UK Politics
Tank tops are back
Published 07 February 2008
The Tories are confident their family plan is a clever blend of old and new
"It's the Year of the Family!" said a Tory aide triumphantly. From 7 February, it's actually the Year of the Rat. Conway gag? Nah, too easy. Helped by MP Ben Wallace, whose admirable revelation of all his expenses showed that there is one gentleman who has nothing to hide, Dave and the Conservatives have moved on from the unsavoury Derek Conway affair to more important issues. Vote-winning issues. Rousing issues that make you glad that you're British and that someone wants to take charge; issues that should be announced not on a neon-lit stage but by the war memorial with a loudhailer, with f ree-range toddlers, no notes and a brass band. Issues that say: "We've had enough, we like how it used to be, we're Tories, goddamit, and I want to shout it from a rooftop with a windmill on it."
It would be difficult to claim that the Tories deliberately used their big family push this week to cover up the more sleazy events. Disappointed that their "health week" in January did not receive the coverage they thought it should, they have taken no chances with coverage in February. Cameron made sure of that, by doing a succession of kitchen-table interviews. He's in the latest issue of Red magazine, which has an extensive interview with him (subjects: wife, family life, children, how much he likes Spooks). Helpfully, another article a few pages before is a Red survey revealing that 15 per cent more readers will vote for Cameron over Gordon Brown. They hail him as "the new darling for middle youth".
The Year of the Family kicked off with newborn babies and a proposal to make it easier for first-time mothers. The shadow education secretary and father-of-two, Michael Gove, and the shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, child-count an impressive five, are travelling to the Netherlands to check out how kraamzorg (a new Ikea fitting?) works. Kraamzorg is the Dutch model of maternity care, involving support during labour and follow-up help post-birth. Aides would not confirm whether Lansley and Gove would be present to hold warm towels or offer any encouraging shouts of "push".
Lansley has also been looking at the "doula" system, piloted in Hull. Doula, Greek for female helper, is a newish idea to the UK (although a few hippie, earthy Brighton types have had them for years). The nearest description is like a maternity nurse, but non-clinical, who is there during labour, birth and in the postnatal period, helping the mother. The Tories are keen to have care like this available to everyone should they want it.
The Conservatives are on to a good thing here. Finances permitting, only a brave few (especially men) could disagree with a woman/couple getting as much support as possible. They do not need to square immediately how much it will all cost. A press officer did point out that having a maternity nurse visitor would not be obligatory. "We are offering women a choice and a service that is not available at present." Kraamzorg is based on social insurance, so how it would work under the NHS has yet to be considered. A Cameron aide says the funding will be decided by the spring conference.
Hail the Camereenies
Stork-mania continues, producing new-found interest in the family. Steve Hilton, Cameron's chief strategist, has just become a father, and other senior staff have little Camereenies on the way. This, and having an overall young shadow cabinet, means that babies and children and family are the new immigration and Europe.
It has taken a year since a Unicef report put Britain last among 21 countries on the well-being of children for Cameron et al to produce their review. There's something in it for everyone: grandparents wanting access to grandkids, bringing back Boy's Own fun by scrapping safety regulations, clearing parks of gangs, reclaiming the streets, encouraging ball games. This, they believe, will be music to the ears of much of the electorate. Says one strategist: "We are banking on voters being fed up with the loss of childhood and coming back to us or seeing we are different and voting Conservative for the first time."
David Willetts, the shadow skills secretary, says of the Unicef report: "I wasn't surprised to see that 'goody-goody' Scandinavian children appeared to be happy and healthy, but Spain stood out as a country where children really enjoyed childhood. I saw children playing more, mixing with children of different ages - they were more trusting of each other and of adults."
For one shadow cabinet member, who became misty eyed as he recalled his Enid Blyton childhood - street games, long summers, sandwiches (Hovis), grazed knees - all this jumpers for goalposts stuff was almost moving. "We are not saying that Britain should return to some sort of Sunday evening BBC drama dictating that children should all be in tank tops, playing rounders and conkers," he says. "But with the number of children knifed, shot or killed on our streets, surely reclaiming childhood as it should be, no matter what decade this is, is a good thing?"
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