Your duty to make babies

We've gone from baby boom to baby bust, says Willetts

Every woman should do her duty and produce more babies to boost the British economy.

That's the startlingly personal message from a leading Conservative politician, David Willetts.

He's likely to say in a speech today that we must have more children, to counteract the effects of an aging population.

If we don't, he argues, Europe will go into economic decline over the next half century, as a dwindling band of young people struggles to look after its elders.

So: why aren't we having enough babies?

We debated the "birth dearth" with lawyer and mother of two Sue Fanning and population expert Kate Stanley.

Mr Willetts will say in a speech on Tuesday this is not about saying a woman's place is in the home.

But the Family Planning Association (FPA) has reacted in anger saying no amount of Conservative "exhortation" would dictate choices by couples.

Mr Willetts is expected to say a higher life expectancy is good news.

"These are not extra years of miserable incapacity; if anything we die fitter than before.

"The problem is that there are not enough young workers coming along behind," he will say.

He will say that after the baby boom of the 1950s, Europe has suffered a baby bust.

The speech in London is to launch a pamphlet for the Centre for European Reform called Old Europe? Demographic Change and Pensions Reform.

He will argue the European Union years will see in the next half-century an extra 40 million people aged over 60 and an absolute reduction of 40 million in those aged 15-60.

Migration could help solve the problem, but another solution would be to have more babies.

"Europe faces a birth dearth. Nobody wants to force women to have more children than they wish.

"But we have created an environment in which people are having fewer children than they aspire to.

"This is not - emphatically not - a statement that a woman's place is in the home.

"It is societies where women - and men - can combine work and children that have higher birth rates".

But he will call for a family-friendly policy that will allow people to have the number of children they want.

He'll also call for better childcare and cheaper housing, as part of the process.

What do you make of David Willetts' ideas? Email us with your views