…The rising cost of living plays a big part in people deciding whether to have children, and if so how many. Economic shocks, such as the financial crisis of 2008, are another factor. But the reaction of the government to rising living costs – especially housing, childcare and, more recently, social care – plays a bigger part.
This is why the welfare cuts waved through by chancellor Philip Hammond last week were not just another hit to the incomes of the disabled, shocking though that is. They undermined the confidence of middle- and low-income families, most of whom are supported by the state in some way, in the affordability of having children. …
… Japan’s prime minister has spoken of his concern about a falling birth rate made worse by recent figures showing that large numbers of Japanese young people are not even having sex, let alone having children. Again, there has been some limited action, but not nearly enough for women to stop thinking that having a family will bring financial penury, a juddering halt to their career, or both.
In Britain, as elsewhere, one of the emerging barriers is an ageing population that needs extra care. If parents are left to look after the old as well as the young, it is clear they will seek to limit their responsibilities to both. The old, of course, have only themselves to blame. They voted in their hordes for Tory administrations to maintain austerity, and then wonder why social care means virtually no care at all. …
Medical cannabis confiscated from the mother of a severely epileptic child is to be returned after MPs and campaigners criticised the failure to provide adequate access to the potentially lifesaving medicine through the NHS.
Emma Appleby – whose daughter Teagan, 9, suffers from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which can cause up to 300 seizures a day – was “overjoyed” by the decision, but she renewed her criticism of the current system which she said “just isn’t working”.
The family had the medicine prescribed by a paediatric neurologist in the Netherlands but it was seized by Border Force officials on Saturday. They then obtained a private prescription from a specialist consultant in the UK before the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced the £4,500 supply bought with crowdfunded money would be returned on Saturday.
“We’d fought for months to get access to medical cannabis in this country but were blocked at every turn, even though it’s now legal here,” Appleby, from Aylesham near Dover, said. “But overjoyed as I am, my heart goes out to those other families with severely epileptic children who are in the depths of despair.
“Neither I, nor they, should be put through this bureaucratic trauma. The system just isn’t working.”
The government was criticised by MPs on Monday after the confiscation of Appleby’s medicine highlighted the narrow guidelines governing access to cannabis medicines. Campaigners are unaware of a single new NHS prescription for cannabis oils containing significant amounts of THC since legalisation in November. …
