Stop the Nonsense

So the lazy, sorry poor, get free housing. We pay out of our taxes to feed them, clothe them, and to allow them to procreate at will. Freezing weather? While the hard working among us make do with a jumper, those who are "disadvantaged" get emergency fuel payments to keep toasty and warm, while they settle down for an afternoon of Jeremy Kyle repeats, on the satellite channels we so kindly pay for. But that doesn't appear to be quite enough. Gordon Brown thinks the poor need to join the Internet age, and his latest ruse, cost to the tax payer estimated at £300 million, is to provide up to 270,000 of the poorest families a free broadband connection, along with a shiny new lap top, which of course will require a top of the range wireless router. His aim is that parents will able to connect to their offspring's school to monitor their progress. A very noble idea, indeed.

But Mr Brown lives in that strange bubble called Westminster, where everything can be fixed with a wave of a magic wand of legislation, and a big fat slice of public money. He, unlike you and I, cannot see the gaping holes in this ill judged policy. Number one, he is making a huge assumption that the parents of poorest mites actually care about their kids going to school, never mind how they are progressing academically. Which begs the question itself, that wouldn't cash strapped schools benefit from the hardware more? I would reckon that there would a greater surge in new face book accounts, than homework completed. And who is going to make sure that all this gear doesn't end up on the shelves of Cash Converters to finance a good old fashioned Bender down the local Wetherspoons on a Tuesday afternoon? No body, that's who. The biggest question we need to ask ourselves is, what's the point of working at all?