Children – a privilege for the rich?

ON NEWSNIGHT, multi-millionaire culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, unleashed a vicious attack saying the state “shouldn’t support” large families. Back bench Tory MPs have joined the frenzy against a so-called ‘Shameless generation’ who are supposedly ‘using benefits to prop up their large families’.

However, according to the Family and Parenting Institute, only 3% of families have three or more dependent children. In reality, the aim of Hunt’s outburst is to open the door for further attacks on working class families – a slippery slope towards the scrapping of all benefits that provide a safety net for the children of poorer workers.

The rotten logic of this furore is that only the super-rich should be allowed to have large families.

And of course this Con-Dem government won’t stop at ‘large families’. If the coalition get away with this attack they will be bolstered to go further, attacking all families on benefits. If these plans go ahead the one million young people who are currently unemployed will be condemned to a childless, as well as a jobless, future.

Romford Tory MP, Andrew Rosindell, has said: “It is not for the government to bail these people out for ever more. If people have children, they must think about the consequences and whether they are able to cope.”

For workers it’s the consequences on the economy of the trillions spent bailing out bankers, alongside the massive bonuses they are still awarding themselves, not the paltry benefits given to low paid and unemployed families that is causing problems.

Low paid workers and the unemployed don’t need lectures from pompous politicians such as Jeremy Hunt, who are blatantly attempting to divide and rule working class people. We need a vigorous campaign to oppose all attacks on benefits.

Elaine Brunskill