Now It's All Thatcher's Fault

Gordon Brown continues to thrash around for more scapegoats to take the blame for the failures of this Labour Government over the last 11 years. Today we have yet another example of his propensity to re-write history to fit his analysis.

You can read the speech he gave on "social mobility" to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust here. Note that he blames the Thatcher era for stalling the rise in social mobility that had occurred up until then (about half way down page 6).

But Maurice Fitzpatrick, an economist at accountants Grant Thornton, says in the Daily Telegraph that analysis of official figures instead indicates that inequality has not been improved by Labour. He said: "The official figures show that income inequality under Labour so far has been higher on average than it was under Lady Thatcher."

And as John Redwood has written HERE: "Today’s speech is more spin about a broken strategy of spend, spend, spend, than about the problems of a broken society." As so often is the case, he hits the nail right on the head.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: "The more we hear from Gordon Brown, the more you see that this Government has run out of steam. All we've heard today is a series of re-announcements and small scale pilot projects that will make virtually no difference to child poverty. What this country needs is big ideas on welfare reform and tackling family breakdown. We've heard none of that from Gordon Brown."