12 December 2006

Social policy made simple

Really helpfully (for once), The Guardian summarises the report by Iain Duncan Smith (here) on poverty and all that:
Hello, I'm the Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP. Thank you to lots and lots of people for helping with this report, and to David Cameron for asking me to do it. Now, here's a picture of me playing pool with some youths.
You know, this country's social security bill has gone up a lot since the 1990s, and no one has the gumption to deal with it. I reckon that if people got on better with their relatives they'd help each other out for free, and save the rest of us a lot of money, but it's like no one cares any more.
It's the children from broken homes I worry about most. Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with being a single mother. All right, I am. But I'm not saying it's their fault. Single mothers have a really hard time, actually, and we Tories don't hate them any more.
Anyway, that Tony Blair, he's useless. He used to be all, "Ooh, I really care about the causes of crime," and now he's like, "Whatever, let's just lock them up so people will vote for us." But things like unemployment, family breakdown, drugs and booze, doing badly at school, and getting into lots of debt are actually really important reasons that people end up poor and turn into criminals. And another thing: this Labour government has been rubbish at reducing inequality, which is a problem too, particularly when you look at our figures instead of theirs. This country's going to hell in a handcart, basically, which is why there are all these murders on the news, and it's all because of those chaotic families who smoke crack and don't get married. I know, why don't we get charities to sort it out? Cut their red tape, I say, although our actual policy recommendations won't be published until next July.

I still don't understand it but maybe that's just me...

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