Last month 10,000 people came to the End Child Poverty rally in Trafalgar square to urge the government to keep the promise to halve child poverty by 2010; the key measure we were demanding was an extra £3 billion in tax credits and benefits for children. Did today’s pre-budget report move us closer to this goal?

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   Filed under: Child poverty, Employment, Inequality, Liveblogging the PBR, Recession, Tax, Welfare | 1 Comment »

I confess that I am a little jaded about demos. Unless you can get turn-outs the size of stop-the-war or the Countryside Alliance no-one takes a great deal of notice. Many seem to consist of a lot of the same people selling newspapers to each other, and are often a bit glum - everyone there is showing their commitment to the cause by doing something that is not much fun. Read more »

   Filed under: Child poverty, Inequality | No Comments »

As the F-Word has highlighted, David Willets is concerned that with so many women going to university men are being prevented from becoming family breadwinners. Apparently the ‘evidence’ shows that when men are “no longer given the opportunity to bring home the bacon” and to command a “decent wage” they are unable to “hold a family together”. Read more »

   Filed under: Child poverty, Inequality, Labour market, Politics | No Comments »

There’s an interesting entry today on Stumbling and Mumbling, looking at the latest Tax Benefit Model Tables. It quite rightly highlights the fact that a single person who leaves Jobseeker’s Allowance for a 16 hours a week job at the minimum wage will be just £8.42 a week better off; if one member of a couple with no children gets the same job they will actually be £6.63 a week worse off. Read more »

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The frustrating thing about this Government is that they sometimes fail to follow through on good intentions with effective policies.  Example: we are still waiting for a clear policy programme to deliver on the 2006 commitment to 100,000 jobs in the green economy let alone the recent commitment to one million green jobs.  Read more »

   Filed under: Child poverty, Energy, Environment, Inequality, Macro-economic policy, Politics, Tax | No Comments »

Chancellor, we all know how fond you are of puppies. This one, for instance. Spot’s such a cute bundles of helplessness, who couldn’t adore him? But if your next Budget doesn’t deliver for children in poverty, Spot certainly won’t be wagging his tail any more …

OK, it isn’t going to happen.

When Alastair Darling starts his speech to Congress I’m not going to leap onto the stage, holding the Andrex puppy hostage.

I guess I just don’t have what it takes to be a proper terrorist.

But I do know that I care about child poverty, more than anything else in politics; care enough to get obsessed. Read more »

   Filed under: Child poverty | 1 Comment »