Governing parties often define their purpose when they are in office rather than in opposition. Margaret Thatcher discovered the virtues of privatisation some time after winning power in 1979. Labour launched its crusade against child poverty almost two years after its victory in 1997. Speaking at Toynbee Hall in east London in March 1999, Tony Blair startled his audience with a pledge to end child poverty within 20 years. The government subsequently set two ambitious targets as milestones on the journey: to have reduced the number of poor children by at least a quarter in 2004-05; and to have cut it by half in 2010-11.
展开▼
