Back to the 40s

So the government is going to keep schools open from dawn till dusk.

Over at Not Proud of Britain Snafu makes the point that if there was a demand for this kind of service it would already be provided by the private sector. The problem is that there is a demand and it is already being met by the private sector through small businesses called "childminders". As a caller on the FiveLive phonein this morning pointed out all of these people will be put out of business by this idea.

The similarities between what is likely to happen and what happened when the state became involved in schooling in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are clear. By providing childcare free at the point of consumption the state will be able to enforce a monopoly and the quality of provision will fall.

What we are seeing is a policy of back to the 40s - wholesale nationalisation of an industry by the back door.