“Our goal is to make responsibility the cornerstone of our welfare state. Housing Benefit will be reformed to ensure that we do not subsidise people to live in the private sector on rents that other ordinary working families could not afford. And we will continue to crack down on those who try to cheat the benefit system.

“An extract from a speech by a tough-minded Coalition minister? No, that paragraph is taken from A Future Fair for All, the manifesto on which Labour fought the last election. You will find it on page 20.

“Which goes to show how ridiculous the rhetoric of the last week – ethnic cleansing, final solution and all – has been.

“Because the last Labour manifesto was right. Housing Benefit is a bit of racket. If costs the taxpayer £21bn a year, and if you inject £21bn worth of purchasing power into any market it is bound to push prices up. And to push them up both for those who receive the benefit and those who do not.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself, so I haven’t; the quotation is from Jonathan Calder’s “Liberal England” blog. It is also worth reading Cllr. Chris Naylor’s letter in today’s “Independent”. If a councillor in the area most affected by the cap (he is from the London Borough of Camden) believes, because of various factors listed in his letter, that there will be few people forced to move, then it puts into perspective the rhetoric from Labour people in South Wales. There must be few people here even approaching the cap of £400 per week, outside Gower.

Why are Labour not focusing on the 10% cut affecting the long-term unemployed? It seems to me that the hardship which this would cause in many areas is out of proportion to the relatively small amount of money saved. The Labour spin-machine is still fixated on issues within the M25 ring.

   Leave a comment