NOW WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE.

The issue I'm having with Arcs though is trying to wrangle interest together for the third (final) game of the campaign, because there's such an obvious route to victory for one player and the only way to stop them runs counter to my victory condition. Planet Breaker versus Pacifist feels rough.

Giving yet more government money to the nursery operators needs to come with some strings attached, especially if you're a Labour government. Instead of it just being yet more money for the operators, demand it goes towards paying higher wages for the people doing the work.

It also makes it harder to retain staff, because if the only thing that's going for it is making it affordable to put your child in a nursery, as soon as that child leaves for school, odds are good that parent - usually a mum - is going as well.

But there's perks, of course. Beyond trying to frame the bare legal minimum wage and holidays as "benefits", the main benefit they offer is a discount on nursery places for your child. This is a benefit because it means they're effectively paying you less, and you couldn't afford a place without it.

At one company function, our CEO (on a six figure salary) said during a speech to the company that one of her biggest concerns was that minimum wage was going up. Funnily enough, the people in the room - all fucking tired, all underpaid - didn't find that particularly motivating.

You can't ask for qualified, dedicated early years staff and pay them minimum wage. I worked at one preschool for a while that lost most of their staff to the nearby supermarket as you'd get better pay with less responsibility.

The sector (usually through the "Early Years Alliance", an industry group representing the large chains of nursery operators) rightly point out they've got staffing problems, but none of the additional funding they're getting from the government is going towards fixing that.

mistakes were made abort abort abort

Went out for drinks afterwards and learned an important lesson. Just because "Old Fashioned" is the only cocktail on the menu my unsophisticated sheep idiot brain recognises does not mean I actually like them.

Spent the rest of the evening drinking hilariously sweet sugary things instead.