Cameron clings to nurse for fear of Conway

There was an interesting lead story in the Observer yesterday about the Tories proposing nurses to be allocated to spend up to six hours a day with mothers for the first week post-birth.

For some time, I suspect this policy has been sitting in David Cameron's office marked "In case of emergency break wind". It could be called the ABC ruse - Anything but Conway. And oh yes, something very nanny statist and touch-feely further smashes the paradigm of the Tories being those nasty "no such thing as society" people.

And, my goodness me, look at the tasks the nurse would do:

· Showing after older children and making sure healthy meals are provided;
· Looking after older children and making sure healthy meals are provided;
· Taking care of laundry and light household cleaning;
· Monitoring visitors to the mother's home to ensure that rest times are not interrupted;

That's Grandma's job!!! Yes, this is literally "nanny state" which is why Cameron likes it - paradigm bashing and Conway off-the-agenda-shoving (he hopes).

And, as Liberal Bureaucracy points out, trying to recruit thousands of nurses will end up increasing immigration - which a lot of Tories don't want.

And, you have to say: The Observer - what a load of supine ninnies to put this on your front page when you had Conway, Winterton et al to devastate!

Having said all that, though, it's not a bad idea - as long as it is optional. If parents have a grandparent or grandparents available then this is what grandparents are for. If not, then having a nurse present helps put parents on the right lines, hopefully dissolves a few of those awful first week crises and perhaps helps to reduce, minimise or at least spot early, cases of post-natal depression.

However, I suspect there a lot of better things the Tories could spend lots of money on to ease deprivation, which this is meant to do. But it is a very effective way of achieving the actual purpose of the policy - to send Conway to the inner pages of the Observer.