Baby P – another reason to implement child licenses

Hajira Talbot

Horrifying details emerging on the death of Baby P in August this year have provoked political finger pointing in the House of Commons and calls for a new inquiry which could cost the taxpayer as much as the previous £4.6 million inquiry into eight-year-old Victoria Climbié’s abuse and subsequent death. The fact that a 17-month-old baby was sadistically tortured his entire short little life but yet was visited 60 times by social workers, was sent to hospital on account of his injuries at least twice and was examined by a consultant pediatrician 48 hours before he died in his blood-spattered cot, is enough to make me homicidal. The child’s mother was even arrested for assaulting the child but yet the defenceless baby was still not removed to a place of safety.

It is a sad fact of modern life in the so-called “civilised world” that the people who are able to look after children properly are too self-absorbed and narcissistic to find the time to procreate, preferring instead the company of dogs and cats – they can’t talk back – to the responsibilities of parenthood. Which means that a large percentage of the people left having children here in the UK are the kind of people who are professional “benefit-executives” and see their children as cash cows to bring the good old child tax credits rolling on in.

In this first-world country, the emphasis is always on the needs, desires and whims of the individual. Children have no respect for their elders, the elderly are carted off to live in old-age homes so they don’t inconvenience their children and scare their grandchildren, married couples have affairs, mothers are depressed, children have ADHD and teachers are not allowed to do anything for fear they hurt children’s or parent’s feelings.

There is no emphasis on the family, no role models who aren’t self-absorbed, no respect and certainly no values. I may sound like an old fart, (I’m not – I’m 27 years old) and I think the UK has lost both the plot and the blueprint for the ideal supportive and caring family.

When it comes to public “services”, it seems that the people employed by the government are there for appearance’s sake only, which may explain why children are being left to suffer and die in abusive homes. We have paid taxes so the government could spend nearly £5 million on a think-tank investigating mechanisms to prevent authorities from turning a blind eye to child abuse – just so another child could die pitifully in front of everybody.

You know, the only advice I can offer to people who abuse children is this: if you are depressed, or have mental illness relating to you yourself being abused as a child and for some reason feel you can’t stop it, do the world a favour and throw yourself off a bridge.

I personally believe that with the world as over-populated as it is, people should think twice before adding to the inhabitants of this earth. The Dogs Trust runs a campaign which states “a dog is for life, not just for Christmas”. Why can’t we have a Babies Trust that reminds people of their responsibilities to their kids? Plenty of sexually active young girls think that having a baby would be “cool” or “cute” and spend the next five years suffering from post-natal depression and not knowing what to do with the blob that leaks randomly from every imaginable orifice and screams all the time.

And before you ask, I am a mother. I have a wonderful six-year-old daughter who is my reason for living. My journey as a parent has covered divorce, single-parenthood, sacrifice, dire poverty, frustration and many, many tears. It has also brought me unimaginable happiness, pride, tenderness, unselfishness and a rudimentary understanding of the way the universe works, but it’s not for the faint-hearted and some parents don’t ever get to see the upside.

My last word: contraception, people. Contraception.