There is no rest for IDS. Yesterday he was in Madrid talking about youth unemployment and immigration and today he turns his attention
to child poverty. Of all life’s accidents, the accident of birth is the most decisive. It is said that a child’s prospects are determined by the age of five, and numerous other statistics and
factoids lead to a similar conclusion. IDS rehearses some in a piece in today’s
Guardian.
IDS and Labour MP Graham Allen have conducted a report into these matters, and have concluded that early intervention in a child from a deprived or broken family is vital if the poverty gap is to be closed, and for opportunity and prosperity to be extended. Therefore, investment will be made in children’s projects designed to improve literacy and interpersonal skills, which should discourage anti-social behaviour crime, drug use and entrenched worklessness – those sinister rites of passage that bedevil inner cities and the often forgotten suburban slums in the provinces.
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