The government’s child poverty policy head has endorsed a group calling to abolish the two-child benefit cap. Writing’s on the wall…
Jonathan Capstick, the ‘impartial’ civil servant who is Head of Policy in the Cabinet Office’s Child Poverty Unit liked a LinkedIn post from ‘Child Poverty Action Group UK’ which trumpeted:
“We’ve joined 100+ others in calling for the government to fully scrap the two-child limit. Every child deserves the best start in life. By fully scrapping the two-child limit the government can deliver a decisive shift in children’s opportunities, and in the UK’s potential.”
Wonder what the civil service code thinks of that…
Reeves and Starmer have both heavily hinted that they would scrap the cap earlier this week. A reminder that this would cost around £3.6 billion a year. All while Labour readies to shred its manifesto tax promises…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”