THE four children's commissioners of the United Kingdom have united to condemn welfare cuts and plans to scrap the Human Rights Act.
That unity between the nations, the principality and the province is perhaps a sign of joined up resistance to come over the austerity programme which is expected to be greatly exacerbated by next week's Budget.
In Scotland, as we report from Westminster today, there are the most tentative signs that the SNP and Labour are aligning to oppose the worst of the welfare cuts.
Neither SNP nor Labour are as yet likely to be overt about agreeing with each other, but out of the ashes of the latter's crushing defeat two months ago and a leadership campaign in Scotland which clearly requires fresh thinking it may offer some prospect for hope that the parties which between them commanded more than 74% of the popular vote might just occasionally start looking for things to agree about rather than relentlessly seeking out points of disagreement.
Labour hardly helped after the referendum campaign with talk of "bayonetting the wounded" on the political battlefield, nor do the SNP now with overt displays of triumphalism over their vanquished foe. What most Scots voters, as distinct from party activists, would like to see is concerted action to avoid the worst excesses of a majority Conservative Government which they emphatically did not support.
The children's commissioners for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have co-operated to deliver a damning indictment of welfare cuts.
In a joint submission to the United Nations they say that over the last seven years increasing austerity measures in response to the banking crisis have resulted in "a failure to protect the most disadvantaged children and those in especially vulnerable groups from child poverty."
They add: "The best interests of children were not central to the development of these policies and children's views were not sought."
The Children's Commissioners also express serious concern about the impact on young people of the UK Government's plans to scrap the Human Rights Act, which enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights in UK law, and replace it with a British Bill of Rights.
"The HRA has been vital in promoting and protecting the rights of children in the United Kingdom and the European Court of Human Rights has had an important role in developing the protection offered to children by the ECHR," they said. "The commissioners are concerned that any amendment or replacement of the HRA is likely to be regressive."
While Conservative Ministers' responses to figures on poverty have been to criticise the statistics and seek to redraw the criteria, Scottish Commissioner Tam Baillie was clear: "It is deeply disturbing that the UK Government, aware of the current and future impact of its cuts, appears to be targeting the most vulnerable people in our society.
"The UK Government's austerity measures have condemned 2.3 million children into poverty and that number will increase if further proposed cuts are enacted. For one of the richest countries in the world, this is a policy of choice and it is a disgrace. It is avoidable and unacceptable."
We agree. Is a united political response too much to ask for?
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