Letters From A Tory

Everyone knows how much trauma can be inflicted on a child throughout their time at school purely on the basis of having a weird first name or surname, but some parents really do have it in for their kids.

“I am sad to think of children growing up believing that all Christmas means is the latest iPod or mobile phone”

- Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe

Dear readers,

Please be advised that this particular children’s toy is probably not a wise purchase this Christmas.

If children play with this toy and tell you they are ’seeing things’, they’re not lying!

A.Tory

Dear Ed Balls,

Are you beginning to see how Labour have failed society?  For all your talk of rising ’standards’ and investment in education, the truth of the matter is that children in this country are suffering and no longer feel safe.  Anxiety and childhood are a dangerous mixture that can have serious consequences when the children get older.

This is a not straightforward issue that can be solved by throwing money at it, just in case you were considering that option (I seriously hope we don’t hear about some stupid headline-grabbing new initiative in the near future).  As always, I believe these problems can be traced back to the family.  The report released today documents how “anti-social behaviour, materialism and the cult of celebrity” are taking over children’s lives and parents are doing little or nothing about it.  Watching too much TV, feeling anxious, lack of respect for teachers, no cohesive family life, involvement in gangs, unsafe streets, unsuitable computer games, childhood consumerism - it all comes back to the breakdown of families.  Parents need to provide a secure, loving environment for their children.  If both parents work full time and are exhausted when they come home, children will stare at the TV for hours every night or sit on their mobile phone chatting with their friends for hours.  Without any family interaction, the bonds between parents and children never fully form and are almost impossible to build from scratch when the children are teenagers.  It is time the government stepped in and increased paid maternity and paternity leave to give children a chance to bond with their parents.  The benefits system also has to be changed to encourage families to stay together and make sure that at least one parent can be there for their children every evening.  Furthermore, the advice available to parents of young children should be massively expanded and ‘parenting classes’ should be offered to everyone (and linked to the benefits system) to provide families with a wide support network.

You can’t measure the dangers of the dissolution of family life across the country, but there are some easy ways to try and prevent it.  I don’t encourage state intervention in most circumstances, but supporting strong families and helping to build enduring relationships between parents and children is most definitely an exception to the rule.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory

Dear David Willetts,

It looks very much like your Childhood Inquiry will provide many excellent headlines today and will continue to focus on where Labour have let the country down, so a big congratulations to you.

One of the many losers from Labour’s bureaucracy culture has been the children in this country.  Schools are snowed under by paperwork and thanks to the litigation culture, teachers and increasingly Headteachers are now fearful of a parent taking legal action against them at some point.  Not only is this unjust in many cases, but it leaves the schools in a perilous situation because almost every activity both inside and outside of school has some inherent risk but it seems as though even the most improbable accidents now end up in the courts.  You cannot blame the teachers for not wanting to take kids on school trips when they are legally responsible for everything that happens.  Our frontline public sector workers are quite literally afraid of doing their jobs, and if you and the Conservative Party can deliver a few more poignant and effective initiatives along these lines you could appeal to thousands of voters around the country who might not have otherwise voted Conservative.

Keep up the good work.

A.Tory

Dear Alan Johnson,

I read through the articles about the effect of additives with great interest this morning.  It is yet another piece of scientific evidence that some additives from food and drinks can lead to hyperactive behaviour in children, in addition to huge amounts of the previous anecdotal evidence.  So what are you going to do about it?

I’m not one for the government getting unnecessarily involved in people’s lives, but we are talking about the health of children being damaged by additives that the Food Standards Agency (a government department) has approved for use - how on earth is that possible?  Surely you should at least take the precaution of banning them until we have more evidence concerning their effects, rather than just letting them be?  As far as I could tell, the study from Southampton University only looked at short-term changes in behaviour and yet they still found “that the deterioration in behaviour after consuming the additives occurred in children in the general population, not just in those identified as suffering from hyperactivity”.  Can you imagine how damaging these additives would be if children are taking them several times a day for several years?!

Sort this out, Mr Johnson.  You’ve done nothing so far as Health Secretary so it’s about time you did something useful.  We cannot allow these additives to be placed in food and drink, knowing what effects they have.  I can only hope that the lobbyists in the Food and Drink industry won’t prevent you from doing the right thing.

Yours in anticipation,

A.Tory