My harsh conclusions on Labour’s delivered return on our massively increased taxes (here), are in some way vindicated by the news that: -
Labour [is] ‘failing working parents’
Government efforts to tackle child poverty have “forgotten” to help poor parents who work, a think tank says.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says 1.4m children in Britain live in poverty despite having at least one working parent.
Since 1997 Labour has lifted 600,000 children out of poverty, but the number from working families has stayed the same, the IPPR says.
In 1999, Labour vowed to eradicate child poverty altogether by 2020.
The IPPR says the government is failing to reward those parents who get jobs in favour of those who do not work.
And its report says the benefits system offers little incentive for a second parent to get a job.
Labour had ambitious and honourable plans to quash poverty (in fairness, poverty is always relative, and indeed much has been done), but this ultimate failure is again indicative of a government that theorises and legislates but doesn’t manage. The fecklessness of many ministers, and the sheer ineptitude of many departments (not to mention a multitude of scandals), has lead to an overall appearance of institutional stagnation.
I’m not happy about Labour’s 3rd-term performance. I wanted to see them deliver. And to claim my criticisms are the result of a desire to join the Lib Dems is piss-weak, and utterly lacking in any sense of self-awareness.
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