A Modest Proposal

You know, I've had an idea.  I think it could solve a lot of the country's problems, from crime to welfare to NHS spending.  It's building on the fine traditions of this country, and should really go a long way towards 'fixing' the broken society we live in (or should that be big society? Or big broken society, or broken big society?  Something like that, anyway.).

I suggest that every young person between the ages of eighteen and twenty five is locked up.  Possibly even sixteen to thirty.  This is the age group that is responsible for so many of the country's problems- most crime: violence, drunkenness and disorderliness, damage to property, drug misuse, muggings, theft, is committed by this age group.  It's also the age group who are now finding it almost impossible to get jobs, as they don't have the experience to compete with adults with five or ten years work experience in the the current market, when many jobs have dozens of applicants.  If every person in this age group were to be imprisoned, not only would crime figures fall dramatically (and along with them the cost of funding the criminal justice system) but also cut spending on the dole (Jobseekers' Allowance) and on other welfare benefits, such as housing.  It would reduce the pressure on the job market, and help the country out of depression by providing full employment for everyone else.

Speaking of housing, with the young out of the housing market, the country's housing shortage would be solved.  And by keeping young men and women separate except under close supervision pregnancies outside a stable family environment could be entirely eliminated, which would help again with welfare payments and also with overpopulation.  And without students, student debt would also be abolished, and universities could be used for their proper purpose- researched focused on industry profits, and as conference venues.  A whole generation could be freed from growing up with the burden of debt, teaching them a valuable lesson about managing finances. 

Some will argue that the whole scheme would be probibitively expensive, but I believe it could even be profit making.  The young can be made to contribute to the society which has cared for them by doing good old-fashioned work, growing food which could then be sold, for example.  They could serve (without pay, obviously) in a variety of armed forces roles, and work in the community to aid local projects.  Housing and feed costs need be minimal, as only basic buildings will be needed for such young, robust people.  Frugal living and exercise will help improve their overall health- saving future NHS spending.


Some may say this is a bit too radical for the country to take at the moment.  Very well, start by just locking up the men, and see the vast difference it makes to the country.  Keep the women out of it for the moment.  Perhaps exceptions could be made for the children of the well-off, or the highly intelligent.  And one last benefit to the country- it would allow for strict training of decent sports teams, away from all distractions or scandals.  The young could help build the Olympic venues, keeping down labour costs so the games might actually be under budget.  One day, we might even win the football World Cup! 



Ok, I hope you noticed that was something of a joke.  I'm not sure I can go so far as to claim it's satire.  The title of this post comes from Jonathan Swift's 1729 essay advocating solving Irish famine problems by eating babies, which should give you a clue.  I'm not actually advocating this- far from it- and I have no proof for any of the 'facts' stated above.  They're entirely based on prejudice.  But really, from the things some politicians and media outlets say, you can't help but think that young people can't do anything right, that they are to blame for all of society's problems, and society would be better off without them. It wouldn't take many alterations (replace imprisonment with 'National Service' or 'national volunteer squad/ training scheme') before someone will say that the arguments above have something in them.  In fact, the first hints have already been dropped by Cameron et al for a national volunteer scheme, which while having certain benefits in giving young people skills and experiences, is still probably at heart a way of keeping them off the dole and out of the unemployment statistics.  Instead of treating them as lazy ingnorants or mere statistics, why can't we value the young, and perhaps trust them a bit more?

And no, I don't have a cure-all idea for solving that or any of the country's problems.  I don't think there is one.  Sorry to disappoint you.

The buses are back!

Remember the fuss over atheist slogans on buses a while ago?  Well, now religious bus posters are in the news again.  The group Catholic Women's Ordination have decided to put up bus posters urging the pope to ordain women as priests, during his visit to Britain later this year. 

I don't expect Benedict will even see any, but it will raise the issue's profile.  While I don't like to see fellow Christians of whatever banner humiliated or embarrassed, I think this is a good thing.  The Roman Catholic church has made some almost schoolboy errors in dealing with this topic, notably the recent stories about classifying attempted ordination of a woman on a par with child abuse.  Unfortunately, while the Roman Catholic church's welcome attempt to show that it was taking child abuse seriously was entirely overshadowed when they  announced that ordaining women was, similarly, a serious offence against the church.

Leaving aside the question of whether ordaining women is right or wrong, I can see why they're concerned people would ignore the church's authority and that given the sensitive, controvertial nature of the issue they'd want it to be dealt with by the highest central authority.  That makes sense (more or less, if you consider women's ordination an important issue as they do).  It also makes sense to have priestly child abuse dealt with by the highest central authority.  What dosn't make sense is to appear to link them together in documents to go to the press.  That's not good PR, and surely someone should have noticed (see this for more comment). 

But the C of E's recent arguments show us that we've got nothing to be complacent about.  Personally I've been getting annoyed when 'evangelical' is almost invariably used to mean 'conservative.'  Yes, some evangelicals are.  I'm not.  Nor are quite a lot of others, at least on the issue of women bishops.  The church contains a wide variety of views.  Please don't paint us all with the same brush!

7 links for bloggers

Another post!  Can you guess that I'm bored this week?  Anyway, here's an idea I've borrowed from one of my favourite blogs, but originating here (the list seems to vary between the two, I've left out 'most read' as I don't count readers- it would probably be too depressing!)  The idea is to post links to 7 blog posts in different categories.  It feels a bit like the Facebook crazes (the 'pick the last 10 people to write on your wall.  Would 3 and 7 make a good couple?' sort) but here goes!

1. Your first post.  An introduction, and not very interesting really!  It was a couple of weeks before I wrote anything worth reading on a topic that bugs me, which was what I set the blog up for.

2. The post you most enjoyed writing.  Probably the love of wisdom about natural things on the science vs religion debate. 

3. A post which had a great discussion.  People don't tend to discuss or comment much on my posts (probably because I don't think I have that many readers!)  So the honour goes to the only post to attract more than one reader (besides me) to comment on it.  Possibly my shortest ever post, and a blatent advert! 

4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written.  So many to choose from!  Recently I've been finding that when I want to blog about something, the Church Mouse has already done so better than I could, such as discussing the mainstream C of E's inability to present itself positively.

5. Your most helpful post.  Well, there are several I wish some church leaders and/ or politicians would read. This, Welfare to work to washed up, is probably the one I'd most like to help people understand what it's like to be a young adult struggling to cope with some of the unfairness of life. This one also picks up some of the same themes.

6. A post with a title you are proud of.  I try (often without much success) to make post titles vaguely catchy, often using alliteration.  There were several last August that I rather like;  Bananas, Bibleman and banging my head against a brick wall is probably my favourite.

7. A post that you wish more people had read.  Many people seem to think that being a person of faith means you leave reason outside the door.  I've tried several times to argue that this isn't the case, including this post on why I disagreed with a friend's comment.

Hmm, that's a few more than 7 links.  Oh well!