Declining...

I was delighted to hear on the radio this morning some twit telling us all we should be jolly grateful that we lived in the fifth biggest economy in the world and it was unacceptable ( God I hate that word) that we still had child poverty. Of course, this is largely a matter of definition ( I believe it's if you have 40% of the average earnings you are described as being in poverty) - but it remains true that we have an underclass who will never escape. It's also bollocks, because we are actually 9th or even 10th now.
However, what exercised my mind was that before the 1997 election one G.Brown gave a speech, in which he said ( and I quote) " It is unacceptable that in the World's FOURTH largest economy that there should still be child poverty in the 20th Century."
So there you have it.
Kinnock may have talked of thirteen years of Tory misrule, but 13 years of Labour misrule has managed far worse...