A British Stasi-Like State?

Ambush Predator has an interesting post on something that is being proposed by our government, something which in effect asks us to spy on our neighbours and report any suspicions to the 'authorities' and which was a practice used in East Germany and other communist countries.

The Mail reports that "The Somebody Else's Child campaign has been organised by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, with funding from the Department for Children, Schools and Families"; a campaign which is "designed to persuade the public to tell social workers about 'private fostering' arrangements, in which children are given by their parents or carers to other people to look after".

"Posters in the campaign, which was launched last month, ask baldly: 'Do you know someone who is caring for somebody else's child? If it's for more than 28 days they must notify their local council. Failure to do so is a criminal offence.' They do not mention that there is no legal bar to relatives bringing up children.......A spokesman for the BAAF said that grandparents should clear up any misunderstanding by contacting social workers themselves." and "It also calls for children to put pressure on their friends to tell teachers if they are living with people who are not their parents."

Do the government not wish families to gel? Who has forced parents to ask relatives to look after their children so that those parents can earn yet more money to pay the ever-increasing taxes that are due? Is it not insidious that children are being asked to act as 'informers' - and not incidentally for the first time?

It is obvious that the 'its for the children' line' is being adopted so that yet another aspect of private lifestyle can be monitored by an ever-increasing dictatorial government. It is also instilling in us, the people, that we should report ourselves before someone else reports us!

Yet again it would appear that we have a 'charity' being funded by a government department to promote yet more interference into our lives. It is interesting that, having accessed the website of the BAAF to view their annual accounts these are not available due to 'redesigning their website'  - what a surprise!

One basic principle of democracy has been forgotten by this government and its bureaucratic arm and that is that the state is here to serve the people, not that the people are here to serve the state. Sometime in the near future the 'day of reckoning' will come when that lesson will be learned and that day is the day when the next General Election is held.

Update: For another view on this read Musings on Liberty.