Tag Archives: Philpott case

Danny Alexander rejects George Osborne’s comments on the Philpott case

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 6th April 2013 - 7:51 am

I told you the other night that Sarah Teather had condemned George Osborne’s comments connecting the Philpott case to the welfare system. Some people made comments along the lines that it was only a backbencher, and no Liberal Democrat minister had said such a thing. Well, yesterday, Danny Alexander did. The BBC has the story. Danny said:

George Osborne is clearly right that there needs to be a full debate about the future of our welfare system but the Philpott case is an individual tragedy. Children have died in

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Posted in News | Also tagged Danny Alexander, sarah teather and welfare reform | 24 Comments

Sarah Teather blasts George Osborne’s “irresponsible” comments on Philpott case

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 4th April 2013 - 9:53 pm

George Osborne has said some crass things in his time, but his comments today, as reported by the BBC, that there should be a debate on whether “the state should subsidise lifestyles like that” were awful, giving a whiff of credibility to the demonising headlines in the Daily Mail that my co-editor Stephen Tall wrote about earlier. Does this make Osborne a “trollemicist?”

Stephen sensibly said:

The welfare state was no more to blame for their deaths than capitalism would be to blame if they’d done it to claim on insurance. The motive was greed; the result a tragedy.

I think, though, …

Posted in News | Also tagged george osborne and sarah teather | 21 Comments