Anyone else seen this article in Times 2 today and wanted to scream (or possibly lock the journalist concerned in a room until she promises to research her articles properly)?
I am not a mad Lib Dem fan or anything like that, but this poorly researched dirge is really getting me down. I mean:
"we shouldn?t really be surprised that the leader of the Liberal Democrats has rubbished the authoritarian care regime that Ford espouses. What is more telling is his conviction that all parents come ready equipped with a parental instinct that makes child-rearing a natural, rewarding and effortless experience."
Where exactly did Clegg (or others who don't follow Gina) say that having some form of parental instinct is the same as child rearing being an effortless experience?
She then goes on to talk about the assumption of a universal motherly instinct being unfair. Well, where did he say that either? All he said was that he had some and he felt it was being subcontracted.
Finally, what got me really was the flippant sign off: "My feeling is that, as a busy politician, Clegg?s reclamation of his own parental instincts will amount to changing the odd nappy, scraping baby puke off his lapels before PMQ and indulging in the peculiar fatherly phenomenon of throwing his offspring repeatedly in the air. To be honest, he betrayed his ignorance when he compared the Contented routines to sticking babies in broom cupboards."
Firstly, who is she to bloody judge how he shares parenting with his wife (who, by the way, is a respected lawyer, not a stay at home mum, so I suspect he shoulders more than she thinks. I doubt her model is workable if you both work). Secondly, the whole issue came up in the original interview because he had been up three times in the night with his 10 months old son and he explained that he and his wife take turns with that.
Argh, argh, argh