Child Poverty

I see we have been pulled up by the United Nations, again, on our record of looking after children in this country.

And we are all aware, I am sure, of families struggling to find the money to take the kids to the doctor. The problems in the housing market are most acute for families with young children. So it's not just the poorest families that struggle.

I have been saying to anyone who will listen for some years now that Governments do not have to listen to families' problems seriously, when households with no children have the same voting power as families with half-a-dozen children. It is no wonder successive governments sit on their hands, or move slowly at best, compared with what they do for hip replacements, say.

My first suggestion to improve the situation is for everyone to be given a vote - from birth that is. Then families with children would have more clout in the electoral system than households with none. People don't take my suggestion seriously but I think it's time we did.

I have another suggestion which I think is important too. The tax system should be turned back to what it used to be: based on household income, rather than individual income. It should be too obvious that a household with, say, four working adults is far better off than one with one working adult and two children, and the second adult trying desperately to get bits of part-time work to fit in with caring for the children.

Return to the family benefit, universal, would also help to redress the inequity.

There's my sermon for today!