News out of Great Britian...

[MYSONSDAD]

ACFC ANALYSIS - Tories Offer Fathers Childcare Leave

Thanks to Dr. Stuart Isaacson for this story from The Guardian in
Britain.  American "conservatives" should start paying attention to
their counter-parts in Britain.  Come to think of it, American liberals
might give some thought to this situation too, where both sides of the
political spectrum are finally waking up to the reality that knee-jerk
pandering to radical feminist man-hating no longer works as well
as it did for the last thirty years.

Come to think of it, radical feminist man-hating never did work
very well in America - in fact its family destruction agenda was an
absolute disaster as the basis of family policy from the beginning,
as any political hack with an ounce of common sense should have
known from the beginning.  In fact, we believe that most political
hacks did know this in their hearts from the beginning, and they
only fell into the current disaster of family policy because they
were too lazy to think the issue through, and thought they could
get away with it as the easy way to appear "progressive."

Our analysis of the last election in America, where most talking
heads agree that "moral values" (as they put it) were the issue
that decided the election, is that at the end of the day most
Americans, just like most people everywhere, want to go home
to a peaceful family life of common sense and decency where
mothers and fathers treat each other and their children with the
honor and respect as a person that is the birthright of every man,
woman and child on Earth.  Most Americans are also sick and
tired of grandstanding political hacks of both parties "helping"
them so much by playing the politics of gender war polarization
with family policies designed to promote their political careers,
by inflaming conflict within families, by favoring either mothers
or fathers.  One thing that unites both liberals and conservatives
is that we all come from families.  We believe the most important
reason that the last American election was so close, is that so far
there hasn't been a thin dimes' worth of difference between the
family policies of either liberals and conservatives in America

Even most of the talking heads still don't get it - the burning issue
of the day is not "moral values" per se, but "family values."  For
most Americans, not even Iraq or the economy compare to the
importance of coming home to a decent family life.  Maybe if our
great political leaders would put their thinking caps on for a few
minutes, even they could figure out that you can't have a decent
family life where the home is a gender war battleground of trying
to prove that either mothers or fathers are the "better parent", but
that children need both parents equally.  As indicated in the story
below, that's what some Tories and Conservatives have figured
out in Britain.  Hopefully the dim-witted great leaders of both
parties in America will soon figure out that common sense truth
too, and that if you're going to have a family leave policy, at the
very least it should be equal between mothers and fathers.

ACFC
http://www.acfc.org/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Note from Dr. Stuart Isaacson:

An interesting article from the UK...
-------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1348259,00.html

The Guardian
Thursday November 11, 2004

Tories offer fathers share of baby leave
Howard tries to outflank Labour with paid leave plan for new parents
by Lucy Ward and Michael White

Fathers would be able for the first time to share with their partners up to
a year's paid leave from work after the birth of a baby, under proposals to
be unveiled by the Conservatives today.

With family issues increasingly seen as a key battleground of the coming
general election, both main parties will today seek to seize the initiative
of maternity and paternity rights, and childcare.

The Tory leader Michael Howard will outline his party's plans in a speech
this morning just as the prime minister, Tony Blair, addresses a major
childcare conference.

Mr Howard will attempt to outflank the government by proposing a minimum
£150 weekly payment, almost £50 more a week than at present.

Initially it was thought that this payment would be for the full 12 months
of the child's first year. But last night there appeared to be some
confusion in Tory circles over the exact terms of their offer to parents.

The initial offer of a full year's paid leave was being whittled down by
party policy-makers to six months - the same period available to parents
under existing welfare legislation.

But in an unprecedented concession to the growing number of men who want
to play an active childcaring role, Mr Howard will also promise fathers the
option of sharing the leave for the first time. Both proposals are aimed at
pre-empting similar moves planned for Labour's election manifesto, to be
included in the government's 10-year childcare strategy before Christmas.

Both Labour and the Tories have set their sights on families and children in
the runup to the election, expected next May, as voters look for ways to
make increasingly complex lives simpler. The balance between work and
home is seen as an important "quality of life" issue to many voters, with its
traditional appeal to women now extending to fathers.

Mr Blair, addressing the Daycare Trust conference, will today promise to
offer subsidised school-based "wrap around care" from 8am to 6pm for all
primary school age children by the end of the next parliament - the first
time the government has put a timescale on the policy.

In his first speech on the issue as leader, Mr Howard will unveil Tory moves
to allow parents to use the childcare tax credit to pay "informal carers"
such as relatives or friends - the most popular choice of care for many
parents. Currently, the money can only be spent on registered care such as
a nursery place or childminder.

A third reform on which the Tories plan to consult would see the
introduction of tax breaks on nursery and other formal childcare costs for
parents earning too much to qualify for the tax credit- available on a
sliding scale up to £140 a week to families with incomes of up to £43,500.

There will also be moves to create a "fast track" scheme under which
grandparents could qualify formally as childminders.

The package of proposals, which Mr Howard is not expected to cost
tomorrow, reflects Conservative efforts to regain ground in an area where
the party has been repeatedly outshone by Labour.

Mr Howard will admit that, at 35 and "struggling my way up the greasy
pole of the legal profession", he often returned home late or stayed away
completely. "Especially in the early years that made me feel like a bad
parent," he will say.

The Conservatives will argue that current government policy is too rigid,
dictating to parents how they should behave rather than allowing them to
make their own choices. Party strategists believe mothers feel forced back
to work - a view ministers privately concede they have allowed to develop
and now want to change.

The Tories say their approach, which critics will argue neglects the crucial
issue of expanding Britain's patchy childcare, will provide parents with
more money to spend on the kind of childcare they want, as well as allowing
them to stay at home for longer after a baby's birth. They argue supply
should not necessarily be up to the government.

Mr Howard will say: "Families - not government - should decide how they
run their lives. No one knows better than parents how to bring up their
children. Mothers don't want to be told by government that the best thing to
do is to race back to work as soon as their baby's born. Nor do they want to
be told to stay at home indefinitely producing more and more children. They
want the right to decide."

Childcare campaigners last night welcomed the unprecedented attention being
paid to the issue, but raised concerns that the Conservatives have yet to
cost their proposals, and could end up cutting state-funded provision to pay
for them, ultimately reducing choice for parents.

The Daycare Trust director, Stephen Burke, said: "The issue is obviously
if parents are being given more choice then what are they going to be able
to spend the funding on if the services they need still aren't available?
What will the Conservatives do about the roll out of children's centres
the government plans over the next five years? It is absolutely crucial to
ensure that families have access to childcare wherever they live."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004.
Guardian Unlimited Home:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Children Need BOTH Parents!

The American Coalition for Fathers and Children

For Membership information call 1-800-978-DADS
or see ACFC's homepages at: http://www.acfc.org