Much of our recent news, apart from predictable speculation on the identity of the next president of the USA, has focused on the payment of UK child benefit.  Evidently the Government has decided that payment of these benefits should be means tested. Well of course it should, isn’t that what the welfare state is all about?

Why on earth should people who earn enough money to pay higher rate tax receive welfare benefits? If you are fortunate enough to earn a large wage (the Government’s starting point is £50,000 a year) then you don’t need a handout from the state. This has got nothing whatever to do with socialism but everything to do with common sense.

The whole purpose of the welfare state is to look after people who are not able to look after themselves whether through age, infirmity, or a genuine inability to find work and please note the use of the word “genuine”. Those are the people who need and deserve state benefits and if it is true that some Tory backbenchers are opposed to this principle then they belong in the Dark Ages.

As I have said before in this blog, one of the prime responsibilities of a civilized state is to look after and safeguard the needs of the weak and less privileged, not to continue to line the pockets of those with no need for it.