Winning calls for baby tax breaks

Cardinal Winning criticised government abortion policy

Couples should be given tax breaks to encourage them to have children, according to the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland.

Cardinal Thomas Winning said incentives were needed to halt the decline in Scotland's population.

And he attacked the government's policy on contraception and abortion, which he said would add to the problem.

Last year Scotland recorded the biggest natural decrease in population since records began.

We need to find a way of allowing young couples to see children as a gift, not a burden

Cardinal Thomas Winning

Writing in the Sunday Herald, Cardinal Winning warned that there will not be enough workers to support an ageing population in years to come unless more children are born now.

He said modern couples believed they could not afford to have families.

"We need to find a way of allowing young couples to see children as a gift, not a burden," he wrote.

"I would like to see a new dialogue between politicians, academics, the Church and families to find the best way forward."

He claimed that practical encouragement was needed to change that mentality.

'Think the unthinkable'

"That may mean new and imaginative consideration of the tax regime; a more family friendly approach to childcare, perhaps with more generous allowances being offered to mothers who choose to stay at home and look after their pre-school children.

"I feel we need, in the words of Prime Minister Tony Blair on another occasion, to 'think the unthinkable' on this issue.

"We need to open our minds to the very real threat of a declining population and be imaginative in our response."

He called on Britain to follow the lead of other European countries rather than "wallow in blissful ignorance".

He wrote: "In France the state has recognised the problem by offering tax breaks to families with children.

"In Norway, the government has introduced generous grants to women who have children and choose to stay at home to care for their offspring up until school age.

Falling population

"I think it is important that, in this country, we realise that we are not immune from the dangers of falling birth rates."

Cardinal Winning also called on the government to develop more relaxed immigration policies to make up for the falling Scottish population.

He said politicians should stop regarding the issue as a "threat or a problem".

But he acknowledged that immigration was not the whole answer and said it would be "extremely unjust" for the developed world to deprive poorer countries of their finest resource - their best educated people.

"Instead, we need to look at long-term measures that will make the birth of children an attractive option for parents," he said.

"That means changing a culture of death into a culture of life.

"It means developing a radically sane view of new life, not as something to be avoided like the plague through contraception, sterilisation and abortion but as something to be treasured and valued."