PM must resist the two-child benefit pressure
“UNSUSTAINABLE, indefensible and unfair.”
Sir Keir Starmer was spot-on when he made his blunt assessment of Britain’s grotesquely spiralling welfare bill back in March.
AFPSir Keir Starmer must stand firm and keep the two-child benefit cap[/caption]
As it rockets towards £70billion a year by the end of this decade, we simply cannot afford to allow this crazed spending spree to go on.
Yet many of his own MPs are deaf to common sense on this issue.
Like leftie Employment Minister Alison McGovern, who believes those out of work should be able to turn down a job if they don’t fancy it.
As with other Labour rebels, she sees state handouts as the only answer to every problem.
No doubt she will be among the MPs piling pressure on the PM to axe the two-child benefit cap this week after new figures showed a rapid increase in child poverty.
The figures are shocking, but Sir Keir must stand firm and keep the cap.
It stops parents claiming benefits for more than two children and lifting it would pile another £3.5billion on our already unmanageable welfare bill.
What’s more, it would award more handouts to 180,000 families in which nobody has a job.
As Labour grandee Lord Blunkett points out, there is a limit to how far the state can go in child support.
And in any case why should those who continue to work hard and pay taxes have to fork out even more for the children of those who don’t?
Vest-up jail guards
ANOTHER day, another brutal prison attack.
The shocking stabbing of a guard by a convict armed with a flick-knife at HMP Long Lartin is just the latest in a spate of violent incidents in Britain’s out-of-control jails.
How much longer can we sit on our hands while they are put at risk because they cannot protect themselves?
The Tories’ Shadow Home Secretary Robert Jenrick has called for guns to be available on-site in prisons.
Such weapons might be justifiable in extreme cases such as riots.
But guards come into daily contact with convicted murderers and terrorists.
They must have the minimum they need to keep order safely.
Those working in the most dangerous jails should immediately be issued with stab vests and tasers.
Or the next attack could be fatal.
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