Blue Labour and Women

I came across this posting on women and Blue Labour, the movement led by Lord Glasman.  The rather abstract nature of the language always makes me suspect things like this.  Using words like "discourse" and "narrative" seems to distance the debate from the everyday, which seems a shame as there is a lot to be said here.

The Tories are toying with abolishing maternity leave.    This is very much in line with David Cameron's actual views, that such regulations are a burden that should be stripped down to a minimum.  This takes little account of how regulations are important to the effective functioning of the market.  Look at what a success the "minimalist" approach turned out to be in regulating the banking sector, for example.

It also throws out all the social benefits that such regulations can have.  Aside from the benefits in terms of greater freedom, these regulations can be seen as a more realistic apportionment of actual costs.  The danger of the minimalist approach is that the costs of (for example) childcare are simply disguised in the informal economy.  We surely need to structure our economy in order to ensure that things that are necessary or desirable can be directly integrated into our model of economic growth, not shunted off the balance sheet.  That means depending on higher productivity and economic growth rather than tax avoidence and a race to the bottom.