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  Barry, I was being mildly tongue in cheek about the motivation behind something that appears to be ill thought out.
  
  As I said I agree with the need to trim government expenditure on benefits, but it is imperative that there is a sense and actuality of equity.
  
  I know it is difficult as no one, least of all the government, wants to have to institute another set of means tests.
  
  I would deal with child benefit as follows:
  a) limit it to only the first 2 children
  b) stop it once the child reaches 16 (perhaps paying a school/training attendance benefit to the child for the next 2 years)
  c) I would make no extra payment for the first child
  d) I would look to phase out child benefit entirely over the next 10 years and use the money saved to improve education provision

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