Hey Tony - leave them kids alone!

The current government has taken the nanny state to new levels in the UK and now it is taking the term quite literally. Its latest piece of interfering is with the development of our young children - after all nanny knows best. The Guardian reports that every nursery, child minder and reception class in Britain will have to monitor children's progress towards a set of 69 government-set "early learning goals", recording them against more than 500 development milestones as they go. 500 milestones!?

Leave the poor children alone! Children develop at all different rates and by having stringent rules about when they should be playing with their toes or dancing to music is only going to cause strain on parents and the children themselves. What happens if they fail a test - do they get taken out of society? Margaret Morrissey of the NCPTA said: "I think it's really sad that we have reached the point now where instead of reducing children's stress we have increased it ... It worries me that we are expecting children to reach these targets when they have not even had their first birthday." Anne McIntosh, shadow minister for children, said "It is inappropriate to have such detailed inspection of children this young. We should leave it to the professional judgement of teachers. These new targets mark an unprecedented supervision of children from birth to primary school, and I do not think that they are necessary or will work. Every child is different and develops at different stages in different ways."

Does the government not trust parents or nursery teachers to look after their children any more? If it was down to straight choice between a professional nursery teacher and Tony Blair to look after my kids, I know who I'd choose. The government is taking intrusion in our lives to new levels and it's got to stop. Hey Tony - leave them kids alone!