Prime Minister David Cameron was on BBC television at the weekend, telling Andrew Marr that he was sorry for the ‘sexist’ comments he made on not one but two occasions.
Some six months after the events, the PM said that he “deeply regrets” causing offence, and that the comments made in the House of Commons just “came out wrong and caused the wrong impression”.
George Osborne's withdrawal of child benefit from "higher income" families is front-page news today - with good reason. It will affect 1.2 million families. Its simplistic (rather than means-tested) design creates situations in which two-earner families making £86K a year will keep their benefits while a single earner making more than £44K will lose it. (It's based on an individual's income, not household income.) It also saves £1bn for the government coffers at a time when every penny counts.
Already the policy has prompted an immediate outcry that makes you wonder whether these changes will be implemented at all. The Conservative children's minister Tim Loughton has said the plan might need revising. A thinktank said the cuts could "seriously distort" work incentives. Osborne aides have stressed that no final decisions about the cuts had been taken. Even David Cameron has said he will "listen" to those urging a review of the cuts (although the Guardian coverage speculated that he was saying this only to be polite and has no intention of revising it).
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