There was a time when all a lazy Tory politician had to do to get a laugh was pick up a copy of The Guardian’s society pages and started reading out the ludicrous public sector job titles advertised therein.

These days, there is something better still – the Public Agenda supplement in The Times every Tuesday. Page 2 of it contains, each week, around 20 statistisc and facts connected with social policy, almost all of which reflect badly on the Government’s competence and strategies. A quick perusal is enough to confirm the reality of our ‘broken society’.

So let’s take a quick canter through this week’s selection:

• “Happiness should be taught in schools” – with 50,000 leaving school every year unable to read or write, I think there may be other academic priorities first. Aspiration, rather than happiness, is what children need to learn about.
• “The NHS may undergo further reorganisation” – Maoist permanent revolution is not what the NHS needs. Reduced political control, as we are proposing, is what it needs.
  “Prison suicides have risen to two a week” – a damning indictment I covered in yesterday’s blog.
• “The drink-drive limit could be lowered to reduce alcohol-related road deaths” – I think I’m broadly in favour. Sensible people don’t drink and drive full stop. Equally, we should be just as concerned about the phenomenon of ‘drug driving’ which is growing.
• “Hundreds of thousands of homes are at risk of flooding” – the National Audit Office published a critical report of the Environment Agency’s coastal flood defence schemes. This is of obvious concern to the Fylde, but ongoing work locally should give us some comfort that Blackpool and Cleveleys are at least getting some attention.
• “Government is failing to protect children from the trauma of divorce” – divorce is certainly traumatic for children, but I’m not sure it is the role of government to manage such trauma.
• “Nine housebuilders own enough land to build 225,000 homes” – why don’t they get on with it then, since we need to increase housing supply to reduce the costs.
• “Buy-to-let tenants will have to build ramps for disabled tenants in their properties under the new Equality Law” – sounds sensible – indeed I am surprised existing legislation doesn’t require it – common sense certainly does.
• “Excessive drug and alcohol use is putting teenagers at risk of sexual diseases” – there is a definite problem here, as much to do with popular celebrity culture and precocious sexualisation. It isn’t just a linear equation as stated here. There is also an entire public health dimension, with genito-urinary medicine being starved of cash by the Govt just when sexual diseases are increasing sharply.
• “The BBC will review the salaries of top presenters following complaints” – good. I wouldn’t pay Jonathan Ross a penny.
• “The Government launched a consultation on a review to improve its consultation process” – says it all really.
• “A Europe-wide DNA database will allow police to share information across borders” – more concerns for those of us who fear for civil liberties under this Government. I wonder what safeguards will be put in place?
• “Chronic truants cost the economy £800m a year” – a new report from Philanthropy Capital points this out. It doesn’t surprise me, as those who you who have read my earlier posts on education will know.
• Nursing Times has criticised the Government’s shambolic workforce planning – more incompetence from the Government to match their planning failures with regards to prison numbers. They boast of providing all these extra training places for doctors and nurses, and then there aren’t any jobs for them at the end of it. Talk about spin before substance.