Labour have always claimed to be the party that best represents the disadvantaged in society. This claim has always been false, but yesterday's report from George Osborne just shows how fale it is. Since coming to power in 1997 Labour has presided over:
- 900,000 more people in extreme poverty and the gap in life expectancy becoming greater than in Victorian times.
- the imposition of stealth taxes most heavily on the poor. Mr Osborne asks: "Is it fair to reward enterprise and effort, yet for someone earning £100 a week, for every extra pound they earn they take home just 6p?"
- a failure to undertake schools reform meaning that the gap between the poorest and richest pupils is widening. Social mobility is falling too. This year just 176 pupils on free school meals got three As at A-level.
- a shift of burden from today's Britons to the next generation: As Mr Brown seeks to save his skin he is doing so by recklessly increasing public borrowing to pay for tax give aways today that will have to be paid for by future generations.
Fairly daming stuff
Hat tip: Conservative Home
