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Category: Opinion

Published on Leave a comment on Mirror: Budget 2015: George Osborne punishes the young and vulnerable

'The weakest now bear the heaviest burden' - the Tory party just took food, clothes and homes away from Britain's poorest children for daring to be born.

"This is a budget for working people," thundered the Chancellor as he delivered the first pure-Tory Budget for close to 20 years. Unfortunately for Britain's children they don't work or pay taxes, and they have little say in whether their parents do either.

So perhaps it's no surprise the Government has taken steps to limit welfare support to kids, as well as hacking at the safety net for young adults. Today's Budget was bad news for families and especially bad news for Britain's most vulnerable kids. Here's what Osborne announced...

Published on Leave a comment on AOL: The Tories are wrong to double free childcare

I argue that the government should be spending spare money on the most vulnerable kids...

The Conservatives have announced that they are going to bring forward their pledge to double free childcare.

From as early as next year, working parents of three and four year olds will begin to qualify for 30 hours of free term-time childcare, up from 15 hours at the moment.

Published on Leave a comment on AOL: How we’ve royally screwed the next generation over property

The young have little chance of owning a property. And it's our fault.

The cost of buying a home has rocketed by more than three times the average salary over the last 10 years alone. Rents are soaring too, in fact Shelter has called them 'out of control'.

And as I sit here in a house I own, I know that we have really screwed over the next generation. We're desperate to keep property prices high and rising, because we see our homes as a pension pot or we want to escape negative equity.

Published on Leave a comment on AOL: Falling support for benefits is based on a delusion

It's easy to be angry at benefit claimants.

"Benefits cheat given £135k!" "Single mother of six given mansion!" "Ten-strong Somali family on benefits live in a £2m council home!" Those are all stories that have appeared in the press - and we simply lap them up.

It's so easy to be angry about the 'feckless fathers' of 16 living in deliberate joblessness on 'Shameless' estates. The single mothers having babies each year and demanding bigger council houses. The immigrants who've never contributed to the economy but are given mansions.

Published on Leave a comment on Politics.co.uk: Why is it still socially acceptable to persecute Travellers?

It started with a single caravan parked on a verge near our house and was quickly followed by a Facebook message from the leader of our residents' association.

"Looks like a gypsy has moved in. Clear your cars tonight and lock all sheds/doors/garages," it read.

I replied politely, explaining that I wasn't happy with the stereotypes being used.

"Well, what should we call them then?" came the reply. It was shocking to realise that this person didn't understand I was objecting to the idea that all travellers and gypsies were thieves. They saw that as such a universal truth that they assumed I must have been merely objecting to the term 'gypsy'.