What you won’t read on the front pages tomorrow
This. No, it’s not baby asbos, though reading the papers at the weekend you could be forgiven for thinking that midwives would be to slap an ankle tag on newborns.
The prime minister gave an excellent speech today, acknowledging that hardcore social exclusion is the product of both individual choice and structural inequality, and flagging measures coming up in Hilary Armstrong’s national action plan which will be published on Tuesday. The priority groups are (no surprises): looked after children; families with complex problems (usually drug and alcohol dependency of the parents); teenage pregnancy; mental health patients.
I’ve not had much engagement with young people in local authority care, but over the past few years I’ve met lots of teenage mums who’ve talked about how getting pregnant was their only aspiration and who lacked the tools to see other options and to make better decisions; several families who exist on a yo-yo of temporary stability and chaos; and friends who, without family and friends who loved them, could have spent their lives in and out of inpatient mental health care.
But what do you reckon the chances are of seeing this speech given the full consideration it deserves in the papers tomorrow? Well, it’s currently (8.19pm) the 23rd headline on the website of the paper most likely to report the measures…
Update 8.54pm - have just realised that, as so often, Tom has written the post I wanted to write on this.
[i]The prime minister gave an excellent speech today[/i]
Proof that Antonia is a Blairite sympathiser.
[...] A number of bloggers have recently expressed distaste for the way politics is being covered in this country. Chris Dillow pre-empted the others last week (and is thereby pretty much exempt from the criticism that follows), and he was joined yesterday by Tom Hamilton, Antonia Bance, some chap called Paulie and Bloggers4Labour. Generalising, but, I hope, not too unfairly, they seem to want less media froth and speculation over Tony Blair’s exit plans, and more earnest in-depth coverage of the issues underpinning contemporary public policy. [...]
way are almost ever young person is haveing a kid when they are stell kids