All of which sounds great and very progressive in theory but when we come back to the real world where 99.9% parents will support and provide for children with their own capital it looks less so. And indeed they have too; compared to the cost of say, a University education the Child Trust Fund provides pin money. It is less so because those from better off backgrounds have a head-start. Put simply, there are other ways to ensure parents from these sort of income brackets do save and invest in their childrens furture like tax-breaks on ring-fenced accounts for example…..

the logic of your argument points towards greater means-testing of the Child Trust Fund, not to your party’s policy – its abolition. As it is, there is an element of means-testing: children from poorer families get larger endowments at birth and age 7 than children in more affluent families. The Saving Gateway, which gives generous subsidies to saving among low-income households, is also means-tested. I have yet to hear anything from the Lib Dems about where they stand on the Saving Gateway. Will it go the same way as the Child Trust Fund?

There are, however, strong liberal arguments against greater means-testing of the Child Trust Fund. The point is to ensure – and I mean ensure – that all citizens in early adulthood have adequate capital to launch creatively into their adult life. While you are right that many affluent parents will give their children financial support anyway, that support will be at the discretion of the parents and not under the control of the young adult. That discretion means power: young people will remain subject to the power of their parents in making initial life-shaping decisions. because I’m a liberal I think that’s wrong. I want all young people to be able to make their own life-shaping decisions. And that requires they have some capital which is theirs, not their parents’.

Darling paints a miserable picture of a govermnment struggling to get its finances under control for at least the next two Parliaments. He shows no sign of a strategy to cope with that situation.

When the Chancellor points to public investment shrinking to almost nothing, it is clear spending priorities haver to change. LibDems have thought in depth about what thsoe priority changes should be. Neither Labour nor Tory have a clue of where to start.

LibDems have clear views about priority changes in taxation. the priority in personal taxes is to shift tax burden off the poorest. The priority in increasingtaxes is green taxes. Darling can only stumble a little in thoase directions, doing nothing substantial. No one knows what the Tories think are their tax priorities; if any.

The kicker is that commentators are unanimous that Darling’s medium term projections are wishful dreaming. The mess is worse than Darling says it is.

Incidentally, I Lib Digged Sturt White’s nice post yesterday.

Thanks for that; I enjoyed your post over on Next Left too. You see one of the problems I do have with the Child Trust Fund is that rich parents are more than in an adaquote position to provide starting capital for their own children. So, in the name of a spurious equity we actually have money that is chucked at people who already have it.

If the government put in place measures that encouraged better off-parents to do this; to put money aside for their children I would be fine with that but what is the point of actually giving them state handouts in addition to the starting capital they will already naturally receive from their parents?

It does not encourage social mobility or removing it would not be a detriment to social mobility because these parents I would contest are most likely to provide for that in any case ie, they will want their children to go to Oxbridge, Cambridge etc.

Because the help isnt targeted it thus negates the original point of the Fund in the first place….

I wonder if you or any other Lib Dems might be interested in a post of mine at Next Left (Fabian Society):

http://www.nextleft.org/2009/04/that-liberal-democrat-budget.html

I offer it in the spirit of mutually respect interparty dialogue, speaking as one of Labour’s social liberals.