The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

Britain's generous welfare system triggered baby boom – Telegraph.

So a piece of academic research seems to confirm what the nasty right-wingers have been saying. Given the red/pink (shall we call it burgundy?) bias in Britain's academia, that's a rare occurrence.

On our way to hospital this morning for the first of Mrs P's treatments, our London cabbie took our minds off our troubles with a truly magnificent anti-government tirade. He had been sitting on the rank outside our hotel for 3 hours with four other taxis and no sign of a fare. Yesterday, he took £15 from 12 hours work and he was not happy about it. He told us he had never seen London so quiet in 36 years at his job and was scornful of what he called the "worst government ever's" claims to be solving a problem for which he held them entirely to blame.

His rant was not as grammatical as one of DK's, but was every bit as colourful. He called into question both the ethics and parentage of Her Majesty's principal ministers. He was particularly scathing about Alan Johnson, who used to lead his son's union "… and was always useless…" He strongly defended HM Opposition when I suggested they were at least partly to blame for doing their job so badly. However (while he didn't think Cameron was too bad and "didn't care what a man's background was as long as he did an honest job") he would have preferred David Davis to be in charge. His main anger was reserved though, for those who are taking the benefits system for a ride. He said most of his neighbours are living on benefits and felt they were laughing at him for working. His leisure consists of a weekend flutter and he finds it infuriating that everyone else in his local betting shop is also gambling with money he worked for. They are not alone. So, at the moment, is HMG.