SARAH VINE: Being able to afford a family is now turning into a luxury

SARAH VINE: Sadly, being able to afford a family is now turning into a luxury

For years now the slow but steady decline in Western birth rates has been blamed on selfish women in pursuit of ‘having it all’.

In our eagerness to indulge our own ambitions, the thinking goes, we ignore our biological clock – with dire consequences both for ourselves and society.

The price for freedom and self-fulfilment (or punishment for our vanity, depending on your point of view) is infertility and IVF. 

The judgmentalism that surrounds older mothers – or those who don’t want children at all – is astonishing and antediluvian.

Even now they are considered an abomination, an affront to the correct order of things. 

I’ll never forget a friend of mine being told she was acting in wilful defiance of her ‘biological imperative’. Hard to imagine anyone ever saying that to a man.

For years now the slow but steady decline in Western birth rates has been blamed on selfish women in pursuit of ‘having it all’. In our eagerness to indulge our own ambitions, the thinking goes, we ignore our biological clock – with dire consequences both for ourselves and society. (File photo)

Anyway, the point is that, like it or not, having children is now a choice for a woman. 

It’s easy to forget that for my mother’s generation – and all those who came before – it was not.

Which is why the past 50 or so years have been so seismic. Women have obtained control over their bodies and their lives. Hence the declining birth rate.

As my mother once said to me, years ago, ‘If people thought for more than 30 seconds about having children, Sarah, the human race would grind to a halt.’ 

She had a point.

This week marked a new twist in this ongoing saga. The latest figures show that more than half of women now remain childless at the age of 30 – the first time that has happened since records began. 

Not only that, but the overall drop in births is not where you would expect it to be – that is to say, among ambitious career-class women.

On the contrary, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that from 2011 to 2019 the share of births to women in ‘higher managerial, administrative and professional’ occupations grew from 45.2 to 49.3 per cent.

For the past two decades the things that families need – an affordable house, childcare, food, decent education – have been drifting steadily further out of the reach of ordinary people. (File photo)

No, it’s among those on lower incomes, unemployed or with poor employment prospects where the decline is steepest – with their share of births falling from 25.9 to 23.1 per cent. 

What this shows, I think, is that it’s less about women not wanting children – and more about simply not being in a position to afford them. 

The truth is that for the past two decades the things that families need – an affordable house, childcare, food, decent education – have been drifting steadily further out of the reach of ordinary people.

The average house price in the UK is now £270,000. And yet the average annual salary is just under £40,000. 

Most young people haven’t a hope of getting on the housing ladder, and even if they do they’ll need two sets of wages to stay there. 

The model of a two-parent family where one person works and the other raises the next generation is increasingly unsustainable.

Even I, with my well-paid job and plenty of advantages, spent pretty much all of my salary – after tax and National Insurance – on childcare during the early years of my children’s lives. 

The model of a two-parent family where one person works and the other raises the next generation is increasingly unsustainable. (File photo)

I did it because I enjoyed working, and also because I was worried that if I dropped out of the workforce, I would never get back in. But if I found it tight, God only knows how most people cope.

And things have become much worse since I was having babies. I’m no socialist, but so much of the support that used to be offered to young families has been withdrawn. Increasingly, it seems to me, being able to afford a family has become a luxury.

So yes, women are having fewer children, and later on in life. 

But I don’t think it’s always for ‘selfish’ reasons, rather a practical response to the financial restrictions imposed upon them by a cost of living crisis that only seems to be deepening.

If policymakers are worried about a dearth of future taxpayers to prop up an ageing society, they need to stop being so short-sighted – and address the soaring cost of family life in the here and now. Otherwise we’ll all end up paying the price.

I was cheered by the story of an 84-year-old stopped by the police who was found to have been driving without a licence since the age of 12.

Very naughty of him, of course, but nonetheless encouraging to think that in our 24-hour surveillance society there are still some rebellious souls who manage to slip through the cracks.

Come off it, Adele 

Adele, darling, you are a wonderfully talented young woman. You are one of the highest-paid artists on the planet. 

You deservedly enjoy all the trappings of a diva lifestyle. If it’s all getting a bit much, fair enough: take a break. 

But enough with this, ‘don’t blame me, I’m just a poor girl from Norf London’, nonsense. It’s not fooling anyone.

Adele, enough with this, ‘don’t blame me, I’m just a poor girl from Norf London’, nonsense

On one hand, the nation’s vets are telling us almost half of Britain’s cats are obese and at risk of diabetes. 

On the other, fanatics at animal rights group PETA are calling for a ban on cat-flaps to stop our feline friends killing birds. 

Cats have been around for several millennia. I really don’t think they need stupid humans to tell them what to do. 

Hiking National Insurance contributions to find an extra £12 billion for the NHS is the kind of thing I would expect from a government led by Jeremy Corbyn, not Boris Johnson.

The truth about the NHS is that it is a sprawling organisation in desperate need of restructuring – and has been for years.

The waste in the system is horrendous, as any responsible medic will tell you.

The Conservatives are supposed to be the party of fiscal competence. This is the precise opposite.

Is this feminism, Jacinda? 

You might have thought a proud feminist like Jacinda Ardern, Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand, would be outraged at the thought of a fellow countrywoman, TV reporter Charlotte Bellis, being stranded – pregnant and alone – in Taliban- controlled Afghanistan.

But such are Ardern’s draconian Covid regulations that Bellis has been unable to return home. 

You might have thought a proud feminist like Jacinda Ardern, Labour Prime Minister of New Zealand, would be outraged at the thought of a fellow countrywoman, TV reporter Charlotte Bellis (above), being stranded – pregnant and alone – in Taliban- controlled Afghanistan

Despite submitting 59 documents, she now faces giving birth alone in a country where being pregnant out of wedlock – Ms Bellis is in a long-term relationship, but not married – can have very unpleasant consequences. 

Seems that the sisterhood is all very well and good when it suits Ardern, but threaten her iron grip on her poor citizens and you’re on your own, love.

The sombre-sounding Discrimination Law Association (they must be super fun at a party) have called for the menopause to be reclassified as a ‘protected characteristic’. 

Seriously? It’s bad enough finding work as a woman over 50. 

Turning us into a legal liability would be the final nail in the coffin.

Hero of the week: Neil Young, for standing up to streaming giant Spotify over its decision to allow podcaster Joe Rogan free rein to spread baseless conspiracy theories about Covid-19. 

Rogan is a frighteningly plausible broadcaster with a huge following, especially among the young and gullible (my 18-year-old and her friends are avid listeners). 

But just because someone is charming and engaging doesn’t mean they are right. 

Hero of the week: Neil Young (above), for standing up to streaming giant Spotify over its decision to allow podcaster Joe Rogan free rein to spread baseless conspiracy theories about Covid-19

Indeed, earlier this month a group of 270 US doctors, scientists and healthcare professionals dubbed Rogan ‘a menace to public health’. 

Rogan clearly brings in the big bucks for Spotify, but not everything is about money – something that Young has always understood. Seventy-six, and still sticking it to the Man. Respect. 

‘Little boy’ destroyed a life 

Angel Lynn, 19, was abducted by her abusive boyfriend, Chay Bowskill, in September 2020 and left permanently brain-damaged after she tried to escape from the back of his van.

Last week he was sentenced to just seven and a half years – out in three – after the judge, Timothy Spencer QC, appeared to agree with the defence’s plea that he was just a ‘little boy in man’s shoes’.

That may be, but it doesn’t give him permission to destroy a young woman’s life. 

Should we conclude that if Bowskill is a ‘little boy in man’s shoes’, then Mr Spencer is a misogynist in judge’s robes?

For the first time in the sorry Prince Andrew/ Virginia Giuffre saga, the Duke has finally done the right thing by asking for a proper trial. 

He needs his day in court, as does Giuffre. 

If he really is innocent of the charges against him, it’s the only way he will ever truly clear his name. Sure, it’s a gamble. But what does he have left to lose?

For the first time in the sorry Prince Andrew/ Virginia Giuffre saga, the Duke has finally done the right thing by asking for a proper trial

The resignation of Lord Agnew, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, over fraudulent Covid loans is a real blow to the Government. 

I’m told his forensic response to sloppiness tormented Civil Service staff… who are presumably thrilled at the prospect of being able to spend more time with their Pelotons. 

Yesterday saw the introduction of new Highway Code rules compelling drivers to give way to cyclists, who are now encouraged to ride two-abreast in the middle of the road. As someone who cycles regularly, I have no objections. 

But now cyclists are on a par with motorists, isn’t it time they paid their way? Road tax raises a whopping £40 billion a year – cyclists don’t contribute a penny. Without it, who would pay for their shiny new cycle lanes? 

Something to think about before we drive all those wicked motorists off the road. 

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