This should be our national shame

A week today the Chancellor will stand in the rarified surroundings of the Commons to give his budget speech. Undoubtedly we can expect the sort of trickery and sleight of hand that blighted the Autumn Statement and last year’s budget. We’ll need to remain vigilant to spot this year’s Bedroom/Pasty/Mummy Tax, and the sort of jiggery pokery that led to claiming more money from the 4G auction than was actually raised.

But something that will receive precious little focus is one of the greatest crises facing Britain, and one which should shame the entire nation. Child poverty.

Remember child poverty? There was a time when you couldn’t move in Westminster for child poverty. It was everywhere, it stalked the corridors and gatecrashed conference speeches. It would be eliminated, we were told, by the Labour government. Yet whilst great and admirable advances were made, we failed. Child poverty not only still exists, but it’s rising again. The Tory response thus far has been limited to grumbling about how to define poverty, and trying to change how it’s measured. Don’t worry kids – you’re not in poverty anymore, we’ve changed the algorithm. Doesn’t that feel better?

No, of course not.

And yet it gets worse. The Indepedent reports this morning that by 2015 more than half of all British children will be living “below the breadline” thanks to welfare cuts, tax rises (especially VAT) and wages freezes. In other words more kids will be pushed into poverty as a direct result of government policy.

To those who say that politics doesn’t matter, here is conclusive proof that it does.

The research, carried out by economist Howard Reed says that almost 7.1 million of Britain’s 13 million kids will be living in households with an income below the required level for a decent standard of living.

More than that, Reed believes that 90% of families will be worse off in 2015 than they were in 2010. Only the poorest 10% will be better off, and then by just 57p per week.

Get out the bunting.

When Osborne stands up next week he’ll going to throw loads of numbers out there to justify his existence. But I’m willing to bet he won’t mention Child Poverty. But he should – it should be our national shame.