Another blatant vote buying bribe from the Labour government

They have no shame. That much has been clear from the last ten years.

Alan Johnson is to hand out up to £200 - no strings attached - to pregnant women. He claims its to buy vegetables - but really he's buying votes with other peoples money.

The scheme runs like this, according to the Daily Telegraph;

Women in their 29th week of pregnancy will be given a one-off payment of as much as £200 along with professional health advice on maintaining a balanced diet.

But there will be no checks to see what the money is spent upon. Maybe it will substitute for existing spending - perhaps more take outs and pizzas. Alcohol and cigarettes seem likely spending priorities for some people also - being as ever counter productive. Remember that eating vegetables is not only good for you but cheap - and still people don't do it. How would more money really help ?

Why not dispense vitamins, or even food vouchers ( though I think the subsituted expenditure rather snookers this idea) ?

But it does provide a way for the government to hand a load of cash to its potential supporters.

The initiative will cost you an estimated £70-£80 million a year.

Tax payer funded bribery - corruption ? That'll be Brown's Labour party.

Update: Rowan Pelling makes many of the same comments in todays Telegraph (Sept 11th) here - but doesn't make the jump to naked politics that I have.