For those who missed it, a Cabinet Minister in the British Labour
government has come out with a controversial (among many Labour
stalwarts at least) statement that "Children are more likely to prosper
if they are brought up in a stable family with two parents", and that
"the family is the bedrock of the welfare state and fulfills a role
which the State should never try to substitute." This, apparently,
flies in the face of eight years of Labour family and welfare policies
that have been based on the notion that all types of families are just
as good as each other.
The Work and Pensions minister, John Hutton made the remarks at an
event sponsored by ePolitix to mark the culmination of Social Exclusion
Week on 15th September. There were no protests of the kind that
followed the Pope's more recent controversial remarks.
The minister, who said that he was speaking "with the insight of
someone who had been raised by one parent" made several more claims
about the benefits to children within two parent families which seemed
to chime with the finding an independent study commissioned by the
Tories carried out by Harry Benson, director of the Bristol Community
Family Trust that "Marriage is the best environment to raise children
and offers the greatest chance of a stable upbringing."
The Lib-Dems are currently having their annual conference, so we wait
with bated yawns for their imminent pronouncements on the subject.
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=227655&NewsAreaID=2
http://news.sawf.org/Lifestyle/20585.aspx
Paul Ashton
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2006-09-19
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