But, it's punitive, it's american, it's counter-productive and it's failed again and again. What's not to like ?

Isn't it a lot to do with with the fact that the moral high ground the Tories take is that these people on the dole are scabbing off those of us who work and pay our taxes?

I think that's the same phenomenon expressed two different ways. However, you do introduce the idea that nobody has made the social case for taxes to pay for collective provision in an awful long time.

eg, it costs £8/day to send a child to school, but it costs £40/day to keep somebody in prison. so wouldn't it make sense to spend a lot more on educating children (and feeding those in low paid families with good food) properly, than in allowing the worst 10 or 20 % to drift into low grade crime and the penal retribution system for much of their life. I'm not saying that will cure all ills, but there are so many kids who can't even read at the age of 15 these days. I doubt many of them are intellectually incapable of reading, the system failed them. Never gave them a chance.

Taxes can be justified, the difficulty is finding a politician honest enough to do it fiercely enough.


keep to the Fen Causeway