2) Totally agree. But none of the parties are will to talk about how they want it to work. If they were to come out and say "Look, if you earn less than £2k per month after tax then frankly it's not economically viable to pay someone else to look after your kids." then people would know where they stand, and we could have a discussion about what makes sense. But the total fear of pissing off even 1 person means that they don't say anything, and tinker around the edges in pointless ways.