UK: The state is the worst wicked stepmother of all.

What a fantastically stupid idea, I thought, reading the paper this morning. . . .

‘Parents who fail to show love and affection towards their children could be sent to prison for up to 10 years under a “Cinderella Law” to be announced in the Queen’s Speech in June, according to a report.

‘The move will make “emotional cruelty” a criminal offence for the first time. . . .

The new law gives an indirect hint at its target in the name; children are far more at risk of being abused by non-biological parents . . .

The number of children raised without one of their parents has increased sharply in recent years, partly due to changing sexual mores but also the involvement of the state itself; the largest increase in non-marital births came after the 1977 Homeless Persons Act gave lone mothers priority on housing lists.

The Tory MP behind this proposal wrote, ‘The sad truth is that, until now, the Wicked Stepmother would have got away scot-free.’ Possibly, but there would not have been so many wicked stepmothers, or stepfathers, or mother’s current boyfriends, without the state in the first place.