knows no bounds. If he wanted to assist single mothers in getting a job then he would put real resources into childcare provision. A few million pounds of lottery money diverted into homework clubs is more than a joke - it's an insult.
The fact that current benefit rules exempt single mothers with children under 16 from any obligation to consider job offers or training is not what causes the situation where nearly 50 per cent of lone mothers were living on less than £100 per week in 1994.
Britain has one of the lowest levels of child care provision in Europe and one of the highest levels of unFunny that...
While the detailed sanctions behind the government proposals are yet to fully emerge, the tie-in with the "Welfare to Work" initiative makes clear that the motivation is cutting the benefits bill not giving choice. The Job Seekers Allowance has already "disan peared" the largest number of people since the poll tax -Labour will continue with it and bring in these new attacks too.
Apart from childcare, the other main reason for the perilous situation of so many single parents in hero of Blair's - Margaret Thatcher - and her policy of a "flexible labour market".
Wages have been driven down while childcare and other essential costs like housing and food go up, reducing the possibility of being able to afford to work.
Yet this is the direction in which Blair wants to continue to steer Britain - and take the rest of Europe with him.
The British Euromarchers had already raised slogans around the rights of single parents as they wound their way though the north before these latest attacks were announced. The Maastricht convergence criteria will lead to a further undermining of what few services and what little childcare provision exists The marchers on the road, and their supporters in the cities and towns they are passing through, are exclusion.
We may be relatively few in numbers, but we are tapping into a mood that wants a different Europe to that on offer from the bosses and bankers. That mood led to the Europe-wide strikes and demonstrations against the closure of Renault. Vilvoorde, and to the defeat of Chirac's right wing government in France.
Here in Britan not onl have we won the support of many labour movement organisations and interest - and money - from many on the streets we have trodden: but TUC leader John Monks has been put under debate with us.
Positive measures to support the 70 per cent of lone parents who are dependent on benefits in Britain today would focus on serious investment in childcare - and affordable quality, childcare that is available the hours that parents need it and 52 weeks of the year. They would mean a commitment to a minimum wage and controls on rents that would end the poverty trap that so many are caught in. Such demands need to be fought for across the labour movement. The slogans that have been chanted by the Euromarchers wending their way to Amsterdam will still be needed after the Euro summit on June 14: we intend to make sure they are still neard