Laws And Sham Targets Won't End Child Poverty

A window-dressing wheeze of grandstanding laws, targets and quangos has been dreamt up to tackle child poverty from a fag-end government which has failed miserably over the last decade. Finding a new found 'vision', the centre-piece is an obsession with targets, while poverty is brushed under the carpet.

Tackling child poverty has been reduced to heartless number-crunching target-setting with no soul.

New work and pensions minister, Yvette Cooper, reckons this is being "bold about what a future Labour government's vision represents", at a stroke setting the electioneering tone and delivering just what the spin doctors ordered for a born-again Brown bounce.

Meanwhile, even using the government's own figures, 2.9 million children are living in poverty in a land of stark contrasts between the filthy rich who get the pleasures and poor who get the blame.

The Cooper bill sets out four targets, placing a legal duty on all future governments to abolish child poverty by 2020. And that means the Tories.

No governments should be allowed to wriggle out of responsibilities and move the goal-posts. But this smacks of a government using child poverty to try to wrong foot the Tories. In a crafty move and a sign of things to come, Cooper threw down the gauntlet - support this bill or risk being exposed as a greedy, uncaring cost-cutting bunch.

But a law which ties the hands of future governments begs the question: Why didn't they do that before?

The poverty bill plans to set up targets and a quango. But where in the proposals are the core social, health and welfare policies which would go some way to actually cutting down the number of kids in dire poverty?

The whole issue is fraught with double standards and clap-trap. Using the indices of disposable income belies the poverty beneath and what it means for families and children.

It means living in a squalid council flat, living off cheap crap food, in an area riddled with crime and decay with no hope of a job and no dignity or self-respect.

Once again the government is obsessed with a target culture instead of getting down and dirty tackling the real problem.

That won't be achieved by another quango stuffed with a well-fed bunch of do-gooders dreaming up strategies and campaigns, obsessed with tick-box targets while ministers pass the buck and duck responsibility.

Kids on the bread-line cannot eat strategies. Targets and campaigns don't lift them out of the depths of despair and despondency.

Once again it is the culture of the process - meeting targets - rather than the end result which is the obsession. Tick the boxes, fiddle the figures and hey presto the problem disappears.

All that will be left is a useless set of targets which a government, any government, may or may not meet. And if they don't they can always change the goal-posts.

Reducing poverty to a cold set of statistics and figures means people spend their time chasing targets while kids live in squalor. It's not as if the government hasn't had enough time to have a stab at it.

It's all a tad too little too late. Where has the government been for the last ten years?

Ending child poverty by 2020 was just one of Blair's broken promises of 1999 which has fallen by the wayside. The audacious target hadn't a cat in hells chance of being achieved without some brave and bold ideas.

The government says it has 'lifted' half a million children out of poverty but that will still leave a damning indictment for 2007/8, with the number of children living in poverty put at 2.9 million.

Child poverty has been reduced to a set of meaningless statistics based mainly on income, those who live in households with an income of less than 60% of the average. But the problems and root causes of poverty are far more complex than mere reliance on state benefit.

It boils down to giving people hope and something to live for. Some hope to cling on to, a purpose in life and a way out of the poverty trap.

The government needs to wake up and get a grip. Simply relying on means-tested benefits to tackle child poverty is a numbers game for a cold, uncaring treasury but it is living in a fools paradise.

Putting a legal duty on councils and hard-pressed services including the police cuts no ice with staff already stretched to the limit.

Instead it's the root cause that must be tackled. And that means getting to grips with a high quality education for all kids not just the rich. Tackling family breakdown, the mountain of personal debt, dealing with rising heroin abuse and shocking street crime.

Laws and targets do not do that. A State with the power to change the huge amount of unevenly distributed wealth can. A government which wakes up and recognises that while child poverty is rife it merely serves as a sad indictment of society. A government which gets off its high horse and actually does something.

A meaningful job for parents and a roof over their head in somewhere safe and pleasant to live would be a start. A State welfare system which recognises the need for a safety net and security blanket for the weak and vulnerable who cannot help themselves.

There's something very wrong with a so-called wealthy country where you can see such high levels of child poverty. Why do poor children have to grow up and suffer the worse health care, lower life expectancy and no chances to get on in life.

To cap it all, even the useless action won't start immediately. The bill will receive its second reading in a fortnight and is due to become law by the end of the year. Just in time for a general election while child poverty is kicked into the long grass and a new government left to tackle the thorny issue.

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A Couple Of Triple Flippin' Cheats

Brown's golden cabinet couple have been exposed as triple flippers buried in the latest revelations from the Telegraph, as a shamed justice minister is forced to quit and New Labour sinks to an all time low in the polls. 

Husband and wife cabinet ministers, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper 'flipped' homes three times designating their second home to three different properties within the space of two years, according to the Telegraph.

At one point, the couple had their expenses docked, after each submitted two monthly claims for mortgage interest of nearly £1,300. And officials also warned them that they had submitted the same claim, for the month of July 2006, twice.

Brown's cabinet darlings were let off the hook over their use of MPs' homes expenses in October when parliament's sleaze watchdog investigated the married ministers, after it was claimed they had been able to "maximise" their taxpayer-funded second homes allowances, by claiming their London home was their main home.

The couple then faced a complaint that they may have broken the spirit or the letter of the rules on commons' housing allowance, following a newspaper report accusing the couple of exploiting the rules to buy an expensive home and get their children into a "top state school".

Today's revelations put the couple, who are among Brown's closest allies, back in the firing line and are a further blow for bunkered Brown and his "smearing" side-kick Balls, as global financial wire-service Bloomberg reveals to the world Brown's dismal leadership and shows Cameron winning hands down.  

Trust in parliament is shattered. The Supreme Leader should live up to his moniker. Get a grip and show some leadership man. Pen a line to his trusted lieutenants. No puns, no adjectival reporting, a simple 'Dear Ed and Yvette', as above, will suffice. Then have the guts to call a general election.

Fiddling expenses and cheap accounting tricks are not what you'd expect  from senior members of the government, particularly ones who worked, still work and have aspirations to work again in the Treasury of all places.

Meanwhile shamed justice minister Shahid Malik who spent the morning ranting on TV with the tired old mantra about doing nothing wrong was finally forced to quit as justice minister pending an inquiry, as more heads roll in the MPs expenses racket. Ducking and diving, he refused point blank to pay back any of his ill-gotten gains. 

Malik was revealed by the Telegraph to be running up the highest second homes expenses claim of any MP amounting to £66,827 over three years and renting his main home from a "convicted slum landlord", something he described as a "fabrication". 

In what is turning out to be another bad hair day for Billy-no-mates Brown and his greedy bunch of chancers, the Sun revealed they'd sunk to new depths in the polls and the relentless round of scandalous MPs' expenses revelations is leaving the Orange Party searching for the green shoots of a snap election.

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Chancer Darling Joins Smith's Scam

Chancellor Darling has been exposed as just another chancer using the same second homes expenses fiddle as two homes secretary Smith. If the public thought anyone would lie straight in bed it would be the fastidious chancellor Darling. But second homes expenses scams seem to run in the cabinet family. 

What is it with cabinet ministers and their obsession with second homes? Cabinet ministers have used the allowance to claim more than £2 million over the past six years. The Orange Party has an simple answer- greed. 

Greedy government ministers, with first the home secretary now the chancellor caught shamefully fiddling commons expenses. 

The Mail On Sunday's  second Sunday instalment reports Darling's done a Jacqui over commons expenses after it emerged he lavished £70,000 on his family home in Edinburgh, claiming thousands of pounds in taxpayers' cash by classing the £1.2million townhouse as his ‘second home'.

Before he became chancellor, Darling claimed that a small London flat - worth only around £150-a-week in rent - was his 'main home'.

You can't make it up. And judging by the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Telegraph reports - they haven't. 

Only last week, home secretary Smith was caught out in the same outrageous expenses scam  after  she'd claimed £116,000 on her family home in Redditch, claiming her West Midlands family home is her second home, while lodging with her sister in London and claiming that is her first home. 

And Smith is not the first cabinet minister to be caught using their MPs' homes expenses in a squalid rip-off at the taxpayers' expense. 

Brown's favourite cabinet couple, Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper were let off the hook  after it was claimed they had been able to "maximise" their taxpayer-funded second homes allowances, by claiming their London home was their main home. But not before they faced questions over their decision to flag up their Yorkshire home as their main home, even though their children attend school in London.

Once again we will have to go through all the rigmarole. There is no suggestion that Darling broke any commons rules. It's all perfectly within the law. 

But that's hardly the point when the rest of the country is having to suffer the misery and hardship of a deep and depressing recession. Ministers are on the take in what is nothing short of a common commons scam.

But once again it seems with ministers wrapped up in their own arrogance and self-interest and with the full backing of Brown, any cabinet minister caught fiddling expenses can ride out the storm. 

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Who Will Rid Us Of Corrupt Ministers?

Revelations of two homes secretary Smith's  shameful fiddling of MPs' expenses isn't going away, despite the best efforts of government to play it down and hardly a whimper from the Tories. But the bleatings centre on a 'morally dubious' practice. This squalid corrupt sham should be stamped on and stamped out. 

The double standards of greedy government ministers was laid bare on the Today programme this morning, with treasury minister, Yvette Cooper, having the barefaced cheek to talk about the moral duty of bankers and their obscene bonuses. 

That's the same Cooper who along with hubby Ed was let off the hook over their second homes fiddle and John Humphrys to his credit was in like a shot and having none of it. 

Cooper launched into the defence that she and Balls, like Smith hadn't broken any rules and were only claiming what they were entitled to. What utter nonsense. 

Smith has been caught out using  MPs' homes expenses in a squalid rip-off at the taxpayers' expense along with Balls and Cooper. No wonder Brown made such a monumental balls up when the vexed issue of MPs' expenses was raised in the commons. 

Brown's favourite cabinet couple, Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper claimed they had been able to "maximise" their taxpayer-funded second homes allowances, by claiming their London home was their main home.

The same trick the home secretary Jacqui Smith used, claiming her West Midlands family home is her second home, while lodging with her sister in London and claiming that is her first home. 

If that's not cabinet corruption, it's difficult to know what is.

Cynics argue that the Tories are keeping their heads down because they're certainly not whiter than white but that misses the point entirely.

Conservative MPs are just that, MPs, with only a small group paid to do the job of challenging the government. It's the same argument that doesn't hold water when Brown attacks the Tories as the 'do nothing party'. What can they do? They're not the government - yet. 

An MP fiddling expenses is one thing. But the tight cabal of cabinet ministers and pay-roll MPs is the government. On the one hand politically posturing with righteous statements and on the other milking the system for all it's worth at the taxpayers expense. 

"Morally dubious practice" for sure, but ministers on the take is nothing short of a commons scam.

Guido has the tip of one 'anti-corruption group', the Centre for Open Politics, now lodging a formal complaint about Smith's expenses fiddle, raising the interesting but totally unrealistic prospect of a police investigation into the home secretary. 

That's a start but it needs a political heavy weight to demand formal commons action, if this squalid matter isn't going to fizzle out all together. 

Yesterday the Orange Party made the point that in any other circumstances ministers caught playing these dirty tricks would be forced to resign but with ministers now so wrapped up in their own arrogance and self-interest and with the full backing of Brown, it seems anyone in a position of power caught fiddling expenses can easily ride out the storm.

And that leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth.

UPDATE: Tory leader, David Cameron, has warned that Smith "may have to answer some questions" about her expenses, which is probably as far as Mr Angry will go on this one.

Picture: Tractor Stats

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Balls And Cooper Let Off The Hook

Brown's favourite cabinet couple, Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper have been let off the hook over their use of MPs' homes expenses and can continue to stick with their boss. Any whiff of fiddling expenses would have meant resignations all round, leaving Brown with few friends in the cabinet.

Parliament's sleaze watchdog investigated the married ministers, after it was claimed they had been able to "maximise" their taxpayer-funded second homes allowances, by claiming their London home was their main home.

They faced a complaint from a Tory MP that they may have broken the spirit or the letter of the rules on commons' housing allowance, following a newspaper report accusing the couple of exploiting the rules to buy an expensive home and get their children into a "top state school".

Now parliamentary watchdog, the standards commissioner, John Lyon, said there was no evidence they had broken the rules. But he added MPs should consider changes to allowances for joint claims.

Balls and Cooper, always insisted they acted with the rules over their parliamentary housing allowances and may have been cleared of fiddling expenses but that was a lame excuse. 

This is public money. They are elected and accountable. You don't expect cheap accounting tricks from senior members of the government.

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Balls and Cooper's Lame Excuse

Cabinet couple, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, may insist they have acted with the rules over their parliamentary housing allowances, but that's not the point. This is public money. They are elected and accountable. You don't expect cheap accounting tricks from senior members of the government.

Every time an MP's expenses are exposed, they fall back on the same old excuse. They acted within the rules. They haven't done anything wrong. 

Well, according to the accountant's rule-book that may be the case. But that shouldn't mean you can just play the system and claim for whatever you can get away with.

Parliament's sleaze watchdog is now investigating the married ministers, after it was claimed they had been able to "maximise" their taxpayer-funded second homes allowances, by claiming their London home was their main home.

They face a complaint that they may have broken the spirit or the letter of the rules on commons' housing allowance.

Balls, is the schools and children's secretary and Brown's side-kick. Cooper, the chief secretary to the Treasury. We should be able to trust them with our children and the economy. 

You can play the Claim Game and be within the law and not break the rules. But that doesn't make it right. 

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