Status Anxiety Paternity leave, no — immigrant nannies, yes!

I appeared on Radio 4’s PM programme earlier this week as a token male chauvinist pig. The issue under discussion was the government’s proposal to make it possible for fathers to take up to six months’ paternity leave. I argued this was bad news for dads since it means we’ll no longer have a much-needed excuse for going back to work the moment there’s a newborn in the house.

I wondered beforehand whether my opponent would be a harridan feminist or a wet man and the answer was a wet man: Rob Williams, chief executive of something called the ‘Fatherhood Institute’. He wasn’t in the studio, so I couldn’t tell whether he was wearing a pinny, but he didn’t sound particularly red-blooded. When I said most men had no aptitude for looking after babies he drew my attention to a recent survey of young men which asked whether newborns should primarily be the responsibility of the mother.