Ed Miliband's curious failure to register as the father of his first child is surprising in all sorts of ways.
"Too busy" is just not plausible - we know this guy is ambitious, but no-one is so preoccupied with ascending the political ladder with that he can't find time to carry out this basic token of parental commitment. Or is he?
His partner Justine Thornton took the decision to register the birth alone- yet presumably she was quite busy too, having recently given birth?
And it certainly throws a whole new light on the statistics about sole registration - previously assumed to be the preserve of single mothers wanting no further contact with the father of the child. Certainly that was the assumption underlying the 2009 Welfare Reform Act, passed by the government in which Ed Miliband served, which aimed to end the practice of sole registration. Requiring parents to register jointly unless "impossible, impractical or unreasonable", the intention of the 2009 law was to promote the child’s best interests by ensuring that all fathers took responsibility for their offspring.
As Miliband's colleague Ed Balls explained at the time, putting your name on your child's birth certificate is an important part of that responsibility. Most of us assumed the legislation’s purpose was to stem the rise in welfare dependent mums and deadbeat dads. But maybe it was also about reminding career-obsessed left-wing politicians that there are some things in life for which "too busy" is not an acceptable excuse?
