One of the things that our Nu Labour Lords and Masters are desperate to introduce into this country is universal child care. Essentially, the idea that instead of women looking after their own children, the State should pay other women to do it for them. (This will have an interesting effect on economic growth…think, in reverse, of the old saw that GDP goes down when a man marries his housekeeper.)
Whatever you might think of the basic idea, here is why it will be a disaster in practice:

Nursery teachers have been criticised by government
inspectors for spending too long teaching their pupils to count and
write their names and for not allowing them enough time to "explore
their feelings and thoughts".
In
a report, the school inspection service Ofsted, says that some nursery
teachers are relying too heavily on formal teaching and are not doing
enough to encourage "free play".

Tina Bruce, a visiting professor at London
Metropolitan University, said that the more informal methods advocated
by Ofsted should be encouraged.
It was "madness" to sit nursery pupils at tables and "stop them from learning".

Well, quite. Whether child care outside the home is a good idea or not is one thing, what actually happens within such a system is another. This Ms. Bruce is exactly the sort of highly trained pedagogue that Polly Toynbee tells us should be running the system and she says that actually teaching children something is madness. Just what the f*ck will we be getting for our money?