# Ben Bradley, (Brit MP, Not Bradlee of WP), please step back to the 1930s **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 17, 2018, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784 "2018-01-17T00:11:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/1 "2018-01-17T00:11:21Z")
Yes, let’s practice eugenics! BBC story [here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42712180). > [@](#): > > A Conservative MP has apologised for a 2012 blog post in which he suggested benefit claimants should have vasectomies. We all know to what extremes eugenics was eventually taken, don’t we? Shades of Quentin Hogg, and, well, you-know-who. He claims he’s matured, and since the brain only finishes maturing at 25, it’s possible. But it’s more probable he’s an idiot and a tosser. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/2 "2018-01-17T23:16:20Z")
I buy it. There’s some things I wrote online at least 10 years ago I know can be used against me nowadays. Sometimes the popular prevailing opinion of the time becomes not-so-popular. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/3 "2018-01-18T00:44:36Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Yes, let’s practice eugenics! BBC story [here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42712180). > > We all know to what extremes eugenics was eventually taken, don’t we? Shades of Quentin Hogg, and, well, you-know-who. > > He claims he’s matured, and since the brain only finishes maturing at 25, it’s possible. But it’s more probable he’s an idiot and a tosser. Quit being so incredibly stupid, and quit slandering people. If you had bothered to actually read the article you linked to, you would know that he was talking about matters of money, nothing else. > [@](#): > > “Sorry but how many children you have is a choice; if you can’t afford them, stop having them! Vasectomies are free,” his post read. Apparently you feel that it’s a bad thing for politicians to be responsible with the taxpayers’ money. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/4 "2018-01-18T06:44:59Z")
Funnily enough, I did read the article. And funnily enough, I do believe in personal responsibility. But vasectomies are not free - the funding has to come from somewhere - and are not always reversible. Had he encouraged the use of condoms, that would be a different matter, but we in Europe have a rather nasty history of enforced sterilisation and worse. Maybe you are unaware of it? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/5 "2018-01-18T08:45:00Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > I buy it. There’s some things I wrote online at least 10 years ago I know can be used against me nowadays. Sometimes the popular prevailing opinion of the time becomes not-so-popular. Except this was in 2012, not 1912. Forced sterilization of some undesired class has been anathema for the better part of a century. It was not remotely “the opinion of the times.” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/6 "2018-01-18T12:30:56Z")
I’m less bothered by that than I am about the recently-revealed activities of Toby Young and James Thompson: [UCL to investigate eugenics conference secretly held on campus](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/10/ucl-to-investigate-secret-eugenics-conference-held-on-campus). Bradley’s views on “eugenics” are born of casual ignorance and general tone-deafness. Thompson’s stem from active malevolence. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/7 "2018-01-18T13:28:25Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Except this was in 2012, not 1912. Forced sterilization of some undesired class has been anathema for the better part of a century. It was not remotely “the opinion of the times.” Considering the MP wasn’t alive in 1912, that rules your assertion out if you want to continue being unnecessarily pedantic. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ben-bradley-brit-mp-not-bradlee-of-wp-please-step-back-to-the-1930s/806784/8 "2018-01-18T14:14:22Z")
I certainly wouldn’t “force” it on anyone but I definitely think that people shouldn’t have more children than they can afford to raise and education on contraceptive methods should be front and centre in any state-funded schools system.