The End of the Universal Child Benefit

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/04/child-benefit-for-all-ended
(Tories raise alarm as George Osborne ends child benefit for all, from The Guardian)

Chancellor George Osborne has announced today that the Conservative government will withdraw the child benefit from those parents earning enough to pay higher-rate tax - currently about 44,000 pound in their annual income.

The change will be introduced in 2013. I think this will be remembered as a historically important reform in the British welfare state, since the child benefit, originally put into practice by William Beveridge in 1946, has been well-known as one of the most famous 'universalistic' policies along with the National Health Service.

This reform plan seems to imply that the British welfare state will be shifted more towards Anglo-American model which is based on the idea of 'particularism' and lower taxation, rather than the Nordic model, which has attempted to realize social solidarity through various universalistic policies and higher taxation.

Since the campaign for the general election started at the beginning of this year, party difference between the Labour and the Conservative has become much more apparent than before. George Osborne and his Conservative government seems to focus more on cutting the welfare and other public spending, rather than taxing banks and super-rich people.

When capitalism does not work well, it becomes easier to see which political party (and which politician) reflects which social class's interest.