{"id":74629,"date":"2024-03-17T08:25:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T08:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=74629"},"modified":"2024-03-17T08:37:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T08:37:52","slug":"what-is-the-point-of-power-if-it-is-not-to-help-the-most-vulnerable-and-least-well-off-which-there-is-no-sign-that-labour-will-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2024\/03\/17\/what-is-the-point-of-power-if-it-is-not-to-help-the-most-vulnerable-and-least-well-off-which-there-is-no-sign-that-labour-will-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the point of power if it is not to help the most vulnerable and least well off, which there is no sign that Labour will do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Observer noted<\/a> yesterday:<\/p>\n

\n

Schools are finding beds, providing showers for pupils and washing uniforms as child poverty spirals out of control, headteachers from across England have told the Observer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

School leaders said that as well as hunger they were now trying to mitigate exhaustion, with increasing numbers of children living in homes without enough beds or unable to sleep because they were cold. They warned that \u201cdesperate\u201d poverty was driving problems with behaviour, persistent absence and mental health.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They added a headteacher reporting that<\/div>\n
\n

The school had many children living in \u201cdesperate neglect\u201d. \u201cKids are sleeping on sofas, in homes with smashed windows, no curtains, or mice,\u201d he said. \u201cI come out of some of these properties and get really upset.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The details come from:<\/p>\n

\n

report published on Friday by the Child of the North campaign, led by eight leading northern universities, and the Centre for Young Lives thinktank, warned that after decades of cuts to public services, schools were now the \u201cfrontline of the battle against child poverty\u201d<\/a>, and at risk of being \u201coverwhelmed\u201d. It called on the government to increase funding to help schools support the more than 4 million children now living in poverty in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is no point now thinking that we have a Conservative government. They are in such disarray that they no longer function.<\/p>\n

Instead we have to ask what Labour might do about this, and the answer we are told, time and again, is that they will say there is no money left.<\/p>\n

That is because they will not tax capital gains fairly, as if they are income, which is exactly what they are.<\/p>\n

And it is because they still want to massively subsidise the savings of the wealthy by providing excessive tax relief on the pension contributions of the wealthiest in our society.<\/p>\n

It is also \u00a0because they refuse to tax income from wealth at the rates paid by those with income from work.<\/p>\n

And it is because they still think that those on high earnings should pay much less, proportionately, in national insurance than those on low earnings should.<\/p>\n

Just put those right and you have round \u00a350 billion (or more) to tackle this issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If Labour will not do that let\u2019s be quite clear about what it will be doing: it will be choosing to perpetuate poverty. So far, that seems to be its plan.<\/p>\n

Nothing will ever make Labour acceptable to me until they say they they are going to really tackle the issues arising from poverty, and to root out its causes. Why should I tolerate them when they could do that, and so far say that they will not?<\/p>\n

What is the point of power if it is not to help the most vulnerable and least well off?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Observer noted yesterday: Schools are finding beds, providing showers for pupils and washing uniforms as child poverty spirals out of control, headteachers from
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,122,16,147,118,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-election","category-ethics","category-inequality","category-labour","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74629"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74635,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74629\/revisions\/74635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}