During the Blair years, New Labour has given the appearance of abandoning old-fashioned socialism. Embracing the language of the free market, acknowledging the importance of choice and talking of the need to “personalise” public services, it has put on a good show of being a modern, post-Thatcher government of the centre ground. Yet under the skin, this Government’s socialist heart beats strong. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its programme for raising children, a programme which displays a remarkable confidence in the ability of the state to regulate the lives of its citizens and to control their destinies.