Quote:
Originally Posted by Toy Soldier
I don't think it is an either / or... I think it was an agreement trade? Lib dems didn't really want a marriage tax break and cons didn't want free school meals (this is the Tories of course... They'd be dishing out gruel to kids on benefits if they had their way) but they basically said "OK, we'll sign off in the kids meals if you sign off on the marriage break".
I dont know why they need such schoolyard tactics to be fair. A ridiculous way to run a country really.
Both aren't bad policies and neither are costly... so no need for such drama! Allowing couples to combine their tax band allowance makes a lot of sense. currently we have a situation where one person earning 40k with a stay at home partner end up with a significantly lower household income than a couple who both work and bring home 20k each. Which is stupid. It encourages two parents to enter a saturated work market and farm out their kids to childcare, rather than to have a similar lifestyle but with one parent actually raising their kids.
We live in a society where kids are being raised by teachers and childcare services and only see any real parenting at the weekend. It's a shambles.
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Yes I understand that, but I don't think these are the things they should be trading. I work with Conservative MPs right now (and while some may fit your "
feeding kids gruel" description, by no means do they all think like that) and I think they should be both giving married people tax breaks and helping people with kids. This way they can stop making charity cases of our own population while being one of the top 10 richest countries in the world. It's obscene. And trading off a marriage tax break for school lunches is just hopelessly out of touch and ill thought-through.