This morning the various news channels, which for me is the Radio 4 Today programme, are buzzing with the information that the next election will be fought on the territory of who will be the best at providing education for our children. Barely hidden behind the faux promises being discussed is the idea that childcare is now too expensive for any of us, unless you happen to be earning the sort of money that Miriam Clegg is paid. This must not be allowed to become a debate that leads to criticism of those who provide our childcare and their supposed greed or even of the child to adult ratio of child minders and in our PreSchools. These debates are a distraction from the real issue of how highly we value the children in society, are we after the cheapest or the most effective form of education. It is one of those strange facts of public debate that our Political Parties can find clever ways of promising us less than their predecessors delivered and then blame us or our neighbours for the gap that opens up in the provision.

About 2 years ago I was heavily focused on the up coming election for Police and Crime Commissioners and had the opportunity to attend a meeting at the House of Commons hosted by a Labour MP Graham Allen. He was launching his plans to establish an Early Intervention Foundation. One of the noticeable elements of the meeting for me was that wearing my Ian4PCC badge, I spoke to Theresa May at the event and she commented on my branding. I offered her a badge if she felt willing to support my campaign (bearing in mind her Government had suggested that this was a role that should not be inhabited by party hacks). However she made it clear that her support would go to the Conservative candidate, once they had worked out how to select one. More importantly the meeting was an opportunity to hear a story of a young man who is currently a resident of one of the nations prisons. A Scottish Police Officer explained how in his early years he had lived in a series of different homes, often rehoused by the same Council in one deprived and dangerous neighbourhood after another. The cost to you and I for housing and attempting to repair the damage caused to this one life, let alone the victims of the many crimes which he has since perpetrated, is unsustainable if allowed to extend to other families. By comparison the cost of improving our housing stock and community management, including the vital role that effective education can provide is both affordable and necessary. Particularly if our objective is to have a society that is supportive and nurturing of all. What is most dispiriting in this mornings ‘policy’ debate is that this is not about our children and their needs, or even the qualitative differences between different types of early years education, but it is about the difference between Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem policies, all of which should be designed to build on the best of the past and only change what needs amending. However these three competing political parties are still using the techniques from the slash and burn school of policy design, which was short-sighted when the economy was in surplus and growth, but is lacking any credibility now that we are part way through a period of deep austerity.