Let me tell you why I support Labour and believe the welfare of society is more important to the wealth of the nation than the promotion of the individual.
I'm lucky, I'm privileged and so are my kids and family. So should I care about what happens to others less fortunate? Dam right I should care. You can't value people on what they own, what job they have, where they live, what car they drive, how much they earn.
However increasingly, life opportunities in the UK are linked to these values. Your ability to provide a decent education for your children for example is intrinsically linked to your finances. Is this right? Of course not. The same of course, is true of health provision. So financial poverty brings along other forms of poverty too - education poverty and health service provision poverty for example.
It brings along a greater poverty too - the poverty of opportunity and expectation which must be most soul destroying. Not only are you subjected to poverty but your ability to escape from it is less than those who are better off.
Is any of this right? Is this really the way we want our kids to grow up in the 21st Century in one of the richest nations on earth? Surely there must be a better way?
Now Labour certainly does not have all the answers, I'm certain of that. In fact increasingly it seems to provide less answers than in previous years. Yet having said that it provides more of a solution and support than any other credible political party. Ideally I'd prefer them to focus on reducing the effect of relative wealth (or in many cases poverty) on life chances rather than this nonsense over balancing the budget in line with Conservative economic policy.
Putting resources into the poorest areas of Britain is an investment in our country's future. If by doing so we can improve health provision, improve education provision, improve social services provision then the investment will bear fruit in a better educated, healthier population more able to cope with the demands of modern society and globalisation.
To paraphrase someone who once spoke of the cost of education, "If you think investment in the poor is expensive, please examine the cost of not investing". Without providing support we can not have a functioning society, and the cost of that in human terms as well as financial is horrific.
(I'll get off my soap box now)