Nick Clegg has promised to champion fathers by starting a revolution in parental leave.
Last year the Lib Dem leader pushed to introduce shared parental leave to the UK, meaning fathers can share up to 52 weeks of parental leave from April 2015, a measure designed to enable both parents to choose to take leave and receive statutory pay at the same time or even take it in alternating blocks.
Now though he's going a step further by pledging that hundreds of thousands of UK civil servants will be entitled to full parental pay from April too. That means all 412,000 civil service employees will be entitled to the benefit so more fathers to spend time looking after new-borns.
The current rules see civil service mothers getting 52 weeks statutory maternity leave and 39 weeks statutory maternity pay, but fathers only have a statutory entitlement to a maximum of two weeks of leave paid at the statutory level.
This new Cleggian plan means civil servant fathers who choose to share parental leave with their partner will get the same entitlements to full paternity pay just like mothers do.
All of which on the face of it seems a fair and logical next step - and one which Mr Clegg admits he wants to use the civil service roll out to promote across all sectors.
We shall see which of these early political Christmas presents turn into a pair of socks come next year of course - but for now it's fascinating to see them being so carefully wrapped and delivered.
