Child poverty legislation may not make abolition more likely

Presuming the legislation is in place by the time of the next election - highly possible - and Labour loses that election - highly probable - will it have any impact on a future Tory government? Obviously, there will be political difficulties in Cameron, Osborne and co repealing the legislation but they could do so, couching it as a bureaucratic, statist instrument to tackle a desirable end that should be achieved by other means (voluntary sector action, social entrepreneurship etc).

The other thing is that legislation does not of itself make meeting the target a certainty. Look at the government's target to abolish fuel poverty by 2010 for vulnerable households. In a recent report, the government's own fuel poverty advisors said it appeared to have given up on this legally binding target, and that was before massive hikes in fuel prices put it further out of reach.

Ideally, legislation should do two things:- ensure the the machinery of Whitehall gives the target the requisite level of attention and bind current and future governments to pursuing it whichever way the political wind blows.

But in the real world, the dynamic interaction of public opinion, our often capricious media and the Westminster village will make this a hard ideal to live up to.