Content? Almost...

It has been an interesting five months for me. Having my wife return and getting used to married life again without the unwelcome interruption of the Home Office has had its usual ups and downs, but I am dangerously close to becoming content with my lot.

I have always believed until now that when one was "content" then you had actually started a slow decline. I have always believed in setting new goals, making plans and writing daily lists of the tasks to be completed. So although I still do all that and we have big plans for the next three years, I am actually quite content right here, right now.

But I am not sure I should be scared or pleased...

One of the plans on my list is to move from my present flat in Kilburn to somewhere bigger to allow for Nana's ambition to produce a mini-me for my old age. This led me to think about the furore that local and national Labour Party figures have stirred up about the upper limits for claiming benefits the Coaliton Government are bringing in.

Having researched the local property scene recently, to see what my realistic options will be, there are whole areas of Camden which are clearly beyond my reach.  I simply could not afford the higher mortgage payments. Market forces on property prices work against me.

However according to the Labour Party, these same market forces are not supposed to work against people claiming benefits.  So a couple like us, both working and paying taxes, who cannot afford a mortgage payment to live in Bloomsbury, is not supposed to complain about paying our taxes so that another couple with a family can afford to live in the same desirable area, while their astronomic rent is paid for by Housing Benefit.

The Labour Party likes to claim it's on the side of the squeezed middle, but by its actions it should be judged.

We all know they are comfortable about the filthy rich. They did little in office to close the loopholes which allow multi-millionaires to pay little or no tax, and we know it wants to protect those claiming Housing Benefit to stay in desirable parts of Inner London. But what does it promise for the working tax payer? When offered the chance of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in 2010 it flatly refused to consider raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 because it wants about half the population dependent on state hand-outs for at least part of their income. It is this dependency culture they have always fostered which prevents so many from making the change back into work from a life of benefits.

Meanwhile I will have to find a place to live which I can afford after paying my taxes. And it won't be in Bloomsbury....