Brown’s fantasy legislation
In what was a generally well received speech, Gordon Brown said he would legislate to end child poverty.
A wonderfully laudable objective.
Just one or two tiny little snags with the plan. Sadly, after the welcome falls in child poverty in Labour’s first and second terms, it is now on the increase. There is no money to meet the government’s target of halving child poverty by 2010, so where the hell are the resources going to come from to end it altogether? Gordon Brown will not be PM in 2020 and may not survive much after next June.
Regrettably, this commitment therefore is a bit like legislating for better weather in the UK. A lovely idea, but with no means of implementation. In fact it is an attempt to draw a dividing line between Labour and the Tories in the run up to the next general election. (The Tories use a similar tactic before general elections of legislating to toughen up the asylum rules – you galvanise your base and you try to expose the opposition in the year before an election.)
When Labour came to power in 1997, they really felt they could make a difference on this issue, and they did. It is sad that all they can do now is use the issue for political purposes and have no real plan to be able to do it in practice.