>>>>>SNIP
>>>>>>easy getting benefit, as soon as you're unemployed, but it's no fortune - c £60 per week. And, as in my case, and thanks to Bill Clinton's initiatives, the "job-seekers' allowance" only runs for 6 months. Social security payments, say for unemployed families, esp. with kids, can run indefinitely (like your Americans "on welfare").
>>>>>
>>>>>What did Bill Clinton have to do with England's policies?
>>>>
>>>>Didn't he introduce welfare benefits that stopped after 6 months, thus forcing people into work? Maybe I recall incorrectly.
>>>
>>>Not in England.
>>
>>Well DUH-UH! Of course not. But our govt. copied his initiative. I wish they'd copy the "3 strikes and out" policy too.
>
>It sounds appealing but has at times been an illustration of the law of unintended consequences. It needs to be tweaked so the third strike specifies serious crimes, not relatively minor ones like stealing videos (as happened in one notorious case).

Yeah, I did think that was one of the flaws with the law - bit too draconian with minor offences. But it does serve to give cops leverage to get the weak-willed, sniveling 2nd-3rd striking petty criminal to rat his accomplices out, to avoid the consequences, in the US cop shows :-)

What I meant more is that you have hardened criminals who keep going back for the same offences, such as repeated burglary, assault, et al