The biggest story of all, however, has been that of Karen Matthews. A serial welfare abuser, Karen Matthews used her seven children from five different fathers as cash generators. Her ultimate money-raising scam was to arrange for one of her daughters, Shannon, to be kidnapped; while the child was supposedly being held hostage, her mother sold the story to the tabloids.

The Conservatives are blaming Britain's welfare ghettoes for breeding these horror stories. David Cameron has worried that all social norms have broken down in the communities where millions of children are raised: