The cry should go up in Europe: more babies, please -Times Online

Europe needs more babies – the average continental family has a mere 1.37 children. Cutting back non-EU immigration to limit pressure on housing stock would help. So would state cash handouts. In Portugal, where the birthrate has fallen to 1.7 children per couple, the Government has considered giving tax breaks to people who have more than two children and levying higher taxes on those who have fewer. Germany is similarly concerned – it could lose the equivalent of the population of the former East Germany within 50 years. Russia's population is contracting at the rate of three quarters of a million a year: the resourceful Mr Putin is paying mothers to have a second child. The last thing we should be doing is bullying people to breed less.