Government to replace parents in one more field?

There was a story on the BBC news at lunchtime about some government funded “learn to swim” program. It featured some drone northern kid who couldn’t swim “only six weeks ago” and now he could do a length. The piece went on to show the kid’s hapless father praising the government about what a great idea this was (are we in North Korea for godsakes?). The journalist went on to tell us that this program was “so successful” that it was being rolled out across the country and the government was “investing” a gazillion pounds in it.

As a child, my mum taught me to swim at a cost to the government of nil. The kid’s dad could quite easily have done likewise, but no, he chose to allow the government to extend yet another tentacle into our lives. Why anyone would choose to let someone else teach your own children basic skills escapes me. Surely one of the joys of life? But on a more serious note; first it shows how the government is becoming surrogate parent, as actual parents increasingly abandon the role, and second spending tax money on scheme like this is surely why my taxes are so high.