How to fuck things up good and proper: a coaltion government recipe

Take one already dysfunctional family (Dad is on drugs, abusive, violent; Mum is vulnerable; two kids aged 5 and 2, are witnessing everything). Leave to stew for several years. Cut the opening hours of the local children’s centre. Cut the benefits the family are receiving. Cut the funding for the women’s refuges and the domestic abuse charities. Separate the Mum and Dad after the Dad gives Mum a final thorough beating. Introduce the local authority. Remove the kids from the now homeless Mum. Mum doesn’t qualify for temporary accommodation. She is reduced to living on friends’ floors. Kids are now ‘in care’, sorry, ‘being looked after’. But remember: “You know the best welfare system of all, it's called the family” (David Cameron) And don’t forget: “I live in a nice house like most people in London.” (Lynne Featherstone Lib Dem MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and government minister). The above is a true story I heard today about a family in Haringey. Sadly they will be just one case amongst thousands across the country. Evidence, if it were needed, that the cuts are hitting women and the most vulnerable the hardest, and how much long term damage this government is doing.