This morning I used the cakes I baked yesterday as a way of illustrating how metaphorical 'cakes' get sliced up.

The big chocolate cake, made with ingredients that were, as far as possible, Fairtrade, organic, free range, British (Scottish) was used to look at how trade works out... that the largest single slice (more than a third) goes to multinational and shareholders whilst a tiny amount (less than a fifteenth) goes to the growers.  When I took a small piece of cake form the toddler was representing 'mulitnationals' and gave it to the person representing 'growers' she cried real tears.  An enacted sermon/parable if ever there was one!

We also used a couple of pie charts I found online to look at how the UK Government slices up its cake/pie and we sliced up one cake to represent education, health, social protection, defence, inland security and international aid as well as 'everything else'.

Time ran out, so we didn't slice up the third cake, but we did explore how the 'social protection' cake is further sliced, between state pensions, disability payments, housing benefit, job-seekers allowances etc.

No message, just the realisation that tough decisions have to be made and there are no easy answers.  I did suggest that I doubted I'd get elected on an "I will increase your taxes" manifesto, even if I would gladly pay a bit more if it meant that welfare, education ands health were sustainable.

The cakes tasted pretty darned good, even if I say so, who shouldn't!