I opened the Times (London not NY) to find that David Cameron, the Conservative party’s candidate for Prime Minister, is about to become a father again. This led to the cute headline that his wife, Samantha, known as SamCam, is “moving toward Labour,” which of course is the British liberal party. Nice pun.

But the really interesting piece was a serious discussion of whether, if elected in the fall polls, David will take paid paternity pay, which is his right. Apparently, even Tony Blair took a paltry (by British standards) two weeks paid leave when he was prime minister, appointing someone else to hold the fort while he bonded with his family.

Can you imagine an American politician taking paternity leave – paid no less – right after winning the White House? “Sorry folks, I have to take the 4AM feeding, the world will have to wait.” The UK seems just a little bit more civilized than my own nation every day I am here, as things which would be anathema at home are a matter of course in Britain.

In another article, lauding Obama’s health reform success and trying to explain to a British reader just how strong opposition to it is, the paper writes “Europeans may struggle to grasp how health insurance subsidies could be seen as an assault on freedom. . .but they are part of a battle for the soul of America.”

As I continue my sojourn in the UK, I learned an interesting fact about the nonprofit sector here: There is a national government department devoted to “third sector affairs.” Even more amazing, this entity has created a multi-million pound fund to support capacity building among the nation’s 200,000 charities.

When I heard this today, from colleagues at a meeting, the only thing I could think to say was, “My God, it sounds like socialism!” When the laughter died down, I discovered that my work here, with UK organizations ACEVO and Capacity Builders, is being financed out of this fund. I always did love socialism.

Seriously, it is inconceivable that America would allow its government to take such an active role in supporting a large portion of the nonprofit sector economy, or is it? Until recently, it was equally inconceivable that our government would bail out the private sector’s financial institutions.

The closest thing the US has to this arrangement is the IRS oversight function. But that is really a policing responsibility, ensuring our sector is obeying the law. There is no unified federal (or state for that matter) effort to ensure the health of our nonprofits.