OPINION
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a reception for the London Tech Week, (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
The welfare state used to be seen as a bulwark of our civilisation, protecting the vulnerable and promoting social solidarity. But in recent decades, it has become a vast juggernaut of destruction: unaffordable in its costs, unwieldy in its bureaucracy and corrosive in its impact. Most left-wingers refuse to recognise this truth. Instead they pretend that lavish spending on social security is a badge of compassion and a weapon against poverty.
That is why they oppose any significant reform of the system with an almost quasi – religious fervour. To them the only changes needed are further injections of taxpayers’ cash. But their outlook is utterly deluded. With a budget bigger than the NHS, and a workforce larger than the British Army, modern welfare is an engine of family breakdown, a catalyst of mass unemployment, a magnet for freeloaders, and an instrument of fraud. Far from rescuing people from poverty, it actually traps them in the dependency culture.
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When the civil servant William Beveridge produced his blueprint for a new social security system in 1942, he emphasised that payments were meant to be based on contributions: “The plan is not one for giving something for nothing,” he wrote. But that is precisely what our present welfare system does.
Those who receive the most are often those who have contributed the least. Idleness is rewarded with handouts. Hard work is punished by heavy taxes to pay for the whole racket.
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A structure that promotes injustices and provides twisted incentives to irresponsibility is in dire need of reform. But all recent governments have shied away from tough action, inhibited by hysterical and manipulative campaigners who bring out sob stories at the first hint of change.
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Against this fractious backdrop, turmoil looks inevitable within Labour’s ranks, despite Sir Keir Starmer’s 170-seat majority in the Commons. Already there is talk of a major rebellion in support of repealing the two child benefit cap, which was introduced by the Coalition in 2015 to discourage families from having children they cannot afford.
To the majority of the public, this was a perfectly sensible measure, but to socialists and sentimentalists it is a form of cruel financial oppression.
More signs of discontent could be seen in the Commons on Wednesday when Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall introduced her Welfare Reform Bill. At least 150 Labour MPs are reported to have signed a private letter of protest against her scheme.
Yet the grumbling from backbenchers is hardly justified by this timid legislation, which only proposes some restrictions in Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) for the disabled and tighter rules on the sickness element of universal credit.
These steps are undoubtedly necessary, given the recent colossal increase in PIP cases. According to official figures, the number of PIP claims for anxiety and depression has more than doubled since lockdown in 2020 to 525,000. Altogether 3.6 million claimants are now receiving this handout.
Kendall and Starmer have decided to make the PIP issue a test of their commitment to reform. “I will see off the rebels,” boasted the Prime Minister yesterday. But the policy is too narrow to bear this political weight.
Even if Kendall’s plan is fully implemented, the Government will shave just ￡5billion from a welfare budget that currently stands at almost ￡300 billion.
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True reform represents a far greater challenge than anything the Cabinet has so far contemplated. Tinkering with PIP eligibility’s rules is a sideshow compared to the gargantuan task of restoring economic dynamism and a moral purpose to welfare. If Ministers had the guts, they would put the insurance principle back at the heart of the system, so that the award of benefits is partly dependent on past contributions.
The current shambolic system not only enables joblessness to be a lifestyle choice but also perversely incentivises users to exaggerate their helplessness.
Similarly, it is the economics of the madhouse to pay a vast army of low-skilled migrants to settle here without any obligation to work. Half of all social housing in London now goes to foreigners, while one authoritative estimate puts the net financial burden of immigration at ￡17billion annually. This is completely unsustainable.
Far greater boldness is needed from Cabinet members, including a determination to take on the mawkish ideologues of their own party. Sadly such resolve does not look very likely at present.
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Nick Ferrari proved he was a deadly interrogator (Image: Getty)
Nick Ferrari, Sunday Express columnist and LBC radio presenter, is the genial assassin of the airwaves. With his deceptively simple technique of asking politicians about the practical details of their cherished policies, he has proved a deadly interrogator.
Now he has collected another scalp, that of Labour’s Treasury Minister Emma Reynolds who, when asked about the proposed new Thames crossing, could not even answer basic points about what it would cost and where it would be located. The interview was not only an embarrassing car crash but also revealed the low calibre of our rulers.
The Labour government has made the development of our infrastructure one of its key priorities, yet here was a member of the Treasury team exposing her utter cluelessness about one of Britain’ most important transport projects. With people like Reynolds in charge, it is no wonder that our public realm is scarred by incompetence.
Only this week the Government revealed that the HS2 rail link is to be delayed yet again. Former Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, who served four prime ministers and was recently awarded a peerage, said during the Covid pandemic that he had “never known people less well equipped to run a country”. His words are just as relevant today.
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I am not normally a supporter of public inquiries. They generally take too long, cost too much, and put too much faith in bureaucratic procedures. But an exception has to be made for the rape gang inquiry demanded by Baroness Louise Casey in her forthright report.
The systematic abuse of vulnerable girls by predatory gangs of largely Pakistani-heritage men is one of the most shameful episodes in modern British history, made all the darker through the cover-up by the very authorities which should have been protecting the victims.
These institutions, which include the police and local councils, were more interested in protecting the ideology of multiculturalism than young lives.
Now is the moment to expose the truth, whatever the political embarrassment. As the Great American jurist Louis Brandeis once said of the need for openness and honesty in public life, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”.
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Six staff are reported to have left employment of the Sussexs (Image: Getty Images)
Another six staff are reported to have left the employment of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The prattle from the Gruesome Twosome about the importance of kindness does not seem to translate into their own workplace.
But what do they need all these people for, given that Harry and Meghan only appear to run a jam factory and a couple of social media accounts? Listed in their entourage are figures such as a Director of Communications, a Chief of Staff, a Head of Operations at Archwell, and a Head of European Communications. The woke pair no doubt affect to despise imperialism. But they certainly love empire building.
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The Government has just announced that the 2031 census is to go ahead. Why? In our age of mass immigration and data collection, this is an expensive, anachronistic and unnecessary exercise.
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Under blue skies in south-west London, Express legend Patrick O’Flynn was given the inspiring send-off he deserved after his sudden passing last month. At the packed Mortlake crematorium, every element of the funeral ceremony was profoundly moving, from the fulsome tributes to his generous character to the uplifting dignity of his widow Carole Ann and family. He will not be forgotten.