The House of Commons isn't a Creche

 Hi All, 

Stella Creasy is yet again making news with the idea that she should be able to  take her 13 week old baby into the House Of Commons Creche, Chamber; having been told she couldn't she has now been told she can, if the chair of the day agrees to it. Creasy didn't like this suggestion. 

But why should this nonsense be entertained in the first place : the House is our legislature, debating chamber and national platform for ideas and policy: the place wherein the government of the day is called to account for what it does and doesn't do. It is not a creche and it is not a 'normal' workplace, if there is anything such as normal workplace. I don't think anyone, for example, would agree that you could take a child into a mine, if you were a miner. Or if you were a soldier to take your child into combat.

Creasy's counter to this is the usual thing about  having pay for child care, which is a good point and welcome to the real world. I know several mums who  are middle-class and want 'it all' i.e. career continuation  and 2.4 children, a 4 by 4 and 2 holidays one abroad, one at the holiday cottage, with £2,000 wigs and the like. These 'types' actually spend most of their money on child care and seem quite bitter & think like Creasy the state should either force businesses to have creche's or to pay for childcare so they don't have to make difficult choices about what they want to do in life. The other mums I know go to work because they have NO CHOICE, either because they can barely keep a roof over their head (even with a partner/spouse/husband also earning) and also have to pay child care costs, but don't moan about it, as they'd love not to be working in Primark, Tesco and the Pub. 

I really have no time for this idea, because whilst being a politician is work and they have a working environment, to my mind this is like suggesting clergy have 'a job' and not a calling for leadership in the community which goes well beyond a usual 9-5: politicians don't of course work 9-5 and this is part of the deal and it is a deal almost every politician knows they're getting. Yes they are seemingly either a work in the chamber, in their constituencies and having to do tv anytime, but that's part of the MP's role.  They get £80,000 a year, plus expenses and expenses which enable you to own a house in London and a house in your constituency (which is a brilliant retirement pot right there), plus 100% final salary pension  and as for the work place you have subsidized bars, pubs and restaurants wherein the prices are the same as a student common room £3 a pint , compared to almost £10 pint in central London. If they loose their seats or retire, then boardrooms beckon, not just in the private sector, but also in the multiple QUANGOS and other government agencies.