Latest news with #Canute
The Sun
3 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
I grew up in poverty – but lifting the 2 child benefit cap for all families is not fair on taxpayers
AS KING Canute found over a thousand years ago, it is quite difficult to stand on a beach and order the tide to recede. Today, it is equally difficult to make the argument that giving families cash is not always the best way of lifting them out of poverty. 2 This is especially true when one particular measure becomes the symbol of whether or not you're on the right side of the debate about child poverty. But as someone who now can afford the comforts of life, I constantly remind myself of my childhood. The grinding poverty that I experienced when my father was killed in a work accident when I was 12 – leaving my mother, who had serious health problems, to fight a long battle for minimal compensation. Having only bread and dripping in the house was, by anyone's standards, a hallmark of absolute poverty. Why on earth would I question, therefore, the morality of reversing a Tory policy introduced eight years ago? This restricts the additional supplement to universal credit – worth over £3,000 a child per year – to just two children. I should know, my friends tell me, that the easiest and quickest way of overcoming the growth in child poverty is to restore the £3.5 billion pounds it would cost to give this additional money for all the children in every family entitled to the credit. It is true that the policy, introduced in 2017, failed its first test. Women did not stop having more than two children even when they were strapped for cash. It is still unclear why. After all, many people have to make a calculation as to how many children they can afford. 2 But one thing must be certain: namely, that if you give parents a relatively substantial additional amount of money for every child they have whilst entitled to benefits, they are likely to have more children. Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, said as much last week. His argument for restoring the benefit to the third and subsequent children was precisely that we needed to persuade low- income families to have more children. Surely having children that you cannot afford to feed is the legacy of a bygone era? All those earning below £60,000 are entitled to the basic c hild benefit, so the argument is about just over £60 a week extra per child. One difficulty in having a sensible debate about what really works in overcoming intergenerational poverty is the lack of reliable statistics. Some people have claimed, over recent days, that over 50 per cent of children in Manchester and Birmingham live in poverty. I fear that such claims should be treated with scepticism. Those struggling to make ends meet – sometimes having not just one but two jobs – who pay their taxes and national insurance and plan their lives around what can be afforded, have the right to question where their hard-earned wages go. The simple and obvious truth is that child poverty springs from the lack of income of the adults who care for them. Transforming their lives impacts directly on the children in their family. There is a limit to how much money taxpayers are willing to hand over to pay for another family's children. Helping them to help themselves is a different matter. So, what would I do? Firstly, I would ensure that families with a disabled youngster automatically have the entitlement restored. This would self-evidently apply also to multiple births. In both cases, life is not only more difficult, it is also harder to get and keep a job. I would come down like a ton of bricks on absent parents. My mum was a single parent because she was widowed; many others are single in the sense that the other partner has walked away. The Child Maintenance Service should step up efforts to identify and pursue absent parents who do not pay their fair share towards their child. We, the community, have a clear duty to support and assist those in need. To help those where a helping hand will restore them to independence and self-reliance. But there is an obligation on individuals as well as the State, and mutual help starts with individuals taking some responsibility for themselves. Finally, if (and this is where I am in full agreement with colleagues campaigning to dramatically reduce child poverty) we make substantial sums of money available to overcome hardship, then a comprehensive approach to supporting the families must surely be the best way to achieve this. As ever in politics there is a trade off. What you spend on handing over cash is not available to invest in public services: that is the reality. Help from the moment a child is born, not just with childcare but with nurturing and child development. Dedicated backing to gain skills and employment and to taper the withdrawal of help so that it genuinely becomes worthwhile having and keeping a job. A contract between the taxpayer and the individual or household. Government is about difficult choices, that is why Keir Starmer and his colleagues are agonising over what to do next.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Oklahoma high school Class A-II baseball: Canute tops Shattuck for first spring title
SHAWNEE — Clay Randall entered the Class A-II state title game with a completely different mindset. The Canute junior is pretty expressive heading into most matchups. A vocal teammate. But on this day, Randall was far from that. Advertisement 'As soon as I stepped on that bus, I put on my headphones and I was just locked in,' he said. 'More locked in than I've ever been. I just had one goal.' Randall fulfilled that goal Saturday. The right-hander pitched a complete game and was effective all game as he led Class A-II second-ranked Canute to a 6-3 victory over No. 4 Shattuck in the championship game at Shawnee High School. Pre-order book on Oklahoma HS basketball at 'The Big House' More: Oklahoma high school track & field takeaways: Washington girls repeat with Class 3A title For the first time in program history, Canute is a spring baseball state champion. Advertisement 'To make history, it's something special,' Randall said. 'You only get to do it once. So to be able to do it and do it like that … that's special. That's special to bring it home. You can see all the emotions.' Canute (24-4) — which won the Class A fall title in 2020, its only baseball championship heading into Saturday — had a strong start against Shattuck (32-4), leading 1-0 at the end of the first inning following a single by Luke Spitz that drove in Jake Beutler. Those two juniors led Canute offensively as Spitz finished 2 for 2 with two RBIs and Beutler went 2 for 4 with one RBI. Also driving in one run each were juniors Jake Knutson and Teague Farris. Advertisement Canute didn't score after the fourth inning, but the Trojans didn't need to as Randall kept Shattuck off the scoreboard until the sixth and gave up 10 hits while striking out five. 'We were just on a mission,' Canute coach Bobby Blackburn said. 'We knew we were going to take hits, but we knew what our goal was. That's all we've talked about. We gave up five runs in all six of our playoff games. We just made a commitment.' More: Oklahoma high school baseball: Classes A-I, A-II and B state tournament schedule, scores Jake Beutler scores as the Canute Trojans defeat the Shattuck Indians for the Class A II State Baseball Championship title on May 10, 2025; Shawnee, OK, [ENTER COUNTRY]; at Shawnee High School. Mandatory Credit: Steve Sisney-The Oklahoman Canute didn't advance to the state tournament this past fall. That drove the Trojans leading up to the spring and throughout the season. Advertisement 'Back in the fall earlier this year, we'd fall apart,' said Blackburn, who is in his second year as Canute's coach. 'We let things get to us. We just made a conscious effort to hang in there and battle.' Blackburn has lots of options on the mound as 10 of his 12 players pitch. Randall got the ball Saturday and took advantage of the opportunity. 'This is the guy that is not big, he's not intimidating, but he's one of the toughest kids I've ever had,' Blackburn said. 'He's got nothing but heart. And I knew if we got to the state championship, I was handing him the baseball and he wasn't going to let me down, and he didn't. He pitched his tail off.' Advertisement More: Vote: Who will be Oklahoma high school baseball player of the year? Nick Sardis covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Nick? He can be reached at nsardis@ or on Twitter at @nicksardis. Sign up for The Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Nick's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma HS baseball: Canute tops Shattuck for 2025 Class A-II title
