Not fair to the ladies

FIRST, the good news. David Cameron's Tory-dominated Coalition seems to have finally woken up to the fact that women are bearing an unfair share of pain from Government policies.

We have been pointing it out for months, but Downing Street is slow to grasp what is happening in the real world outside those wrought-iron black gates.

But now the bad news. A leaked No 10 memo breathes panic from every line and refuses to confront the fact that cuts are making life a misery for so many women.

How can they expect a mother to have faith in the Coalition when it is freezing child benefit before axing the payment for millions of families?

And far from helping with childcare, Mr Cameron's administration has been busy withdrawing financial help.

Let's be clear. Women are only on the Downing Street radar because Mr Cameron is worried about losing female votes.

And they will not be fooled by official documents which offer them little but spin and would deliver even less.

The rail story

TRANSPORT Secretary Philip Hammond has a cheek telling MPs that trains have become a "rich man's toy".

The millionaire Cabinet minister's policy of raising the cost of tickets by far more than inflation every year is what is pricing passengers off the railways.

So it is Mr Hammond himself who is turning the network into a form of transport affordable only by the wealthier.

The Fat Controller should take responsibility for his own policy, starting by trimming next year's eight per cent increases.

Fuelish crook

GETAWAY driver Danny Stewart can't be the brightest crook after running out of petrol.

He should stick to the straight and narrow, filling up the tank before he sets off.