Notices by HebrideanHecate (hebrideanhecate@spinster.xyz), page 4

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https://twitter.com/DreyfusJames/status/1628032204184948736?cxt=HHwWgMC41b-q95ctAAAA

Was just thinking about the word ‘anarchist’ & its current ‘trendy’ usage, which leads me the following story.

I once worked with quite a renowned director, who surrounded himself with younger assistants. They were clearly infatuated with him & informed me, conspiratorially, hat he was ‘SUTCHH a cool guy. He’s an anarchist, you know.’ “Oh, right”, I replied.

A few days later, in the bar of our hotel in Prague, he sidled over from his far away table & asked me, “Are you a Royal Family supporter?” I replied that I was extremely fond of The Queen.

He grinned & sneered at me, “Now, WHY doesn’t that surprise me?” & wandered off . I finished my meal, & then lit a cigarette, (legally), at which point, there was uproar from him.

He was anti-smoking, you see. Not allergic. He just didn’t like it.

“Bit rich”, I thought.

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/february-2023/who-will-look-after-the-kids/

Who will look after the kids? Why should the State prioritise getting new mothers back to work above all else?

When it comes to the question of who should care for the nation’s children, the UK has made a clear policy decision: not their parents.

In this country, much of the help with the increasingly unaffordable cost of raising children is effectively in the form of vouchers that can be used to buy Ofsted-certified childcare. If instead you want to look after your child yourself, you forfeit these benefits.

Why do we have this system, when we could instead take the budget for childcare vouchers and give it to parents to spend as they see fit? In this setup, nothing would stop families from continuing to put their children in daycare with this allowance, if that was indeed what worked best for them; if they preferred to take an extended leave from work or reduce their hours to spend more time at home, they could use the money to fund this instead. Or they could use it to pay a relative or friend who was not registered with Ofsted but did have a personal relationship with their child………………………………………………………..