BBC News – Alan Milburn says child poverty 'no longer problem of the workless and work-shy'.
I am trying to stay positive in the face of a nation gone mad. I really am. I was much helped by a pleasant meal last night with a fellow-blogger and occasional commenter here whose views are relentlessly sane.
I even briefly managed to do it in the face of Alan Milburn's certifiable analysis of the woes of our poor.
He thinks we need higher minimum wages to price more low-skilled people out of work and perhaps even make offshoring fashionable again. No trace of sanity there but still I managed to keep smiling.Sadly, however I made the mistake of reading the comments on the linked article at the BBC website. The drivel there is enough to make the brightest optimist despair.
Try this for size;
The real reason why poverty is increasing is that we have had government after government making public sector cuts. This has led to more expensive services and unemployment which forces wages down. And all this has been done in the name of tax cuts for the rich.
or this
Rent and utility bills are killing everybody including business, they must be capped and energy re-nationalized. I don't care if people think it's socialism because at what point do you say capitalism with no rules or morals has to stop and isn't working?
or this
So much for our government's claim that work is what stops poverty and benefits is (sic) what keeps people in it
or even this
I couldn't care less how well the banking sector is doing or what the GDP is or the UK's position in wealth tables is so long as I can turn the lights and heating on and eat decent food without worrying about the cost. [my emphasis] MAJOR wealth distribution needed
Yes, of course. That will all work in Britain. After all remember how well it worked in China, the USSR, Eastern Europe, Cuba and – oh wait – here.
Was ever any man as wrong as Francis Fukuyama? Despite the comprehensive proof of its failure when tested disastrously on more than half of mankind in the 20th Century, it seems the cancerous doctrine of socialism will never die in Britain until the government's cheques actually start to bounce. Not while the state's employees, corruptees and other dependents retain the vote. This despite their conflict of interest, not just with taxpayers, but with the fabric of reality itself.
The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
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