Suffer little children to suffer?

I was watching Watchdog on TV last night. There was a very distressing story about the abysmal way a family has been treated by Greenwich Council. This family has four children and live currently in a two-bedroom flat. Now I know people will say, and one person actually emailed in to say it, that they shouldn't have had the children in the first place. I always think that's a very petty and nasty retort, because it includes the children in the vitriole. There is always going to be nastiness around, it's just there. Some would say it was the Devil's work.

Little children only grow up to be nasty adults if encouraged. They can also grow up to be embittered. This family was just seeking to be rehoused. Greenwich Council offered them a house. This house would test the temperament of anyone. Pigs would turn their snouts up at it, and rats would spend little time there. Possibly the odd pigeon might be tempted, by going through the holes in the wall, to set up an avian latrine in the dwelling. It was this desirable residence that a smooth-tongued apparatchik from Greenwich Council thought was OK.

Jim Wintour was the face of Greenwich Council last night. He was just like most apparatchiks. Rather annoyed at being put to the test and prepared to deflect blame where he could, in this case back onto the family. The truth is that people like Mr. Wintour are paid handsomely to help and assist the homeless or the needy. He came across rather like a modern-day version of that Bethlehem inn-keeper!

Here is the Watchdog link. What saddens me is that, even with their explanation of the events, Greenwich council sound as though they don't really care and want to put the "system" first.