Universal child benefit?

The bathhouse has been a disticntly dry space for a while, which given the dramatic redrawing of the political landscape in our fair Isle is a sad thing. So in the spirit of revival – captured so precuriously by Ed Milliband – I thought it high time a post.

As usual I’m motivated by confusion. What to make of the end of universal child benifit. It seems ludicrous that people on £18,000 should subsidise those on £250,000 so are the Coalition’s plans well placed?

The general Lefty stance is no – uniting them with the Daily Mail and Telegraph. But unlike the Tory press the left defend the idea of universal welfare states because ‘services for the poor make poor services’. Which, as the US demonstrates, is palpably true. But child benifit is no service, it’s a bank transfer. So what to make of it? Also, Ed Milliband has been entirely silent so far, which is a tad worrying.