbon emissions will be minuscule.
The climate crisis is disproportionately the result of a small section of the world community, yet it has the potential to harm everyone (Mill wouldn’t like that, would he?). We desperately need a solution. This means that regulation, education and the development of sustainable infrastructure are vital to combat the greatest threat to the future of mankind. This will not happen if we regress to a selfish, atomistic society. But it will happen if society works in concert to combat the threat.
