Andy Burnham, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, says there is a "moral case" for promoting the traditional family through the tax system. "I think marriage is best for kids," he says. "It’s not wrong that the tax system should recognise commitment and marriage."If Gordon Brown is intending to steal this policy too, it will present him with an interesting problem. For in his speech to the Labour Conference this year he said:
And I say to the children of two parent families, one parent families, foster parent families; to the widow bringing up children: I stand for a Britain that supports as first class citizens not just some children and some families but supports all children and all families.
We all remember that biblical saying: “suffer the little children to come unto me.” No Bible I have ever read says: “bring just some of the children.”
And we were left in no doubt afterwards that this was a condemnation of Tory family policy.
I am sure Brown is entirely capable of correcting the Bible to bring it in line with his own views, I am just interested to know how he will set about justifying it.
1 comment:
Perhaps it is one of those announcements that is made, reported on, filters into the brain of the Daily Mail reader and nothing more comes of it? Perception is everything - just look at how the Tory tax break for married couples keeps getting reported - you'd never guess that only a tiny minority of people would be any better off, but the thought is stuck in your mind that the Tories will give you a tax cut (even if never actually promised)
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