Undead Astronauts

hmm…

The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Around 2,000 families have gone through these Family Intervention Projects so far.

this a joke or exaggeration. it has to be. i mean, i seriously can’t believe ppl would put up w/ this. i would smash the camera to bits even if i had to go to jail. this is revolution time. the article quoted an “ed balls” education secretary, and i even looked him up. it mentions a “shadow home secretary” and the position actually exists. lolwut? i checked some of the other stories on the site, and it appears to be legit. anyways, this story is starting to get major traffic (wired, slashdot etc) so maybe we’ll get “clarification” on it.

if this turns out not to be a joke, i can safely say i never, ever, want to visit the uk. but i must commend them on their gov’t position names. i mean including “shadow” into a title just makes it 100x cooler.

UPDATE: oh. my. god.

Intensive support programme in supervised accommodation
Families receive 24 hour support and supervision from staff in accommodation provided by the project. Families are likely to be involved in many structured sessions as well as daily observation. If the behaviour of the family improves they may be moved into more independent accommodation.

pasted from the uk “Respect” website which aims to “tackle anti-social behavior and its causes.” other great programs they had were street level CCTVs that were monitored by ppl and that were equipped to talk back when “anti-social” behavior was seen. that’s un-fucking-real. still, the page says only 53 intervention projects were established even though there are 1500 problem families.

UPDATE 2: commenters @ slashdot and wired have poo-pooed the sunday express’s credibility in the UK. so apparently the paper is not widely trusted. even so, their own website indicates the story wasn’t a complete fabrication.