Mr Cameron has a lot of competition. Leo Blair was the first child born to a serving prime minister in more than 150 years. His dad said he likes to be home in the early evening to see the children and that teenagers have a knack of puncturing prime ministerial vanities. Under Alastair Campbell’s tutelage he developed the technique of keeping his family private while exploiting them politically (remember the Downing Street mug emblazoned with a photograph of his children).
Gordon Brown, a father late in life, is also muscling in on the act. He has told interviewers how much the arrival of his son has changed his life and his outlook. There is another baby on the way. Fatherhood appears to be the new symbol of political virility. The chancellor’s friends say he takes great pleasure in reading Thomas the Tank Engine stories out loud, including the noises, although if the aim is to get the baby to sleep one of his budget speeches might do better.
What is it with all this competitive parenting by politicians? The late Sir Nicholas Ridley, when asked about a succession of Tory cabinet ministers resigning “to spend more time with my family”, said that the last thing he wanted to do was spend more time with his family.
No doubt many fathers long for the days when domestic duties were confined to being home in time for dinner and putting a shirt in the laundry basket. Teaching sons to fish with a bent pin or to skin a rabbit was one thing, as set out in the nostalgic Dangerous Book for Boys that we discuss in News Review. But as for “parenting”, forget it.
These days fathers are more likely to spend their spare time doing school coursework or struggling with the instructions of an Xbox, than engaging their offspring in manly pursuits. When politicians are competing to show what good fathers they are, what hope is there for the ordinary dad hoping to put his feet up with the newspaper?
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The real issue about politicians as fathers is not whether they read stories but what they do. One of Mr Cameron’s first commitments was to reintroduce tax relief for married couples as a way of strengthening the family. The married couples’ allowance was abolished by the chancellor, who instead has doled out help for children — including his flawed tax credits — but done nothing to incentivise stable family relationships.
The Tory leader is surely right when he says that good parenthood and functioning families are the best way of ensuring that British society is not blighted by high crime and antisocial behaviour. If he can pull that off, it will not just be fathers who are grateful.