This morning on the Today Programme, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith blamed the deficit on “chasing” child poverty targets.

Iain-Duncan-SmithNot for IDS recklessness on behalf of bankers and the banks or the global financial crisis, no, the reason “we got into such a problem over debt and the deficit” is because too much was done to reduce child poverty.

Here’s what he said (audio, 07.41-08.30):

“The key point today is that these child poverty figures, missing their targets, it’s not just a case of missing their targets, John, you know we wonder why we got into such a problem over debt and the deficit, and it’s because actually in chasing the target, to able, it got more and more difficult and more and more money had to be spent, and my problem is it’s not that, as you say, you know redistributing income is right, it is right, we have to do some of that, but we need to make sure when we do, that what we’re doing, has a change to someone’s life, not just leaving them as they are with more money, but actually getting them to the state so that they actually moves through to a process where they take control of their life, and that’s fair to them, and then that becomes fair to taxpayers, who accept that what they’re paying their taxes for is reasonable because they see something changing in the environment of those who are unemployed and in poverty.”

In 2002, Michael Crick on the TV programme Newsnight caused some embarrassment when probing Duncan Smith's curriculum vitae, which had been in circulation for years, for example, being reproduced in the authoritative annual Dod's Parliamentary Companion for the previous ten years. The CV claimed that he had attended the University of Perugia when he had in fact attended the Università per Stranieri, which did not grant any degrees at that time, and a claim that he had attended the prestigious-sounding Dunchurch College of Management turned out to refer to some weekend courses at GEC Marconi's staff college.

Duncan Smith was educated at St. Peter's RC Secondary School, Solihull until the age of 14 and was subsequently educated at HMS Conway, a naval training school on the isle of Anglesey (where he allegedly played rugby union in the position of fly-half alongside Clive Woodward at centre) until he was 18. He then also attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

The number of children living in poverty in the UK fell by 300,000 last year as household incomes dropped, official figures have revealed.

In 2010-11, 18% of children (2.3 million) lived in households classed as below the poverty line - a 2% drop.

This was because the measure is based on median incomes which also went down.

He said on Breakfast TV that if you just gave more money to the parents of these poor children they would only spend it on drugs.

Also I'm so angry about some of it I doubt if I could do anything but swear.

That would be okay. In fact, I'll do it for you, if you like.