Dear Madeleine Bunting ...

Re your Guardian article "Our culture of contempt for parenthood".

“The fact that we still have as many births in the UK as we do is extraordinary”

“The point is that parenthood is against the grain of all the aspirations of our culture.”

That depends, I think, on who you mean by ‘we’ and ‘our’.

Yours seems to be a view which only takes into account the culture of the natives, rather than considering the many other cultures which make up Britain (particularly England) today.

It's true that 'we' don't value motherhood or the job of caring for and socialising children - hence the 'I'm only a housewife' syndrome, the fact that mothers caring for their kids are discriminated against by a tax system which rewards joint-earners and single parents over two parent/one earner families. Take a look at which social category (on the 2001 census) child minder and nursery nurse fall into. This culture, common to all Western nations, has been recently described with great insight by the (childless) writer Lionel Shriver in the Guardian and the Sunday Times.

As recent research has pointed out, only the very poor or the wealthy can afford large families - the biggest drop in births has been among those on average incomes.

But we should not confuse 'our' culture with that of all the UK. Other cultures are still having children, and therefore presumably still value them. The ONS birth statistics for England in 2004 showed that nearly 20% of births were to mothers born overseas - 50% of the births in London.

Other research showed that of these babies, half the fathers were born overseas.

In towns like Bradford, where I lived for many years, the ethnic minority population is projected to have tripled in the thirty years 1980-2010. Fifty percent of the current minority population is under eighteen.

I would imagine that if you asked the DFES for a breakdown of primary school numbers by ethnicity (recorded by each head and reported to the DFES) the figure would be 25%+ for ethnic minorities in England.

So the picture may be less bleak than you paint. As the anti-natalist culture continues not to reproduce, and other cultures do, the problem will solve itself. The anti-natalist culture will literally die out.

I had to smile last year, when commentators after the 7/7 bombings pointed to the low numbers of Pakistani and Bangladeshi (origin) women in full time employment as evidence of a disconnection from UK culture. Those women are working alright - they’re raising children.

Regards

LT


Afterthought. Ms Bunting finishes with these words (on why we still have any children).

"I prefer a more romantic notion: that it's a form of popular rebellion by which the prevailing anti-natalist mores of a manipulative consumer capitalism are trumped by the innate understanding of millions of women (and men) of what really constitutes love and fulfilment - dependence, commitment, the pleasure of guiding enthusiasm and, above all, the privilege of nurturing innocence."

I think romantic is the only possible description of the idea that parents are making some kind of Naomi Kleinish 'No Logo'-type statement, having noted above that outside the rich, only the state-funded underclass can afford large families. Whatever's being nurtured there, innocence ain't it.

I was at a gathering last weekend with many teachers present. A pair from North London secondaries told me, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that all secondary schools in the area had police permanently present. Then I talked to the head of a primary on a large council estate in a Northern town, discussing the limited options a school has when dealing with a damaged child (one of several, all different fathers, no set hours - or set anything - at home, brother dead of an overdose at sixteen).

"I'd say the majority of kids at my school come from homes like that"

Hmmm.



(other Maddy-reaction at Norm, Clive Davis, Adventures In Capitalism, Jon Rowett.

A Small Postette

At Biased BBC.

How Many More ?

I said the other day you could blog just on 'early release' crime.

"The court heard Garner killed drug user Mr Tyman 13 months after he was released from prison having served 14 months of a three-year sentence for a near-fatal knife attack on his older brother. "

In other words, if he'd served his full sentence he'd have been inside, not killng people. And what sort of sentence is three years for a near-fatal knife attack ? Jeffrey Archer got four !

An Original

The poet and performer Ivor Cutler has died. We shall not look upon his like again - a modern equivalent would be quite, quite different.

There's a site here with audio clips.

UPDATE - John Junkin, who once seemed to be in every other comedy show on TV or radio, has also died.

More PC Indoctrination

via Majority Rights.

"Instead of singing “Baa baa, black sheep” as generations of children have learnt to do, toddlers in Oxfordshire are being taught to sing “Baa baa, rainbow sheep”.

The move, which critics will seize on as an example of political correctness, was made after the nurseries decided to re-evaluate their approach to equal opportunities.

Stuart Chamberlain, manager of the Family Centre in Abingdon and the Sure Start centre in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, told the local Courier Journal newspaper: “We have taken the equal opportunities approach to everything we do.

“This is fairly standard across nurseries. We are following stringent equal opportunities rules. No one should feel pointed out because of their race, gender or anything else.”

In keeping with the new approach, teachers at the nurseries have reportedly also changed the ending of Humpty Dumpty so as not to upset the children and dropped the seven dwarfs from the title of Snow White."

Surely if the nurseries want to be truly multicultural, they should use the nursery rhymes of today's street - like the versions by famously foul-mouthed rappers 2 Live Crew (you can look for the link yourself). They aren't afraid of Humpty's sad fate - far from it.

"All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put that fat m*****f***** back together again"


Or perhaps the Ice Cube version :

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
With a joint, drinkin some 8-ball
Three little pigs in a Coup de Ville
Lookin for, the wolf to kill
They're ****** up and they want revenge
Them and Humpty used to be friends
Now they're enemies cause he's a traitor
Pulled out the Uzi cruised by and sprayed him


The dwarves and Snow White ? Don't go there.

Two Neat Posts

David Holford on Rod Liddle and the Apollo programme. It is unbelievable that it's over 33 years since man last visited the Moon. Considering the progress in the years 1958-72, we should have made Mars by now.

Millionairesses For Tessa Jowell

Stevenage's MP Barbara Follett, 'one of the few other women Labour MPs who probably wouldn't notice if £350,000 dropped in her joint bank account' defends Ms Offshore Banking on the Today Programme (RealAudio).

There's a wonderful hypocrisy in the air as the sisters circle the wagons. Apparently, the spin goes, Tessa's getting rougher treatment than a man would.

What ? Just imagine a male Minister signing the offshore mortgage deeds at wifey's behest than playing the 'I know nothing' card. He'd have gone already. But if Ms Gender Equality reckons that "I leave all that money stuff to hubby" is a workable survival strategy you have to wonder what the alternative options were.


"You could tell yesterday, from the way that Patricia Hewitt and Margaret Hodge nestled supportively next to Miss Jowell during her Commons performance, with assorted female backbenchers protectively behind, that this was a demonstration of gender solidarity."

Or as I'd put it, as the wealthy diplomat's daughter and the millionaire heiress nestled supportively. Bessie Braddock those two ain't.

As Melanie McDonagh points out in the Telegraph, "Most of Labour's financial scandals involved men who were far less pretty than Miss Jowell but their treatment was, if anything, much more robust. The row about, say, Peter Mandelson's loan from Geoffrey Robinson for a house was rather more trivial than this scandal but the pursuit of Mr Mandelson by "sections of the media" was more fierce, and successful."

Another One Bites The Dust

World Weary Detective, a blogger who typed it as he saw it, has been terminated with extreme prejudice.

"It is therefore with deep regret and great sadness that I must announce that I will no longer be submitting posts to this blog. I cannot challenge New Scotland Yard. I am weary indeed and cowardice is my bedmate. The protection of my family must take precedence."

Fair do's. We've all got a living to make, bread to put on the table, bacon to bring home.

Let's leave with this post, which I repeat in full.

Two of Scotland Yard's finest recently appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee. Andy Hayman and Peter Clarke were questioned about the support given by the police to Tony Blair's efforts to substantially increase detention times for those arrested in terrorism cases.

The two officers, both high ranking members of the Anti-Terrorist Branch, criticised television drama for painting an unrealistic picture of the war against terrorism. Shows like 'Spooks' apparently make it harder for the public to understand the case for keeping someone locked up for three months without charge. TV drama makes it harder for the police to make their case apparently. In a stunning insight, Hayman noted that TV drama was based on entertainment.

They were then asked exactly what their case was. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) was mentioned. Hayman conceded that their backing for the 90 days detention was based on 'instinct'. He even conceded that this was a 'bit flaky'. Clarke then disclosed that a suspected terrorist cell actually communicated via the internet. One of his officers had actually had to spend time watching over an hour of footage on a DVD.

Clarke concluded by claiming that 60% of suspects arrested gave 'no comment' responses when questioned. This comment is obviously intended to suggest they are indeed guilty men.

So there you have it. Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch and ACPO lobbied for the ability to keep people in custody for three months without judicial oversight because they felt it was instictively right. That is the basis for the police supporting New Labour in their bid to introduce some of the most draconian legislation the country has ever seen.

Great Tessa Jowell Quote

"The first known case of a politician resigning from her family to spend more time with her job"

via Guido Fawkes.

More Links ...

Well, one - Quentin Langley, who lectures in PR but who doesn't necessarily write like a stereotypical PR man.

What is it that characterises poverty in the west? We have seen that it is not a shortage of calories. Food is available at a wide range of prices. Nor is it a shortage of transport. Cars are available at many prices, and there is a flourishing second hand market. In some urban areas such as London and New York people choose not to have cars, because the roads are congested and there are alternative ways to travel. But that is not a symptom of poverty – rich people make that choice too. There are low cost airline tickets and cheap cell phones. Poor people have televisions and washing machines.

What is it that they don’t have? They don’t have good schools. They don’t have police protection. They don’t have decent housing. They don’t have proper healthcare. In fact, while they have everything that the private sector provides, they entirely lack the things that government has either taken over completely or seeks to provide to poor people.

The very things which governments seek to provide because otherwise the poor wouldn’t get them, are exactly the things that poor people don’t have. The things we leave to the market are provided, like food and airline tickets, at every possible price to suit rich and poor alike.

I'd agree up to a point - on schools and police protection. Not so sure on housing (I remember the neat, new, housing built for low income families in my last village, and the shattered wreck the first tenants has made of it by he time they were thrown out, a year and a long, expensive legal process later), or on healthcare. Ask any GP and they'll tell you the class which takes up most of their time. But maybe he DOES have a point - a private landlord wouldn't tolerate such a tenant, unless the government were paying him the housing benefit direct.

"So, yes, there is one thing the government could do to cure poverty. The government could stop causing it. It could start by pulling out of education, health, law and order, housing and pensions. That would be a start."

Hmmm - law and order ? Privatising that would break a cardinal rule of the economist P.J. O'Rourke.

"Never let the people with all the money and the people with all the guns be the same people".


UPDATE - and another - Dangerously Subversive Dad, the only man crosser than the Devils Kitchen.

Taking responsibility for the kids

I've got little love for Anthony Walker's killer - were there any justice he would have been hung for his crime. Mrs Walker is a fine and saintly person - I could never react like that.

But I'm still dubious about the news that they want to throw out the Barton family, hideous though they may (or may not) be, from their home.

Mr Taylor added: "Any act of crime or anti-social behaviour by a tenant or a member of their household constitutes a breach of their tenancy and will result in us seeking to repossess their home.

"We believe this policy sends out a very clear message to the community that no form of criminal activity or antisocial behaviour will be tolerated."

I don't think it's a bad idea - it's just the lack of consistency that gets me. If a crime committed by a family member resulted in the whole family's expulsion from 'social housing', whole estates would be emptied of half their current inhabitants. Rather than 'deprived areas', they'd suddenly become nice places to live.

I'd be interested to know if any other murders carried out by tenants children, as opposed to tenants, have resulted in the expulsion of the family.

Dumb Jon is on the case in style.

"It can’t be just the fact it’s a murder case ... what about another well-known group of killers ? When the July 7 bombers were identified, liberals didn’t want to put their families on the street, they wanted to give them pride of place at the memorial service."

Tax Avoiders Unite In Defence Of The Jowell Family Inc.

This has been the main Radio 4 news story for the last few hours - David Miliband's defence of the Jowells.

Mr Miliband, cabinet minister for local government, said: "The best and biggest test for any cabinet minister is whether they are good at their job.

"And what has been remarkable about the last three or four weeks is that no one at any stage has said anything but that she is doing an outstanding job.

"Anyone who knows Tessa Jowell and her husband will know that they are a devoted couple with a family anyone would be proud of.

"One can only imagine the anguish they have being going through that has led them to the decision they took."

I guess there must be a deal of fellow-feeling there, as while he may not be up there with a pro like David Mills, he's no slouch on the tax avoidance front himself.

"David Miliband, the schools minister, and his brother Ed, the chancellor’s economic adviser, are set to avoid paying thousands of pounds in tax through an Inland Revenue loophole which the Labour party pledged to close. "

The Sunday Times has learnt that after Ralph Miliband, the Marxist father of David and Ed, died in 1994, he transferred almost all his assets, including homes in London and Oxfordshire, to his wife.

However, after taking professional advice, the family is understood to have posthumously rewritten his will to give 20% of the London home to both David and Ed.

David has declared a “20% share of family home in London” on the MPs’ register of interests since 2002.

This scheme is called a “deed of variation” and was highlighted by the chancellor in opposition as an unacceptable way in which the wealthy avoid paying death duties.

Paying tax ? That's for the little people. Oh, and don't forget to shop that cash-only plumber, will you ?

Insensitive Golliwog Display Horror

The BBC report is pretty deadpan - you have to see the linked BBC video to get the full horror.

"West Mercia Police said the toys were seized under section 5 of the Public Order Act which makes it an offence to display anything which could be deemed as threatening, abusive or insulting."

Section 5 is the law which did for the late Harry Hammond, God rest his soul.

Couple Seek Employment : Husband Will Do Most Things For Money, Wife Will Do Anything For Power

From the BBC :

"They hope that over time their relationship can be restored, but, given the current circumstances, they have agreed a period of separation."

In other news, a statement from the Tonbridge security raiders :

"They hope that over time their relationship with the banknotes can be restored, but, given the current circumstances, they have agreed a period of lying low and saying nothing"

Mark Oaten's hands are a damn sight cleaner than that woman's.

Links (More of ... )

Let's get Gardjola and the Mid-Atlantic Blog on board, as well. I'll get there in the end ... any more reciprocal links that I ain't put up yet ?

I like the Gardjola post on moderate Muslims, which should be read alongside the Douglas Murray piece (and which I can't work out how to link to). There's definitely a contradiction between the views, to put it mildly. Can it be resolved ?

Read This

Douglas Murray at the SAU.

"Once again, albeit in very different circumstances, the West faces a threat to its way of life. Once again it is a threat which the peoples of Europe, in their estimable desire for peace, would rather was not there. And because of that wish, vast swathes of Europe have decided it is not there. Busily they preoccupy themselves with changing the subject and ignoring the elephant in the living room.

In their efforts to avoid war, Europeans are once again choosing dishonour. They refuse to cut back their welfare budgets or significantly increase their defence spending, and they still refuse to enforce the measures required to cease or reverse the disastrous effects of mass immigration."

It's uncompromising, but true.

"On the battlefield this enemy is defeated every time. There has not yet been one military confrontation with this enemy which has been anything less than a rout of that enemy. But just because Al-Qaeda and their sympathisers perform badly in battle, does not mean they cannot win the war. It does not mean that they cannot win the battle of ideas, winning total victory by the side door without having to waste all that money on bullets, missiles and whatever type of IED is "hot" in Afghanistan this season. If you doubt this, then just think back on the so-called "defeats" which we are meant to have suffered since 9/11. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, 100,000 civilians alleged to be dead by a fanciful survey courtesy of The Lancet magazine. What did our enemy do to win these victories? Absolutely nothing. It all came from within."

"Note how Islam is progressing in the West. It is not gaining the concessions and the victories it is by attracting people to its belief-system. It is gaining concessions from the weak-willed, badly educated and ignorant men and women who currently hold intellectual sway over Europe – people who would rather die than appear politically incorrect, and would rather sacrifice their society than be absolutist in defence of it."

Or as Dennis MacShane puts it: “My generation of Labour MPs don’t want to indulge in anything that smacks of Muslim typecasting or hostility. And as we tried very hard not to be like Norman Tebbit or the more ugly tabloids, it’s fair to say we failed to work out an adequate political response to Islamist politics in the UK.”

Scary

Working long hours, hence dashed-off, poorly-researched posts. Getting home 7.30-8ish, when the choice is between the unbearable Front Row on R4 or more football on R5 - so listening again to Radio Wales, which has a different music genre 7-8 each night. Last night was the blues - in which I discovered that John Mayall will be 73 this year.

Scary. When I was at school, the older kids were still into that zone where blues and jazz met - Ray Charles, Etta James, Aretha. We fourteen year olds found that too dull - we were into blues. John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac edition 1, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack. Blues - the authentic voice of surly white suburban youth.



What's that ? Black people played it, too ? We discovered Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, BB, John Lee, Elmore James. There was a real live bluesman living in Huddersfield - Champion Jack Dupree. But like the kids who fifteen years later were buying UB40 rather than Dennis Brown, we liked the recycled. Mayall featured wonderful new guitarists like Peter Green and Eric Clapton - chck out 'Stormy Monday a 'So Many Roads' on this - and he never stood still, changing his line-ups from one tour, one record, to the next. I've still got about 11 of his LPs.

His son's a trouper too - I used to go to Gaz's Rockin Blues when I lived in London in the 80s and it's still going.

Where was I ? Old men forget ... ah yes. The radio played a wonderful dub mix of blues sounding strangely ancient and modern. Turned out a couple of people called Tangle Eye took Alan Lomax's field recordings from the 1940s/50s and remixed them. You can buy the result at Amazon. Good stuff.

Massive Support For Welsh Assembly

The BBC can have no 'official' view on devolution, although its culture means in practice support for devolution for everyone except the English (who will be forced into 'regions', funded by the UK (i.e not English) Parliament).

So naturally the opening of the new Welsh Assembly White Elephant is a Good Thing. What Wales needs is more politicians.

So good that the BBC erected large screens in Caernarvon town centre for the cheering throngs to witness this happy event - and on Dydd Dewi Sant as well !

As Caernarfon Online reports, there was plenty of room to watch. Great pictures.



The BBCs commenters point out that protesters in Cardiff outnumbered well-wishers - and this from Barry Field of Nairn seems apposite.

"At least the Welsh only "wasted" £67m if it is seen as wasted. We, the Scots, wasted £450m on our "dome" and, as it is a high maintenance building, the figure will rise very rapidly if the truth is ever let out of the bag."

High Maintenance ? The Scottish Parliament ?

"Engineers are to carry out a detailed examination of the oak beam that broke free from the ceiling of the Scottish Parliament building. MSPs had to evacuate the debating chamber on Thursday after the 12ft-long beam slipped out its mountings.

The inspection will involve the Health and Safety Executive, the construction manager, the structural engineer and the contractor who built the chamber.

It is not clear when it will be safe for MSPs to return to the chamber."

Children Need Fresh Fruit, Not Fathers

The BBC Today programme trumpets the call by Dame 'Suzi' Leather, newly appointed head of state-funded quango The School Food Trust (which the BBC describe as 'an independent body') for the banning of chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks from vending machines, and the promotion of fruit and veg.

All very proper too. Pity Ms Leather doesn't include fathers in the list of things a child needs. More on this here, too.

The biography here shows a classic Seventies-educated Nu Lab quangocrat, teeth firmly clenched round the nipple of Mother State. I wonder if she has children - and I'm betting no.

UPDATE - wrong and wrong again - Ms Leather, whose name seems to have aroused an unhealthy degree of excitement in certain lewd commenters of the baser sort, has not only a small tribe of children, but a husband to boot - an academic in the Politics department of Exeter University.

The contracted first name Suzi, a sure Seventies giveaway ? More here.

Contraception, Contraception, Contraception

This is why schools with the name 'Community' are best avoided.

"Apause, or Added Power and Understanding Through Sexual Education, will offer the morning-after pill, condoms and testing for sexually transmitted infections"

The scheme is sad, the acronym sadder.