Mirror columnist Paul Routledge is not fooled by the latest offering to get new parents back to work, and wishes the pressure was taken off mums
Utterly shameless, but what do you expect from this lot?
The Tories made a brazen bid for the votes of mums and dads with free childcare. Working parents are now entitled to 15 hours a week for two-year-olds, and for nine-month-old babies in September before a “rollout” to 30 hours next year.
They won’t be in power then. There aren’t enough trained staff or places at private or council nurseries and prices are soaring. Doesn’t matter. What counts is electoral appeal to the critical 25-44 age group, whose votes are leaching to Labour. And the new bribe comes on top of NI cuts which only benefit those of working age.
This childcare business – and it is big business – is getting out of hand. The pressure on mums or dads to offload their kids to earn a second income is intolerable. Some parents go out to work to earn the money to pay for childcare – so they can go out to work. Preposterous, but both major parties are signed up to this policy.
Labour won’t match Tory spending pledges, but says paid-for childcare is “the best start in life”. I beg to differ. The best place for very young children is at home with their mother or father, where they can learn the basics of behaviour and become familiar with reading and writing.
This is an old-fashioned view, based on experience. My wife looked after our two daughters until school age before she took a job. All the better they were for it. I’m the last to deny women a place in the world of work – I’ve worked with and for plenty, and still do. But in those critical early years, my strong feeling is that kids come first.
How can it be right to dump a baby still in nappies in a commercial creche? That’s what the upper classes do, and look at the weirdos it produces.
