Nanny State Britain

If you think the Dems want to influence what your children think from cradle to grave, they haven't got anything on the Brits:

Parents could be forced to go to special classes to learn to sing their children nursery rhymes, a minister said.

Those who fail to read stories or sing to their youngsters threaten their children's future and the state must put them right, Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said.

Their children's well-being is at risk 'unless we act', she declared.

And Mrs Hughes said the state would train a new 'parenting workforce' to ensure parents who fail to do their duty with nursery rhymes are found and 'supported'.

The call for state intervention in the minute details of family life followed a series of Labour efforts to reduce anti-social behaviour and improve educational standards by imposing rigorous controls on the lives of the youngest children.

Mrs Hughes has established a national curriculum to set down how babies are taught to speak in childcare from the age of three months.

Her efforts have gone alongside a push by other ministers to determine exactly how parents treat their children down to how they should brush their teeth.

We all know that parents are complete idiots who have absolutely no idea how to raise their children and instill good values in them, and therefore it takes a state bureaucracy to do that for them. I'm sure lessons in nursery rhymes and bedtime stories will cure that nasty radical Islamic problem they have in Britain, and possibly fix their bad teeth as well.

And then there's this blinding flash of the obvious from Mrs. Hughes:

Mrs Hughes said: 'It is now clear that what parents actually do has a huge impact on children's well-being and capacity to succeed, both at the time and in future."

No kidding.