Making us look like misers

The Alliance's great policy achievement when in coalition between 1999 and 2002 was the introduction of 12 weeks paid parental leave - a policy achievement they had to drag out of a Labour party which was desperately trying not to scare the business lobby. Since then, Labour has announced a moderate expansion of the scheme, cutting the qualifying time from one year to six months and gradually extending the period to 14 weeks (the first increase kicks in on wednesday).

Meanwhile, in Britain, the Blair government is making us look like misers, extending their paid parental leave scheme from six months to one year...