This week the opposition forced a parliamentary debate on the mess surrounding the government’s plan to cut child benefit. The Institute for Fiscal Studies say that the government’s proposals are ‘fundamentally unfair’ and for some families a pay rise will actually result in a significant cut in household income.

We got no answers from Treasury ministers during the debate so I asked in the Commons for the prime minister to explain his definition of fairness.

At Business Questions on Thursday I also asked for the government to find time for a debate on what on earth it means by fairness.

It would give them an opportunity to explain why from April they are penalising almost half a million children with draconian cuts to child tax credit.

At the moment because of tax credits a couple where one parent works and the other looks after the children are £59 a week better off.

It pays to work.

From April they will be £14 a week better off on the dole – despite the government’s claims it wants to make work pay!

Meanwhile a letter from the business secretary to the prime minister mysteriously found its way into the public domain this week.

The business secretary thinks the government lacks a ‘compelling vision’.

I said in the Commons that the business secretary is right; middle income families being hit by cuts to child benefit, hard working families being penalised by child tax cuts and women are being shut out of the legal system.

That is not a compelling vision for Britain.

Is it any wonder that the prime minister’s guru Steve Hilton, the man who authored the statement ‘let sunshine win the day’, has fled to California in search of it?

The deputy prime minister’s chief economic adviser has also resigned to ‘go travelling the world’. I asked the leader of the House find time for a debate on why so many senior government advisers are fleeing the country.

The business secretary said he thought his letter was ‘helpful’.

I suppose it was. As I said in the Commons, helpful in the sense that it boost the business secretary’s party profile ahead of the Liberal Democrat spring conference.

In the spirit of helpfulness I told the leader of the House on Thursday just who is now against the government’s disastrous health bill. Doctors, nurses, royal colleges, public health organisations, patients, GP groups and even the cabinet secretary!  I helpfully suggested that instead of proceeding with this disastrous bill the government just drop it and start again!

Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a happy International Women’s Day!

—————————————————————————————

Angela Eagle is MP for Wallsey, shadow leader of the Commons and writes the weekly Business of Parliament column for Progress