The squeezed middle
Sneeze, and you'd have missed my contribution to the 'debate' on local radio this morning about cutting benefits. I was asked yesterday if I'd be willing to discuss the so-called 'squeezed middle' and - in particular - what measures government could introduce to help families. In the event I was on the 'phone listening to what amounted to a party political broadcast by the Conservative Member for Stamford and Grantham, Nick Boles which turned out to be about bus passes and the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
If you did sneeze, I managed to make a point (apropos giving benefits to all pensioners, irrespective of income) about the ridiculously unfair method of means testing child benefit scheduled to be introduced shortly but - frankly - I wouldn't go hunting for it on iPlayer if I were you. My other contributions - such as they were - consisted of trying to get a word in edgeways while Nick Boles was talking, something he seemed to be allowed to do for an inordinately long time.
Never mind. I've got this blog to put my views across, which is just as well as I've got plenty. As, no doubt, have you. And what I'd like to know is what I was originally asked on air to discuss. Forget bus passes for a moment; put pensioners to one side. There is plenty to debate there, another time. But what I'd be interested to hear is what you think needs to be done to help struggling families. Is it right to withdraw universal access to child benefit so that those that need it, get it? Or should everyone be entitled equally to help bringing up a family? And what about maternity entitlement? Paternity leave? Parenthood is, after all, the most important job in the economy: without children, there's no workforce, no doctors, nurses, care workers to look after the elderly. Every nation on the planet frets about its birth rate (although in China, it's for slightest different reasons admittedly).
My own view is that if half the time, energy and air-time were devoted to securing genuine contributions through taxation of those currently employing hordes of accountants and financial advisers to avoid paying their dues, we'd save an awful lot more than the paltry £1.4bn Nick Boles claims taking bus passes away from little old ladies will achieve.
But what's your view? Should we all have to tighten our belt? Or should it depend on your waist size?
If you did sneeze, I managed to make a point (apropos giving benefits to all pensioners, irrespective of income) about the ridiculously unfair method of means testing child benefit scheduled to be introduced shortly but - frankly - I wouldn't go hunting for it on iPlayer if I were you. My other contributions - such as they were - consisted of trying to get a word in edgeways while Nick Boles was talking, something he seemed to be allowed to do for an inordinately long time.
Never mind. I've got this blog to put my views across, which is just as well as I've got plenty. As, no doubt, have you. And what I'd like to know is what I was originally asked on air to discuss. Forget bus passes for a moment; put pensioners to one side. There is plenty to debate there, another time. But what I'd be interested to hear is what you think needs to be done to help struggling families. Is it right to withdraw universal access to child benefit so that those that need it, get it? Or should everyone be entitled equally to help bringing up a family? And what about maternity entitlement? Paternity leave? Parenthood is, after all, the most important job in the economy: without children, there's no workforce, no doctors, nurses, care workers to look after the elderly. Every nation on the planet frets about its birth rate (although in China, it's for slightest different reasons admittedly).
My own view is that if half the time, energy and air-time were devoted to securing genuine contributions through taxation of those currently employing hordes of accountants and financial advisers to avoid paying their dues, we'd save an awful lot more than the paltry £1.4bn Nick Boles claims taking bus passes away from little old ladies will achieve.
But what's your view? Should we all have to tighten our belt? Or should it depend on your waist size?
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