David Oliver: Taking carers for granted.

David Mowat, the health minister, raised a few eyebrows earlier this year when he said that people had the same duty to look after their ageing parents as they did to look after their children. Mowat, who was giving evidence to the communities and local government select committee, acknowledged the current problems in the care system and its future sustainability. He then added, “No one ever questions that we look after our children—that is obvious. No one says that is a caring responsibility, it is what we do. “Some of that logic and some of the way we think about that . . . will have to impinge on the way that we think about caring for our parents. Because it is a responsibility in terms of our life cycle which is similar.” Mowat isn’t the first politician or commentator to make this kind of plea. The health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said in 2013 that we should “adopt the Asian culture of caring for the elderly.” Yet, even in countries such as China and Japan, urbanisation, falling birth rates, increasing longevity, changing gender roles, and working lives mean that Hunt’s stereotype decreasingly holds true. 4