Perhaps when, in 1999, Labour pledged to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020, the party leadership thought this grand aim would have been forgotten 11 years later.
This albatross clinging to Labour's neck is reluctant to let go, though, and figures out this week show that 13% of children live in "severe and persistent" poverty.
This is hardly a sign of success - more of a policy that has gone out of control in the wrong direction despite the huge effort that has gone into early years support through schemes such as Sure Start.
The release of Measuring Severe Child Poverty in the UK coincided with publication of another report that is an embarrassing indictment of this country's social lot.
The National Equality Panel's An Anatomy of Economic Inequality showed, despite its dry title, that we have become a more unequal society.
Te trend has its genesis in the Conservatives' "wealth-creating" policies of the 1980s, but it has continued under Labour to such an extent that the UK ranks seventh in the income inequality table of OECD nations.
Although we are a more equal society than the economic powerhouses of Mexico, Turkey and Poland, we are less so than Greece and the Irish Republic. Only Italy, with its famous north-south divide, is more unequal among western European nations.
That child poverty is linked to this poor international comparison is indisputable. It is evident that those children born into disadvantaged families find it difficult to break out of the cycle as they grow up.
This is reinforced by the mobility of better-off parents who can afford to move home in order to take advantage of the best schools in the state system - thank you, league tables.
Nevertheless, An Anatomy of Economic Inequality does emphasise the importance of early years support in attempting to break this cycle. Although nobody has ever said that Sure Start and the like would deliver overnight results, it is probably reasonable to assume that, by now, some progress would have been made on reducing inequality.
There is a lesson in all this for the political parties as they head towards a general election campaign: and that is not to make wild promises about what will be delivered in 10 or 20 years' time - because some of us might remember them, 10 or 20 years later.
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