A baby boom won’t solve Britain’s labour shortage

Quite the scoop in yesterday’s Sun. An anonymous cabinet minister has briefed the paper that to secure Britain’s economic future, we need a baby boom. The birth rate has fallen from 2.93 children per woman in 1964 to 1.58 today. We have an ageing population, and a shrinking workforce, and something must be done.

‘We need to have more children,’ says this minister. ‘The rate keeps falling. Look at Hungary – they cut taxes for mothers who have more children.’ And, indeed, they do. In Viktor Orban’s fiefdom you’re let off income tax for life if you manage to squeeze out four or more kids.

There are other precedents besides Hungary. Much has predictably been made on lefty social media of the fact that Nazi Germany had the same idea – Hitler gave you a gold medal if you produced eight babies or more, which must have been quite the incentive.