Well, it was from his office, & anyone can read it here.
I had signed the petition about childminding between friends, partly because in my confused way I thought that participating in the political process in this manner might do a bit to make up for not voting in the recent elections! Partly because I just felt like giving the government a poke.
In fairness (though why be fair? – to use a classic Whitehall phrase) I do know that ‘rewards’ cause all sorts of problems – may be used to avoid the payment of taxes or in other attempts to get round regulations. The government may be ultimately at the mercy of the judges on this one.
What intrigues me about the wording of the response to the petition is the innocently wounded bewilderment:
“our intention has always been that friends and families caring for children through informal arrangements should be exempt from having to register and we believed that was what always happened”
& the way that they sound almost subservient to Ofsted, an agency of government:
“we are talking to Ofsted about how we can make sure there’s a shared understanding”
Perhaps there is an institutional memory of what happened to Michael Howard when he was accused of overriding another government agent.
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