No looking back!

Read Polly Toynbee on the 60s: a time of liberation and enlightenment. Excellent stuff.

In the meantime, it's heartening to see the Labour government putting forward a truly radical, revolutionary proposal - the concept of providing universal childcare is a staggering one, and the government intends to open schools from 8am to 6pm and charge a top-up fee for the service. Payments for the out of school hours provision would be means-tested, with affluent parents paying up to £80 a week while others would receive the service for free. A ministerial source apparently says

"This is one of our big ideas for the third term. Real legacy stuff. We are determined not to compromise on quality. Someone with a teaching qualification will be on hand all the time".

Teachers, perhaps understandably, are voicing concerns - yet if the government can make adequate provision we'd actually be witnessing that rarest of things - a labour government acting like a labour government.

On the other hand.... Jack Straw didn't know either. Gosh, I really feel good about putting my trust in this people...