Having recently had a pop at Labour ( Oi,Blunkett - NO! on 22/9/03) and the Liberal Democrats ( Remember What you're There For on 19/9/03 ) it's now time to turn my attention to the Conservatives...
David Willetts, the shadow work and pensions secretary, is worried that rising numbers of older people will have an adverse affect on economic gowth over the next half-century. See here for the full story.
This is a certainly going to be a problem which requires some consideration and, of course, Mr Willetts has an answer: he feels that we should have more children - presumably to supply a new generation of worker drones, whose purpose in life I must assume will be to support this "demographic timebomb" of a steadily ageing population.
The decision over whether or not to have children is for individuals alone to make. It is in no way something for a headline hunting opposition politician to pronounce upon. Mr Willetts may well be able to support a large family on his MP's salary, not to mention the rather nice pension arrangements our elected representatives have voted for themselves, but many of us do not have the same amount of fiscal support...
For the record, Mr Willetts, my wife and I neither have, nor want, any children ...