Monday, 28 April 2008

Cameron returns to a Labour issue

David Cameron's speech on poverty this morning has gone rather unnoticed.

The shadow leader is stepping on sacred Labour ground not doubt following up the attacks over the 10p tax

According to Cameron,

Under Labour, the number of people in severe poverty has risen by 600,000 - and child poverty increased by 100,000 last year.
They have failed because they've concentrated on the symptoms of social breakdown rather than the causes


He said that Brown had "totally failed to tackle the root causes of poverty".

Andrew Sparrow writing in the Guardian though makes a good point

One factor is that globalisation has contributed to astronomic increases in income and wealth for the very richest in society. Labour has done little to cap these increases, but the Conservatives have not proposed measures to redistribute this wealth either.


Fraser Nelson notes

For ten years, instead of tackling poverty, he has used the tax credit system to manipulate the results of this very specific target. And for ten years, the Tories have said nothing. Poverty, they figured, was Labour’s domain.
although

Cameron has a dodgy habit of making speeches like this, then saying nothing for months (ie, his immigration speech last autumn). Lets see if he can finish what he today started

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