I READ somewhere, or I perhaps heard someone talking, about child allowance and it was said they thought it should be curtailed.

So I mulled this over and thought that if it’s done properly, with careful planning, it could kill several birds with one stone!

Perhaps it could roughly work this way.

Children in the future would have to be supported by their parents or the grandparents, so no child allowance.

Of course, it would not have to affect the children already here, and it could not come into force immediately for obvious reasons.

A run-up period of, say, 18 months, would probably be necessary, giving everyone time to absorb the information and understand that having children is a huge responsibility.

The family they are born into must accept that this responsibility is theirs and theirs alone, and not that of the government and the rest of society.

Sadly, our slip-shod benefit system has allowed the onus of responsibility to shift, allowing some folk to think that anybody but themselves will foot their bill for their child’s care.

I bet if this scheme was put into practice, we’s soon pay off the nation’s debt, but the bigger benefit would be much stronger family structures, fewer pregnant young girls, less paper work, less expensive office expenses and, hopefully, a whole lot of happier, more secure people.

Our attitude to casual sex might improve and reduce the amount of sexually transmitted diseases.

The more I think about it, the better it becomes.

Perhaps the slogan could be ‘No, no, a thousand times, no, as I’d have to pay for its upbringing myself!’ Oh, I know that I’m perhaps being a little cruel, even a little unfair, but at least I’m being honest.

We must try to regain the moral high ground if, as a country, we’re to prosper and survive.