Gone quiet on poverty!

G.Brown used to babble on about his achievements in reducing poverty, or at least children living in a poor homes. His various credit schemes designed to achieve his target, have proved expensive to operate and less than effective in effect.

I did hear one of his lieutenants claim recently that they are on target for abolishing child poverty, a claim difficult to reconcile with what has happened, as the goal posts move all the time as they now use relative poverty instead of absolute poverty.

So why is Brown rather silent? Partly, I suspect, because he is vulnerable to the criticism that our society is now more unequal than under Thatcher, and partly because many people are losing jobs, homes, other goods and incomes from the recession. The ranks of the poor, the ranks of recipients of one or more of his credits, have become swollen with "new" poor.

But we now hear little from him apart from the mantra "I am Mr. Spendmore, he, Cameron, is Mr. Cutmore." He seems intent on grinding on with this claim.