More Indian bicycle marketing...

This week's episode of the two main parties trying to differentiate themselves by creating a phoney argument over something completely irrelevant was in yesterday's Times:

A NEW political battle over tax breaks for marriage has broken out with a Labour cabinet minister accusing the Conservatives of wanting to penalise children whose parents “have not walked down the aisle”. James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, has criticised Tory plans to give tax incentives to married couples and those in civil partnerships and pledged to help struggling single parents instead. He claims that Conservative policy would result in children from broken families being “abandoned to poverty”.

This is hardly a "new political battle", I think that most people have made up their minds that that the way that the welfare state favours single mothers is an outrage, to the extent that they take any interest in it at all, the point here is that neither side is actually suggesting changing anything fundamental, because the Tories are talking about the tax system and Labour are talking about the welfare system.

In isolation, the joint taxation of spouses seems a good idea*, but let's not forget that it was the Tories who scrapped this and what they are proposing is a bit of a gimmick really. Let's say seventy per cent of thirty million taxpayers are married and the tax incentive is worth £1,000 per couple. That means the Tories have to raise £10.5 billion from thirty million taxpayers, or £350 each, which they then give back to married couples. Single people end up £350 worse off (which seems a bit spiteful), married couples with two earners end up £300 better off and a married couple with one earner ends up £650 better off. This will not make the slightest difference to the stereotypical single-Mum-on-benefits (the villain of the piece), as she doesn't pay income tax anyway.

Well, whoopie-doo, is all I can say to that. As to the welfare system...

1. The welfare system has looked much the same under the Tories as it did under Labour, even the biggest disaster of all, Tax Credits, is just Family Credit repackaged and made worse. There's no reason to assume that the welfare system will change much when the Tories get back in.

2. The welfare system does not actually discriminate against marriage as such, it discriminates against both marriage and cohabitation, whether a child's parents have "walked down the aisle" or not is irrelevant, the way to get all the extra goodies is for the mother to claim to be living alone.

3. It's difficult fisking the last sentence in the quote as it is pure gibberish. First James 'Photoshop' Purnell talks about children whose parents "have not walked down the aisle" and in the next breath he talks about "children from broken homes being abandoned to poverty". There are plenty of us who think that the welfare system is the main cause of child poverty, as it happens, i.e. ending these lunatic bribes for single mothers would not just save taxpayers' money, it would actually reduce child poverty in the long run.

* Under the MW flat tax/Citizen's Income scheme, it does not make any difference whether you are single, co-habiting or married, so married couples would be free to opt for joint taxation but it wouldn't actually make them better or worse off.