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What will talk radio have us raging about this morning? Today’s agenda is “useless parents” who “can’t be bothered” to educate their kids and it not being the job of the state to teach children basic life skills.

But, of course, this is nonsense. What are Health Visitors for, if not to help orientate new parents in this challenging phase of their lives? What were Sure Start centres for, if not providing guidance on parenting and family health?

This was precisely the role of the state, up until a government-in-waiting envisioned the idea of a Big Society, in which the third sector would take on the welfare needs of communities, enabling it to preside over fifteen years of deep cuts to social welfare once in power.

Parenting is hard at the best of times. What happens if you throw in a mix of poverty, food insecurity, unaffordable housing, recruitment crises in health and social care, cuts to children’s services, and complex intergenerational psychologies?

I suppose the answer is too complex for the talk radio, first thing on a frosty morning. So let’s just sneer at “useless parents” who “can’t be bothered” instead.