tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post105205734228153134..comments2023-12-23T09:28:20.869+00:00Comments on The View from Cullingworth: We need to talk about poverty...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-44613875826490043902013-01-20T17:03:43.436+00:002013-01-20T17:03:43.436+00:00This is great as polemic, I agree. But we need to ...This is great as polemic, I agree. But we need to move on from here to look at policy (I appreciate this isn't what you were trying to do - a cri de coeur rather than a detailed manifesto.) <br /><br />We'd have to dismantle the entire whining-nanny state (or at least, shut them up. Admittedly the state of the Guardian's finances is doing a little in that regard.) Because they won't let us do anything that might damage even a small percentage of one of their favoured client groups.<br /><br />The populist (to the golf club bar audience) Tories have to accept that "Universal Benefit" is going to mean that some poor people (particularly the long-term unable) get more money.<br /><br />We are going to have to structure the benefit and possibly tax systems such that nobody faces marginal rates higher than the highest rate of tax.<br /><br />We're going to have to work out what we can do to encourage, rather than discourage, entrepreurship. At the working woman and man level. Which is going to require, as you point out, radical changes to our whole education system. Which is staffed by people collectively represented by some of the most radical left in the UK.<br /><br />Just to run the numbers. Simply dividing the welfare budget amongst those need (let's assume that 20% - KPMG figures enthusiastically endorsed by the usual suspects - {that's not the 'usual suspects for endorsing a KPMG report' btw} of workers are below living wage. And add in 11m out-of-work or not seeking work - latest <a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/december-2012/index.html" rel="nofollow">ONS figures</a>.) That's nearly £6k a year per head. Not huge sums but grotesquely untargeted. Especially when you remember that 'economically inactive' includes the 'early retired' stinking rich. (Who are usually quite clean and, unless you dislike Chanel, smell reasonable.)Surreptitious Evilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15393411103584747731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9172766774137902766.post-8668088255275447242013-01-20T14:41:44.695+00:002013-01-20T14:41:44.695+00:00The words of Abraham Lincoln ought to be nailed to...The words of Abraham Lincoln ought to be nailed to every door of ALL political parties, hung on every street corner, branded onto every politician's forehead: "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich."<br /><br />He said a lot more, but that is a good start.<br /><br />Radical Rodent<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com