If you want to understand what 14 years of Conservative rule has done to this country, look no further than Baby Aid in Birmingham. Run out of an unused room in a church, the charity is the kind of service that – once a rarity – has become common in almost every town and city over the past decade, bleeding into community centres, mosques and village halls.
Like a food bank, Baby Aid fills in the cracks where the welfare state once stood. Referred by a support worker or midwife and delivered by a team of volunteers, parents of young children in crisis are given essentials: from clothes for toddlers to Moses baskets for newborns who have nowhere to sleep.
