All in all I don't think that the budget we witnessed today was especially ground breaking. Commentators have already said about how most of it was expected and about the tone, my only interest is what the effects mean for people in the long run. Personally I don't think it is as bad as it could have been but it's certainly not favourable, certainly some of the "positives" are barely positives at all in more historical context and it's not within me to congratulate people for offering piecemeal as if it is a huge concession.

Trips to Auschwitz, they can form an important part of a child's education about history and also about the danger of politics gone bad. Plans are that the government will fund children to visit these places more, but the Tories are calling such a policy a gimmick. And you know what, they're right.

The facts are simple. There are over 750 thousand students at A-Level age, and around 27% of children live in poverty. The government is funding the trips to the tune of £4.65mil over three years, or rather £1.55mil a year. Trips to Auschwitz cost £350, so this money essentially pays for around 4,500 students a year to go and see the camp, this is roughly 0.6% of all sixth form students.

This policy IS a gimmick...

I have a bit of a backlog on news that I wish to write about, though some will probably be kept for a rainy day...but it does mean that there are a few stories here that are small enough to warrant small mention but that I'd like to talk briefly about. The issues are about just who is going to University now and the potential re-emergence of the rich/poor gap in higher education, an update on the idea of ISPs monitoring our internet usage for illegal downloading, and Labour actually making a positive announcement for once. I know, the last bit is actually scarily unreal.

When is a Labour MP not a labour MP? When they're government ministers it seems, when they have to roll out Tory-esque policies every day to seemingly stay in the news. The drivel that pours out of our central leadership today being that Caroline Flint, housing minister, suggests that those not seeking employment should be evicted from council homes. Following in the vein of Hazel Blears she wants to introduce yet more contracts, the theme of this government seemingly being to legally enshrine the British public in to some kind of duty to the state (do they enjoy being called Stalinist I wonder?).