By the government’s own figures, 3.8 million children are living in poverty in Britain.

To halve UK child poverty by 2010 would need an investment, between now and 2010, of £3.8bn – and then the same sum again every year: a huge figure, unless one considers... that such a sum, amounts to less than two-thirds of 1 per cent of public expenditure. We shall spend £9bn on the London Olympics before 2012. Last year the nation spent £10bn on champagne and this year the City has found £14bn to spend on bonuses.