LABOUR CONFERENCE:YOUNG SINGLE mothers will be forced to live in State-run homes, while 50,000 "chaotic" families will face "clear rules and clear punishments" to force them to behave, under plans put forward by British prime minister Gordon Brown.
Directing his plea to middle class voters, Mr Brown said the law-abiding in the United Kingdom were tired of those who demanded rights but refused to live up to their responsibilities.
The heavily detailed speech to the Labour Party’s conference in Brighton offers a foretaste of its election manifesto, and may be designed to force a similar level of detail from Conservative Party leader David Cameron, who has so far offered only vague pledges.
Emphasising a family values philosophy, Mr Brown said: “I do think it’s time to address a problem that for too long has gone unspoken, the number of children having children.
“For it cannot be right for a girl of 16 to get pregnant, (to) be given the keys to a council flat and (to) be left on her own.”
Sixteen- and 17-year-old mothers funded by the taxpayers will have to live in supervised homes, where they will “learn responsibility and how to raise their children properly”.
“That’s better for them, better for their babies and better for us all in the long run. We won’t ever shy away from taking difficult decisions on tough social questions,” he said. Society must lay down clear boundaries between right and wrong, he went on: “And I stand with the people who are sick and tired of others playing by different rules or no rules at all.”
Every one of Britain’s “50,000 most chaotic families” will be subject to greater intervention from social services, “with clear rules, and clear punishments if they don’t stick to them”.
“Every time a young person breaches an Asbo, there will be an order, not just on them but on their parents, and if that is broken they will pay the price.
“Because whenever and wherever there is antisocial behaviour, we will be there to fight it,” he told delegates gathered in Brighton for the party’s annual conference.
“We will never allow teenage tearaways or anybody else to turn our town centres into no-go areas at night times. No one has yet cracked the whole problem of a youth drinking culture,” he said.
Local authorities will be granted powers to row back on 24-hour drinking rules, which the government thought would make town centres easier to police, but which have not done so in many places. Tougher social welfare rules will be matched by greater tax credits and child benefits for parents, along with free childcare for 250,000 children and free home care for the elderly.
Urging voters not to back the Conservatives, Mr Brown said they were facing the biggest choice in a generation when they went to the polls in next year’s election, which must be held by June, and, probably, will be held in May.
“The Conservative Party want people to believe that the ballot paper has an option marked change without consequence – that it’s only a change of the team at the top.
“They’ve deliberately held their cards close to their chest. They’ve done their best to conceal their policies and their instincts. But the financial crisis forced them to show their hand and they showed they had no hearts.
“And so I say to the British people the election to come will not be about my future – it’s about your future. Your job. Your home. Your children’s school. Your hospital. Your community. Your country,” he said.
Mr Brown was introduced by his wife, Sarah, for the second year running, who declared her love for her husband, describing him as “my hero”.
“I know he’s not a saint – he’s messy, he’s noisy, he gets up at a terrible hour – but I know that he wakes up every morning and goes to bed every evening thinking about the things that matter. I know he loves our country and I know he will always, always, put you first.
“The first time I met him I was struck that someone so intense and so intelligent could be so gentle, could ask so many questions, could really care. He will always make the time for people, our family, for his friends and anyone who needs him – that’s part of the reason I love him as much as I do,” she went on.
Mr Brown’s arrival on to the stage was preceded by a video with clips praising him from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, climate change expert Nicholas Stern and Bono, who said Mr Brown had “put the ‘great” back into Great Britain.