This policy will be popular because FREE STUFF but it is symptomatic of the country's downward spiral. 🧵 bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
Childcare costs are extraordinarily high in the UK and have risen enormously since the 1990s. Why? Are the staff highly paid? No. Do nurseries make massive profits? Not really. 
What's happened is the government has broken the market with subsidies, regulation and feel-good policies.
If it moves, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidise it.
One of the biggest issues that raises costs is the child to staff ratio. No country is stricter than the UK on this for kids under 3 (the ones Hunt is going to subsidise today).
Supporters of these regulations would argue that they are essential for health and safety, but the rest off the world doesn't seem to agree, including the not-notably-anarchistic countries of Denmark and Sweden.
Rather than take on a handful of special interest groups and fix these problems, the government is going to borrow some money to subsidise a failed system. Many such cases! #manageddecline papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
The BBC quotes a pressure group kicking off about the possibility of bringing the English staff-child ratio in line with... Scotland!
If you know how these things work, you won't be surprised to hear that the BBC doesn't quote anything who supports this modest reform and the pressure group in question is heavily funded by the government. …of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search…
I’ve written about this here 👇 capx.co/why-more-free-…
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