Utopian ideals

Over recent years we have seen the introduction of more and more legislation in every area of our lives, it seems those who sit in the seats of power think they know best. To confirm this they legislate and regulate everything, the last Government brought in 1000's of new laws, the amount of new legislation coming out of the EU increased hugely. You would think with all these new laws and increasing controls our society would be a better place to live, we would have; less crime, a better standard of living, fantastic education, a fantastic health service and generally all round well being and happiness. Actually you would think this would almost make our society into a utopian paradise in which everyone obeys the law of the land, no one is discriminated against, no one feels any fear and everyone lives in harmony with their neighbours. Of course this isn't happening, why is that?

I don't think there is one clear answer to this huge question, I do believe there are some fundamental problems within our society that no legislation is going to change. A lot of the laws that are brought in are a knee jerk reaction to some event, eg anti terrorism laws; it's interesting that for about 30 years we had terrorists committing some sort of violent act practically everyday somewhere in the UK, yet we didn't see an increase in legislation to do with restricting our freedoms, yet one act in July 2005 galvanised the Government to bring in greater controls over our lives.

Society has changed massively since the sixties, you could almost say there has been a revolution. If you took someone who was living in the early sixties and transported them to 2010 they wouldn't recognise this country. There has been huge changes in every area of our lives, not just technological, but in societies attitudes. Kate Adie (the TV journalist) grew up in Sunderland in the 1960's and she worked in the most impoverished area of that city, but she said one of the overriding memories from that time was people's kindness. Move forward 45 years and I wonder if the same could be said, probably not.

One thing which has changed massively is peoples attitudes to marriage and pregnancy. Again if you go back in time to the fifties you would not find very many unmarried mothers, you would probably not find anyone co-habiting. Some people would probably argue that what we have now is better because there isn't the stigma surrounding single mothers, and in some ways they would be right. But I believe that with this lack of stigma and shame we have condemned many children to grow up in broken families, and I do mean the word condemned. The facts speak for themselves, 80 per cent of all young offenders come from single parent (usually single mother) families. More relationships break up with those who are co-habiting than those who married, this brings huge social problems as those who grow up without the love of two parents do not know what a good family should look like.

This country has the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in Europe, why is that? You would think with all this legislation and education we would see the levels of teenage pregnancy drop, unfortunately not. The previous Government spent huge amounts of money on advisers on; teenage pregnancy, sex education, the morning after pill, relationship councillors and many other groups but it hasn't made any difference, teenage pregnancy in this country continue to rise, and we continue to see an increase in absent fathers.

I believe the Government have focused on the wrong thing, we had 13 years of a Labour Government who threw huge sums of money at childcare and encouraged more mothers to go to work, this means many children do not see their parents for the majority of the day. The Government spent huge amounts of money on welfare and benefits, and without thinking about it, encouraged welfare dependency. This meant it was better for someone to stay on benefits and keep having children than to go to work; now I am not saying the majority of people who have more than one child are doing it to get more money, but it would be interesting if people only got child benefits for two children.

As I have said above, the last Government brought in huge amounts of legislation, I think looking at what has happened in our society you have to come to the conclusion that it hasn't worked. What I find frustrating is the Government seems to think they know best and if we look at the last 20 years it is quite obvious that they do not. I do not believe the problems within our society can be solved by legislating and controlling peoples lives more and more, and until those who sit in power realise this I don't think things will change or get better.