You have to wonder if David Cameron and his cabinet are deliberately
living up to their party’s nasty tag by once again putting their exclusive club
of Tory funders before real people.
It would be nice if we could celebrate the Government’s
announcement of a tax-free childcare scheme and at last ponder if some
semblance of reality is leaking through to Mr Cameron. Instead, the people who need the help most
get another slap in the face as the proposals are no sooner announced than put
on the backburner.
The timing of the announcement leaves me wondering if the
Prime Minister and his cronies are having a distasteful laugh at everyone
else’s expense. It begs the question: if
Mr Cameron and co have genuinely recognised the need to support families with
childcare, what on earth makes them think it is a good idea to delay in
implementing it.
Recent figures have shown that the economy is now expected
to take more than six years to recover – the longest dip of its kind ever
recorded.
That is why families need real help with the cost of
childcare now. Not tomorrow. Not next
week or next month. Not in two-and-a-half years. Now.
In reality all the Government announcement reveals is a hint
of the Tory electioneering we can expect in 2015. How many other desperately needed actions can
we now expect this Government to propose be introduced after the next General
Election?
If ministers were really interested in helping families then
it would be the millionaires tax break that would be delayed until our economy
has recovered. If helping those in need
appears anywhere on the Tory agenda it is under the sub-section headed
“Electioneering ideas”, rather than the one headed “Policy ideas”.
And let’s not forget that the so-called support now being
touted has been offset several times over by the cuts already imposed. Some parents have already lost up to £1,500
in childcare support on top of the wider cuts to family budgets. Families with
new born babies are losing £1,700.
I’m not fooled by this Tory masquerading and the people who
continue to suffer for the next couple of years won’t be either.
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