I have been on a foreign trip to Wales and England and therefore could not blog about the budget in a timely fashion. So instead of repeating what has been already said, I shall take a different tack.
Of the many injustices perpetrated by Margaret Thatcher's adminstration, one rarely mentioned is the way that their 'reforms' of tax and public spending led to a net redistristribution of wealth away from households with children to single people and childless couples. Anyone that rears the next generation will make sacrifices. Thus, it seems only fair that those of us, that, for whatever reason, will not raise children should make some sacrifice through the tax system to help those that do.
The budget freezes child benefit (a cut in real terms), abolishes various grants given to those becoming parents and will cut public services, many of which disportionately benefit households with children such as education, social services as well as many local amenities such as swimming pools, parks, libraries and out-of-school activities. It is inevitable that the planned cuts in public spending will affect these services. Of course cuts to local amenities affect everyone, but adults with children will use them more than adults alone. If charges are imposed or increased, the cost per adult is greater.
George Osborne has stated that it is the responsibilities of families and not the state to bring up children and that appears to be his justification for these cuts. He misses the point. No one doubts that families should be responsible for looking after children whenever possible but children are expensive. It a mark of a fair society that fact is recognised. Thatcher did not believe in society (fair or otherwise) and it seems that little has changed in the Tory Party since.
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