The Role of the Family

I watched an interesting interview between Charlie Rose and George Osborne. Osborne is part of the new, conservative government in Great Britain. His position is roughly that of Secretary of the Treasury in the United States.

At one point Osborne was talking about the need to cut government social welfare spending. As they talked about filling the gap, Osborne suggested the importance of the family in dealing with society's problems.

You could tell from his tone that Rose was skeptical; that his liberal heart had written off the family years ago. The humanist/secularist agenda has made the family irrelevant.

It brought to mind the words of Neil A Maxwell:
"You will also see that the living of one protective principle of the gospel is better than a thousand compensatory governmental programs—which programs are, so often, like 'straightening deck chairs on the Titanic.'” From "Why Not Now" 1974

Here's the section of the interview between Osborne and Rose:
GEORGE OSBORNE: Yes. Absolutely. And let’s think of problems which are commonplace in advanced economies and societies like the United States or
Britain. There are public health issues, drug dependency issues. We know
that big government solutions don’t always succeed. That they are not the
only answer. That it’s all very well having a big public health campaign
and setting up out of our hospitals big public health programs. That’s
fine and they can be successful and play an important part, but they can’t
be the whole thing. And you need to engage community groups, charities,
volunteer organizations, as well as families, in these problems. Perhaps a
statement of the obvious, but it often gets forgotten by government -- the
family is such an important institution in all of this. And we have long
debates--

CHARLIE ROSE: So what are you going to do for the family?

GEORGE OSBORNE: Well, to support parental responsibility, encourage people
to take responsibility, for example, for the behavior of their own
children...

CHARLIE ROSE: So this is a public education campaign?

GEORGE OSBORNE: It is about engaging with parents and communities and the
society in a common problem. And not thinking that you can sit at the desk
behind me, write some order that says in every school in the country this
is going to happen at 10:00 in the morning and this is going to improve
discipline overnight in our classrooms and indeed discipline in our
communities. We know now that those sort of top-down answers don’t always
work.

CHARLIE ROSE: I understand, and I think it was Hillary Clinton that once
said, you know, it takes a village.

GEORGE OSBORNE: Lots of people from different parts of the political
spectrum have grasped towards this idea. But I think actually as speaking
in a British context, I think the conservative movement has some insights
here, brings some insights to the table that, as I say, there are-- we
shouldn’t be-- we shouldn’t see the government as all the answers that...

CHARLIE ROSE: Explain to me how it’s not just words, it’s not just
encouragement, it’s not just public -- a call to public citizen
participation.

GEORGE OSBORNE: Well, first of all, it is partly that. And there’s
nothing wrong with...

CHARLIE ROSE: No, I agree.

GEORGE OSBORNE: ... a call to citizenship -- citizen participation. And
there’s nothing wrong with using some of the - some nudge theory.

CHARLIE ROSE: But it hardly represents -- it hardly represents a new...

GEORGE OSBORNE: But let me give another example, which is real,
substantive and so on. Educational reform, one of the biggest programs
we’ve undertaken here, which is to move away from an environment where it
is simply the schools choosing pupils, we start to get pupils and parents
choosing schools, and there is real parental choice and involvement, and
indeed where parents want to come together in this country and create a
school, they’re able to do so. And indeed, that is happening already in
many communities around the country. We’ve already passed through the
parliament here legislation that has given groups in our society, community
groups, the power to create schools within the education system. So funded
by the taxpayer, but a break away from what has gone before, which was the
assumption that not only would government pay for education, but also would
provide all the education. And we’re saying, look, if other people want to
come in and provide state-funded education, let’s see that happen. Now
that is one of the most exciting reform programs that we’ve got. Part of
it is inspired by actually...

CHARLIE ROSE: And doesn’t cost a lot.

GEORGE OSBORNE: Well, it’s-- it’s about the allocation of resources, it’s
not necessarily more or less resources. But we’ve been inspired partly by
what we’ve seen work in parts of the United States. For example, New York
schools reform has been very influential in the education debate here in
Britain.

Link to entire interview:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11200#frame_top