"There are good reasons for expanding affordable childcare and funding proper parental leave; not because this might increase the fertility rate but because such policies are good for women, for children and for society. There are good reasons for thinking more concretely about the consequences of falling birthrates and the policies needed to respond to it; and to acknowledge, too, that immigration cannot be the sole answer, but is likely to be part of it.
“There are, though, no good reasons for using concern about birthrates to exacerbate hostility to immigration, to project divisive notions of identity and to restrict the rights of women and gay people. That is to enclose iniquity in a “family friendly” wrapping”
the National Conservatism conference
They seriously named it that? The Nat C party?
If they want people to have more babies, then maybe they should fix the problems that cause people to not want kids. Nah! Let’s just force pregnancies!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“There is one critical outcome that liberal individualism has completely failed to deliver and that is babies,” one of the rising stars of the Tory party, MP Miriam Cates, told the National Conservatism conference in May.
Studies have shown that the biggest and longest-lasting impact comes from expanding good-quality, properly funded childcare and increasing paid parental leave, while tax reforms and cash transfers have, at best, small and temporary effects.
In Britain, a pernicious policy of recent years has been the “two child” cap on benefit recipients, which punishes people for having too many children and drives larger families into poverty.
In his 2019 state of the nation address, Orbán announced a series of natalist measures, including the waiving of income tax for women raising at least four children.
“The cradle”, Adriano Scianca, a leading member of the neo-fascist CasaPound organisation, argues, is “the most powerful weapon”; when “the baby cots are empty, civilisation dies”.
There are, though, no good reasons for using concern about birthrates to exacerbate hostility to immigration, to project divisive notions of identity and to restrict the rights of women and gay people.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!