The Tory government continues to exacerbate the poverty and hunger that it has inflicted on millions, pretending compassion while announcing occasional small steps forward, in between the giant steps back.

We should not forget, however, that it was Tony B'liar and New Labour that began the process of making wealth trickle upward. They did not target the poor particularly, but they gave the rich more power which they used to take from working people. This weakened traditions of compassion and solidarity, which then made it easy for the Tories to win popularity by promising to do more and better trickle-up, and hold it by squeezing the poor (but not acknowledging they were doing so).