Yet more handouts to families, this time to fund school uniforms, are another sure sign that an election is about to be called.

But as we have seen before, such is the sense of entitlement built up by the welfare state that people with no real need complain when they miss out:

Ms Pilgrim, whose two daughters, aged 13 and 16, attend Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta, will not qualify for the tax break because she and her husband earn a combined income of more than $100,000.

”It cheeses me off a bit,” she said. ”It’s a great help for families on Family Tax Benefit A, but for middle-income earners like me, we miss out.”

Of course my heart bleeds for the problems of ‘middle’ (actually, fairly high) income earners.