But as I read this morning about Nick Clegg's £126 million Youth Contract, designed to get the youngest Neets (Not in education, employment or training) into work, and the habit of going to work, I find myself wondering if we haven't now gone too far. And why do I say that? Well it seems part of the new approach not only includes the usual 'job training', where once it was argued by proponents, that while the trainees might not actually be doing 'real' work, at least they were learning what it was like to be involved in the world of work. This crucially involved getting to the job, getting there on time, and by extension getting out of bed to begin with, some time before midday!

Anyway, part of this radical approach apparently involves waking the trainees up in the morning and even driving them to work! The argument here is that by doing this it will 'help young people develop a routine'. I'm sure it will, but is it just me or is this a really good way of once again teaching people that if they don't give a damn others will look after them? There doesn't seem to me to be much difference between this idea than paying benefits to people to do nothing, in as far as it doesn't exactly give off the slightest suggestion of self-reliance. All I can say is thank goodness the Lib Dems are only a part of the Coalition, and the junior partner at that.