Not thinking things through

The following chart from the Mail may help to explain that "broken society" the Boy Wonder used to talk about, and which his administration is doing nothing to mend. The article highlights a study by CARE, the Christian social policy charity, which rebuts the declared intentions of Work and Pensions Secretary Duncan Smith on the subject of married couple families. 

The changes made by the Coalition Government will materially worsen the position of one-earner couples on an average wage, although they will improve the position of some other families. In 2009, a one-earner married couple with children on a wage of £33,745 paid over a third more in tax in the UK than in the average developed country, and a fifth more than in the average EU country.




The study concludes that under changes introduced by the Coalition, one-earner families on an average wage will pay even more tax, because although their tax threshold will rise by £1,000, the gain will be cancelled out by loss of tax credits and an increase in national insurance contributions.

Damn. I thought IDS was the sole member of this government who had actually thought things through. I should have known better. The alternative - that he has thought it through - would presuppose that he is making a premeditated attack on the principles he claims to uphold. I think he is a well-intentioned bear of little brain doing the best he can, but unfortunately the results are the same as if he were a Machiavellian genius.