Amid a surge in autism diagnoses, Arthur Mann found a friend’s children detached and glued to their screens. Is it not more likely, he wonders in the Spectator, that we are suffering from an epidemic of disastrously bad middle-class parenting? Here’s an excerpt.
I recently reconnected with an old friend; I went to his house and met his children for the first time. One of them looked up from his screen as we entered the room, faintly curious about the intrusion. The other, with his back to us and his face obscured by a hoodie, didn’t bother. My friend announced their names as if that was sufficient introduction, but it felt weird that the children did not say hello and that one of them did not even show his face. Was something wrong with him? It was a bit creepy. Obviously I let it go. Maybe he was chronically shy or autistic, or facially disfigured. But the brother didn’t behave very differently, so probably not.
It later emerged that Hidden Face did indeed have ‘social-connection issues’ and that his parents were thinking of seeking a diagnosis for autism. By that time, he had deigned to show his face briefly. He shot his mother a venomous glance when she nervously suggested he might sit up for lunch. He whispered some compensatory demand that was instantly granted. I dread to think what it was. I wanted to shake the parents by the shoulders until some sense emerged. Instead, we had a pleasant chitchat about where to go on holiday and what to watch on Netflix.
It chilled me, the glance he shot his mother. It should have earned him a stern rebuke. But it seemed that he was holding an invisible Kalashnikov. His parents feared him. It chilled me but didn’t massively surprise me. Depressingly, I have seen many such cases.
Most readers will agree with the next sentence strongly, but will seldom have seen its sentiment in print. We are suffering an epidemic of disastrously bad middle-class parenting. Dramatically spoiled children are no longer a Roald Dahl rarity but are semi-normal, and many parents dodge blame through the procurement of a diagnosis of this or that condition. …
To be clear, I am not arguing that most children diagnosed with a behavioural condition are really just spoiled. I know some families with autistic children who have worked hard to socialise them, to ensure that they greet family friends when they come round, and so on. But I also know families where the source of the problem is clear as day: the parents have drifted into the terrible habit of failing to teach their children how to behave.
I nearly wrote ‘of failing to discipline their children’. Maybe that word is best avoided, as it suggests six of the best and so on. But discipline really just means teaching, or maybe ‘deep-teaching’. And a child must be taught how to behave around other people – how to keep quiet about his or her desires, how to behave in a vaguely formal way, even at home if people come round. Even this might sound a bit harsh and Victorian to some. “We don’t want him to conform and be polite, we want him to be himself,” a parent might say. But this is a subtle cruelty, because it will lead him to be disliked.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Nigel Farage has said GPs are “massively over-diagnosing” children with special educational needs and disabilities. During a press conference in Dover, the Reform leader criticised an overdiagnosis of “those with mental illness problems and… other general behavioural disabilities”.
So many of these diagnoses – for SEND before 18, for disability register after 18 – so many of these have been conducted on Zoom, with the family GP. I think that is a massive mistake.
If I’m your family GP, and I’ve known your family for generations, and you’re saying to me ‘doc, there’s a real problem here with depression’, or whatever it may be, it’s quite hard for me as your GP to say no.
So I don’t think any of these allocations should be done by family GPs. I think they should be done independently.
I think we are massively – I’m not being heartless here, I’m being frank – I think we are massively over-diagnosing those with mental illness problems and those with other general behavioural disabilities.
And I think we’re creating class of victims in Britain who will struggle ever to get out of it. That’s not good for them and it’s not good for us, so I worry about those things.
I do accept though, I do accept that repeated lockdowns – particularly the third lockdown – were probably the biggest mistakes ever made by a peacetime government in this country. And they have caused great long-term harm.
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Has anyone seen what they hope to introduce in Northern Ireland in their new Public Health Bill? Perhaps a template for the rest of the UK in due course. Consultation closes 27/9.
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/consultations/policy-proposals-inform-development-new-public-health-bill-northern-ireland
Paragraphs 61 and 76, dealing with the powers they want to give themselves, are particularly disturbing.
“61. The officer may for the purpose for which entry is authorised:
• search the premises;
• carry out measurements and tests of the premises or of anything found on them;
• take and retain samples of the premises or of anything found on them;
• inspect and take copies or extracts of any documents or records found on the premises;
• require information stored in an electronic form and accessible from the premises to be produced in a form in which it can be taken away and in which it is visible and legible or from which it can readily be produced in a visible and legible form; and
• seize and detain or remove anything which the officer reasonably believes to be evidence of any contravention relevant to the purpose for which entry is authorised.”
“76. The restrictions or requirements that may be imposed on a person by an order are that:
• the person submit to medical examination;
• the person be removed to a hospital or other suitable establishment;
• the person be detained in a hospital or other suitable establishment;
• the person be kept in isolation or quarantine;
• the person be disinfected or decontaminated;
• the person wear protective clothing;
• the person provide information or answer questions about the person’s health or other circumstances;
• the person’s health be monitored and the results reported;
• the person attends training or advice sessions on how to reduce the risk of infecting or contaminating others;
• the person be subject to restrictions on where the person goes or with whom the person has contact;
• the person abstains from working or trading.”
[edited for formatting]
That’s just distopian!
Faceless People in hazmat suits break in to your home and take you away and everything you own without explanation!
Stasi? North Korea? Gestapo?
What’s the difference?
Left wing comedy seems to consist of streams of hate filled invective against anyone who isn’t a left winger (with a soft “G”) masquerading as satire.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/10/conservative-leadership-election-how-election-happens/
The Telegraph explains what happens next in the race to succeed Rishi Sunak.
Erm…am I bothered?
It won’t make any difference – they are determined to destroy the Conservative Party from within
“‘Vote for Trump in every state, not for me’” – “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is urging”
But here’s an interesting new thing:
Trump now stunningly promises a whole lot of immigrants… (substack.com)
“Trump: “We’re going to let a lot of people come in, because we need more people, especially with AI coming and all the different things. And the farmers need, everybody needs but we’re going to make sure they’re not murderers and drug dealers…”
Uh-huh. Sure.
So he’s reversing his position on the border.” Jon Rappoport
“Mass migration is tearing the EU to pieces” – “Germany’s decision to impose new controls at its borders is seismic, and may be just the beginning, writes Isabel Oakeshott”
Let’s hope so! And may I point out that the UK Sentencing Council guidelines recommend
THREE YEARS IN PRISON
FOR KNOWINGLY ENTERING THE COUNTRY ILLEGALLY.
So no more brand new furniture and brand new homes for these criminals, but fast-tracked straight to prison for three years each, suspended forever with immediate deportation to the Third World country of their choice. No appeals, no taxpayers’ money for lawyers, just fast-tracked like Starmer is fast-tracking British Patriots.