Caroline Flint

I was amazed to hear this morning that Labour's new Hosuing Minister, Caroline Flint was shocked to learn that half of all households paid for by benefits are without work. Amazed because the scale of this problem has been apparent to many people for many years now.

What do I think of Caroline Flint? I must admit I knew little about her, so I had a dig around the web and found this short biography from 2002. "Caroline Flint was first elected in 1997, and was soon noticed by political commentators and sketch writers as standing out as one of the most loyal Labour MPs on the backbenches. She quickly became parliamentary private secretary to Peter Hain, whom she followed from the Foreign Office to the DTI and back again... Ms Flint has a strongly political background, having worked both as a local government officer (in Lambeth) and as a union official - she remains close to the GMB. She is also associated with the Blairite journal Renewal and is a member of the Fabian Society... She was a surprising choice for the former mining community of Don Valley, but has put a lot of effort in pursuing constituency subjects, especially on the issues of economic regeneration and the environment."

So her interest in economic regeneration didn't include an examination of the links between not working and social housing? Don't forget that we pay her and her colleagues salaries.