>> Another example - school meals for kids in the summer holidays. Get criticised for not
>> giving the money - skinflint, they're children, hunger etc. Give the money and it's a
>> U turn - the government are incapable of consistent policies etc.
The trouble here is that there seems to be a command/control culture where everything is controlled from No10. It's not unique to Johnson and was arguably pioneered by Blair but it's destructive of sensible decision making.
The government's initial response was to stick to its guns and stick with the original (indefensible) decision, before Marcus Radford got involved, not to continue the voucher scheme in the summer holidays. When Radford's letter hit the headlines MPs, including many on the new ones who never expected to be elected, were sent out on local and national media to defend that position.
Once it was recognised that Radford's very well reasoned point was made from personal experience and caught the public sympathy those people were hung out to dry and made to look silly.
Johnson's statement that he'd not been aware and changed tack as soon as he knew is a lie and/or throws his official spokesman under a bus; the No10 line was very clearly no change.
Therese Coffey (DWP Minister) has been out and about trying to explain why the Benefit Cap makes sense (it never did). One of its effects is to mean that the much publicised increase in the Standard Allowances in Universal Credit and the re-valorisation of the ceilings for private sector rents are simply not reaching the people for whom they were intended.
It made little sense as a tool to get people back into work when there were jobs to go to. It defies logic when not only are jobs in short supply but the requirement to seek work at all is suspended (until 29 June at least.
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