In all but the most tragic and exceptional cases (I cite a friend of mine whose husband died suddenly leaving her with three-year-old triplets), I would suggest that most people who are in the higher rate tax bracket appreciate the little extra that is child benefit, but will hardly starve in the gutter without it. I know of instances where the child benefit constitutes the relevant child's weekly pocket money allowance.

Yes, it's nice to actually get something from the government for a change (although I'm not in the top tax bracket, so I'll not be losing out either), but I don't think anyone should begrudge it.

I heard on the news this morning that the national debt is equivalent to something less than £2k per head of the population. Apologies, I forget the exact figure. It's time for the middle classes to open their cheque books - say £4k apiece (and others according to their means) should make a serious dent in the national debt once and for all and with the likes of, oooh, say, Simon Cowell putting in substantially larger amounts, I reckon the National Debt could be wiped out in fairly short order and we could all get on with our lives without this cloud of doom and gloom hanging over us and suffering a death by a thousand cuts. Oh, and bankers can pay double too.