Jim Murphy’s blog
Pleased to discover that there is a new blog about the governing issue I feel most strongly about - ending child poverty. Jim Murphy, the minister for employment and welfare reform, started this blog at the DWP in October. As you may recall, I was impressed by his commitment to the issue at party conference.
Good luck to Mr. Murphy.
After nearly 10 years of Labour, Britain still has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the industrialised world.
Labour canvassers normally come out with a stock answer on this: “we have lifted X amount out of poverty is 1997″. Not sure what figure gets bandied about: 700,000, something like that.
All fine and dandy, but its not the figure that counts. What counts is the overall rate - and that remains high. And you won’t get that figure cited by Labour people!
Official figures for child poverty include children not “able to invite friends to tea once a fortnight.”
What, like the children of working parents who use after school clubs and the like?
The problem is that relativist concepts are increasingly becoming irrelevant as our society generally (thanks in no small part to the Labour government) becomes wealthier.
Sometimes absolutes are more useful.
Sometimes absolutes are more useful.
Certainly are if you’re a Labour Party supporter. If you don’t like the figures - just change the method of calculation!
But when the Tories get in, suddenly there will be no complaints about the relative definition used.
And it begs the question, if it’s so difficult to reduce child poverty because of the relative definition used, how come civilised countries have much lower rates of relative child poverty? Strange that.
Not only that, if British society is getting so much richer under Labour, and relative rates of child poverty remain high, then inequality is still rife and widening: labour’s failure.
Indeed. The fundamental failure of this Labour government (as well as Iraq).