ABSTRACT
The Conservative Party defines itself as the party of ‘the family’. But this identification has become particularly problematic at a time when the ‘family’ is in disarray and when government policy has, in many ways, disadvantaged families. This chapter explores the tensions in New Right ideology on the family, poverty and childhood and the ways in which these are reflected in many of the policies directed towards children and families. It focuses on three areas of policy: child benefit, the Social Security Act 1986 and, in particular, the Child Support Act. It concludes by comparing the rhetoric and policy with the material reality of children’s lives and contemporary expectations of childhood. Children themselves, it argues, are all too often absent from the political theatre of family policy.
