By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Only 60 babies a year in need of adoption are being placed permanently with families, compared with four thousand in 1974. Overall, the number of adoptions has fallen by 8% since 2007. The average time between being taken into care and being adopted is two years and seven months […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter As you can read on today's ConHome frontpage Nick Clegg is using a speech to attack Tory policy on marriage and family life. 10 Downing Street interpret the speech as an attempt by Nick Clegg to quell unrest within his party after last week's EU veto. David Cameron's advisers fear […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Earlier today, David Cameron gave a keynote speech to Church of England members at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. It was an unashamedly moral and pro-Christian speech. A flavour of what followed came in the introductory remarks, when Mr Cameron said "we […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter I am a sceptic by temperament and thus can't help viewing David Cameron's speech on problem families earlier today through a dispassionate lens. Some of the questions that come to mind are those that any responsible opposition should ask. Will councils fund 60% of the cost of family interventions […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Coalition may not be united on the significance of marriage but in the latest sign that it is making progress on family policy it has agreed a £448 million programme to address the challenges represented by Britain's 120,000 most chaotic families (1% of the total population). It appears that […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. There is a puzzle about yesterday's childcare announcement in George Osborne's autumn statement. The Chancellor said that he wants "to ensure that children born into the poorest families have a real chance to become [engineering and science graduates]", and added that the Government will double the number of poorer […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter There are, crudely, two forms of compassionate conservatism. One form is about helping the strivers – the working poor. Cutting petrol duty, freezing council tax, tackling energy prices and raising the starting threshold for income tax are part of this agenda. The second form of compassionate conservatism is a broader […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The attention-seizing half of childcare policy is the demand side – the recognition by the state that having children affects one's capacity to pay tax, and the response by government that follows in terms of measures. Attention is seized precisely because each possible solution is controversial – touching on […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Daily Mail savages the Coalition on an almost daily basis and this week's confrontations came on immigration and also the family. Thursday's frontpage shouted: Betrayal Of The Family. The Mail continued: "Despite all those Tory promises, fathers and grandparents will still be denied the right to see children after […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter In a speech at the Royal Commonwealth Club today, Theresa May announced plans to put women at the forefront of the Government's plans for economic growth. One of the measures proposed by May was to allow funding to recruit 5,000 female mentors to encourage more women to become entrepreneurs. The […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Some local authorities concluded long ago that children of one "race" (whatever that is) should only ever be adopted by a couple of the same one: modern political correctness thus came full circle to join South African apartheid. According to today's Sunday Times, the number of adoptions has fallen […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter Today Cameron pledged to bring about the end of forced marriages, describing them as "the most grotesque form of a relationship" and "little more than slavery". In a speech on immigration, he said "we should not shy away from addressing" the problem of forced marriage. Rather than announcing plans to […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter In his address to the party conference today, Iain Duncan Smith reiterated the promise that David Cameron had made to proceed with, and implement tax breaks for married couples. Duncan Smith said that the tax breaks for married couples were not "about government interfering in family life" but "about government recognising […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter David Cameron fought the last election on a manifesto theme that was never tested with voters. "An invitation to join the Government of Britain," it proclaimed – but no-one seems to have tried to find out whether the electorate would like to. At first glance, it is surpassingly baffling […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter Today the Government has announced a public consultation, to look at how they would provide civil marriage to same-sex couples. A Downing Street source has said that David Cameron "personally intervened" and the move has been "consistent with [his] views as expressed in his first speech as party leader". […]