Politicians face a conundrum whenever they talk about welfare reform. On the one hand, it can pay to talk tough and vow to cut spending; on the other, they risk being seen as uncaring about those in genuine need at the bottom of the ladder.
David Cameron tried to strike a careful balance when he came to Kent for a set-piece speech on his thoughts about welfare reform - conscious that early trails of his speech had already characterised it as being the end of 'compassionate Conservatism.'
He made clear his thoughts were not yet policies and he wanted "a big debate" about the issue - a tactic beloved of politicians when they are floating contentious ideas.
But he will have calculated that when it comes to benefits, most polls indicate that the public do generally feel too much money is spent on welfare and the bill needs to be cut.
The difficulty with welfare reform is that it can be very tricky deciding what the cut off point should be - there are enormous variations in people's circumstances and reasons for being reliant on benefits.
It may be unpalatable that young adults can claim housing benefits without, as it is claimed, putting in to the system. But sending them scurrying back home to take up residence with their parents might not go down well in some quarters.
The difficulty is deciding what the cut off points should be and avoiding the law of unintended consequences - as has happened with the housing benefit limits that have been introduced.
But it cannot, as Cameron said, be right that in the UK, one in six children are from workless households. That is not evidence of a welfare system working properly.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
KCC has a role to play safeguarding the county's heritage and its important historical assets but even so, it is a surprise to find they are together worth close to £6m. Even more surprising is the collection of art it possesses, worth £2.3m.
It is hard to conceive that all this art has close connections with or origins in Kent. Perhaps it's time to call the auctioneers - or the TV producers of 'Cash In The Attic'.
RSS feeds