Pustulent Pustules

Thank you Mr Bell for getting Dungcan Smith spot on! -  -  - geddit?

“One of the good things Labour did between 1997 and 2010 was a serious campaign to eliminate child poverty in Britain. Targeted benefits and support for the poorest families were provided.

In 1997 26 per cent of Britain's children were living in poverty. By 2010, that was 17 per cent, and it was on a trajectory that would have reduced that to 10 per cent by 2022.

But there was a stark change in the graph as soon as the Tory-Lib Dem coalition took power. The child poverty rate rose immediately. It's now at 21 per cent and is set to rise to 25 per cent by 2017.

The effects of poverty on health are obvious. Studies by the Zacchaeus 2000 Trust show that in one of London's poorest boroughs, Tottenham, the number of children born with low birth weight was 12.5 per cent, compared with a national average of 7.5 per cent. In healthier countries it is lower - for example it stands at 3.8 per cent in Iceland.

Low birth weight often leads to further problems in later childhood and has been linked to underachievement in education.

So the benefits cap will keep child poverty rising. Who else is affected?

Disability benefit is affected slightly differently. However, the government's welfare strategy has still thumped disability benefits very hard.

Since the "emergency Budget" of 2010 £500 million has been taken from the pockets of disabled people.” Jeremy Corbyn MP for Islington writing in the Morning Star 9/1/13

A commentator calling themselves '1Essex' had this comment yesterday in the Guardian 'Comment is Free' section.

“Who are the biggest benefit scroungers of all? Companies who won't pay their workers a living wage, so that they have to be subsidised by the taxpayer”.....

To which ‘Haward’ added

“and , as a result of this miserly approach , they can pay their executives large enough bonuses for them to take advantage of the Coalition's tax cuts for the very rich”

They can then use some of their ill-gotten gains to pay ('donate to')the Tory party thereby guaranteeing the gravy train rolls on. 

The whole shebang drive on our roads, use our health services and enjoy our protection and security - without coughing up so much as a Starbuck.