Scrap the Two Child Benefit Cap – for starters!
JVL Introduction
Will this new New Labour government ever get the message that it has to abandon austerity? As this Open Democracy article makes clear “A functioning social security system is a fundamental part of a caring economy. It should serve as a safety net providing income security and promoting well-being, not a trapdoor to persistent poverty. If Keir Starmer wants to honour his promise of real change, he must choose compassion over cruelty, support over sanctions, and fairness over austerity.”
Starmer’s government seems more worried about the hysteria of the right wing media than the realities of the needs of ordinary people, or of fairness or of Starmer’s promises.
LL
This article was originally published by Open Democracy on Mon 2 Sep 2024. Read the original here.
Scrapping the two-child cap would be a start – but still not enoug
If the new government cares about poverty, it must start by rebuilding our broken safety net
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But haven’t you heard?
“Labour are not the party of people on benefits. We don’t want to be seen, and we’re not, the party to represent those who are out of work” (Rachel Reeves, 2015)…
Starmer’s government is stuck in the same cycle of banal thinking that plagued the previous one. The one difference is that they are better at appearing plausible, and less obviously barmy.
And, despite everything, there is the remotest, tiniest possibility that they might be shamed into opening up a chink of imagination in their corporate thinking and doing something different.