BOLLOCKS.  There WERE no benefits in the modern sense until after the war; people used to give charity to benevolant funds, Bernardos etc, and there was no chance of a person getting free cash for doing nought; when work became available, it was EXPECTED of you to work. 

I'm sure you'd rather have food in your stomach and be cleaning bogs, than lying in the gutter and starving.

Corporal punishment worked - fact.  The cane at school was one of the best methods of dealing with yobs - and maybe Mick is right re the birch - although that might be a bit too far.  How about a Borstal of EPIC proportions for any crime over a certain limit (not sure what - stealing a penny chew might well be a good start, since zero tolerance = no crime).

I feel propesctive parents should be LEGALLY BOUND to take a parenting test, and maybe we could do well from China's 1 kid per family rule.  Mothers should get ZIP for having a kid to get a council house; if you refuse to name the father and thus get CSA, the kid is force-adopted.  I'd far rather be with my adoptive parents than the slapper of a mum I left behind at 3 months old, and let's face it, most of the kids of the current crop of mothers getting free council houses would be better off being adopted. 

Julian - don't beat me up on this - this isn't directed at single parents in general; I'm talking of the cash-for-kids ones here.  I know of 3 cases in extended mate circles where the free house/free cash/free everything for using your new kid for currency has happened.  If that's just me, god alone knows how many cash cows are out there raking it in on the back of their defenceless kid (who won't have as many opportunities as one who was really wanted, as opposed to just being created to get the mother out of a job).  For those who want to use a new child as currency - hello workhouse, 3 bowls of gruel, and hard labour.  Sod the pinko brigade - it worked in Victorian times.

You can educate people all you like, but I don't see why hardworking people should have the piss ripped out of them by yobs, ASBO-heads and lowlifes.  I fear the criminal justice system and the "rights" brigade are some of the real root causes of the problems we face - too many do-gooders think you can talk the evil out of a crim.  Hard labour, no liberties, and iron-fist rule seem to be the only way.

...but do you want to know who I *really* blame, both for the current rash of kids-for-cash mums and bad yoof in general?  Maggie.  If it wasn't for her instilling the greed motive into the 20-somethings in the mid-late 80s, property prices wouldn't have rocketed so fast, one parent would have been able to stay at home and look after the kids (due to cost of living being lower), and thus almost all cases of the "latchkey kid" would be removed, solving the bad kids phenomenon almost entirely, since at least one parent would know where their kid was between end of school and end of workday.  As soon as the cycle is broken, and yon latchkey kid goes on to have kids, "it was OK for me so it's OK for them" becomes the mentality, and the rot's out there, and will get worse for every generation.

As for Beckham - anyone being paid that much money for a silly kid's game would be the first one against the wall, come the revolution.  A junior doctor doing a 80 hour week on low wage must feel sick to their stomach when they some some twat like Rooney raking in cash for doing naff all.