There's a Change.org petition going around calling for the end of subsidised meals at the HofP.
How out of touch are those idiots?
It's worth checking out Marcus Rashfords Twitter feed. Businesses and local councils all over the country pledging to supply free meals over the holidays.
My no-mark Tory MP, who voted against free school meals, is getting dogs abuse about this all over social meedya. And rightfully so. He's a ****!
It just goes to show how detached from reality they are. Its a relatively small amount of money but they must surely realise how bad it looks to all but the hardest-hearted of bastards. Its not even like its permanent. It's just to see the most disadvantaged people through a pandemic.
Anyway... here's a tweet sent by multimillionaire and Tory MP, Jeremy Hunt, about getting his nice lunch at his local gastropub subsidised by us plebs
https://twitter.com/Jeremy_Hunt/status/1290295723515404291?s=20
I do see the point that the system is so ****ed up that kids need schools to provide meals because households are too poor to do it themselves, and even have some sympathy with those calling for that to be fixed, but letting kids go hungry now while it gets sorted (if it ever will b) is kind of like turning up to a road accident and refusing to treat the victim because we need to deal with dangerous driving to stop it happening in the first place.
It's not an either or situation. We must do both.
I’d quite like to make MPs who voted against feeding poor kids have to explain to those kids, to their face, why they had the opportunity to feed them, but chose not to. Perhaps showing them what they spent the money on instead.
Check out Marcus's Twitter feed, what a hero
https://twitter.com/MarcusRashford/status/1319572941575782400
My MP didn't vote the other day, but he has this as the lead on his website.
https://www.christianwakeford.org.uk/news/free-school-breakfasts-can-transform-lives
Why didn't he vote?
Check out Marcus’s Twitter feed, what a hero
Im 100% with Marcus on this kids need food and as a poor kid growing up myself it makes me so mad that this is happening. Not content with taking milk away they now want to take all the food! What annoys me even more is like some old bloke walking in his garden to fund the NHS we now have local people stepping in on mass to make up for the short coming of our gov.' its shocking!
Like Tom says the MPs who voted again this should be made to explain their decision, why do they hate kids and want them to go without food.
the star sticks the boot in! ? :/
Its a shocking measure of our society that we are punishing parents wrongdoings by letting their children starve.
However, MPs, media personalities, and whoever else that opposed school meals enjoying and promoting the eat out to help out scheme is irrelevant. EOTHO was always about supporting the businesses and their employees in the hospitality sector, not about reducing the cost of food to the public.
I'm quite enjoying seeing a United player who isn't universally despised 😀
we now have local people stepping in on mass to make up for the short coming of our gov.’ its shocking!
It should be a shock to no-one that a Tory Govt is pushing responsibility for what decent people think should be a statutory duty onto voluntary organisations. Let those who care pay.
EOTHO was always about supporting the businesses and their employees in the hospitality sector, not about reducing the cost of food to the public.
Why not simply give the money to those businesses and employees then... it could also have gone to the small establishments that were unable to open over the summer then, rather than just those with the inside room, and outside space, to get customers in? It definitely had a "feel good about the government cutting prices for you" edge to it... if you'd been past a Wetherspoons while the offer was one, they did a good job of making that explicit.
However, MPs, media personalities, and whoever else that opposed school meals enjoying and promoting the eat out to help out scheme is irrelevant. EOTHO was always about supporting the businesses and their employees in the hospitality sector, not about reducing the cost of food to the public.
It's not tho, not really - when they can spend £500 million on that, but not find £20 million to feed some starving kids it all becomes relevant. Especially the way they are spaffing the cash about to all their mates.
It's all a bit click baity morale outrage de jour this.
Tory MPs hating children and wanting them to starve, no its far more mundane, vacuous Tory MPs doing what they are told to keep their snouts in the trough, bit like Brexit, the plight of the kids won't even have registered.
Kids going to starve this year without free school meals, same issue as last year but no one noticed, probably made worse by Covid but in that case concentrate on the furlough scheme.
Do we have a problem with some children not getting enough nutritional food, course we do, will this fix it, probably not, should we do it anyway, yes, is it the biggest issue facing the country at the moment, no not really.
Want to sort out child poverty properly we need to properly engage with poor parenting, lack of aspiration, lack of opportunities, lack of money going into fund all this, the money that is not being spent sensibly (by government and parents).
Sorry, struggling to get quite as wound up about this as some of you, maybe all my hate for the current government has already been used up due to Brexit and Covid. It also sits a bit oddly with me that someone paid as much as Marcus Rashford is the one making the fuss, don't know him personally, don't follow football, accept from comments on here that he's a decent bloke but still.
20 million quid seems a relatively trifling sum of money (particularly in these Covid times) when to not spend it does such a monumental amount of damage to your image, that was hardly great to begin with. Unless you really are only now even bothering to talk to the 'they're all ****less layabouts' mob
I was watching the Thick of It the other night. The episode where Tory spin doctor Stuart Pearson is sacked. His parting speech could have been written just to describe this present lot
Its a bit sweary, but very accurate...
Want to sort out child poverty properly we need to properly engage with poor parenting, lack of aspiration, lack of opportunities, lack of money going into fund all this, the money that is not being spent sensibly (by government and parents).
And you'll have this in place ready for half term next week, yes?
It’s all a bit click baity morale outrage de jour this.
That's what they want you to think.
And Marcus Rashford is doing it because people will listen to him and he benefitted from free school meals as a kid.
Want to sort out child poverty properly we need to properly engage with poor parenting, lack of aspiration, lack of opportunities, lack of money going into fund all this
Nu Labour (boooooo...bloody centrists!!!) did exactly this through schemes like Surestart. Dave and Gideon scrapped it all approximately 5 seconds after they were elected.
https://twitter.com/peterwalker99/status/1319604014711975941?s=21
It’s not tho, not really – when they can spend £500 million on that, but not find £20 million to feed some starving kids it all becomes relevant. Especially the way they are spaffing the cash about to all their mates.
how much does the government spend every day? You could just as easily complain about any spending on anything that doesn't immediately feed, care for, and house the general population.
From a compassionate point of view, prioritising middle class leisure time over starving kids is worng, clearly.
But from an economics point of view, giving the money to business owners and employees is a much better use of your millions.
what numpty designed that poster though... both pairs of quotation marks above the quote... just why 🤣 (hoping that's not one of yours actually 😂)I’m quite enjoying seeing a United player who isn’t universally despised
If this was about the last £20 million the government had there might be a discussion.
It is not; there isn't an either/or decision about what to spend the money on.
The principle of providing support to children in food poverty should not be in any doubt.
This would be discretionary spending.
£20 million is a completely imperceptible sum in the context of central government spending.
Think of it another way, the governing party will usually have an eye on policies which cement their position and/or gain them new supporters.
This a guaranteed vote loser.
Marcus Rashford has a much higher approval rating than johnson or any of his clown circus; in addition, the 'popular press' is very much on his side.
That 'man of the people' johnson has clearly failed to understand how damaging this is to him - either that or blind ideology is stopping him from doing what is patently right or cummings has said 'no'.
what numpty designed that poster though…
Not guilty. You can tell it's not one of mine. Theres no glaring spelling errors in it 😀
The line breaks also offend me greatly. Hadn't noticed the quotation marks as I was twitching at the idea of single words on individual lines
This is bringing me to tears...
clickly...it's a bit dusty here...
I HATE the idea of kids going hungry... It's literally a basic, humble requirement.
I had a really poor upbringing - Dad really ill at one point, mum not working, and we had to rely on food tins and such for a period.
We'd have been, frankly, ****ed, if it weren't for that.
This government has SOOOO the wrong idea of what's important.
DrP
Sorry, struggling to get quite as wound up about this as some of you
It’s ok. There are plenty of other people who couldn’t give a **** either. You’re not alone.
But from an economics point of view, giving the money to business owners and employees is a much better use of your millions.
There is plenty of evidence that kids eating a healthy, balanced diet contributes significantly to improved educational outcomes. In turn, that's giving you a lifelong improvement on economic activity for that person. I'd suggest the economic ROI on free school meals is enormous.
Let's be honest... disadvantaged school kids have had a really, really easy year. We should stop mollycoddling them
surely it's obvious that people have been "making a fuss" for ages? But it takes someone with the profile of Rashford to actually get heard.It also sits a bit oddly with me that someone paid as much as Marcus Rashford is the one making the fuss
What I find odd is.. anyone who finds it odd that someone would care about other people?! We need more like him, not less!
This government has SOOOO the wrong idea of what’s important.
I think it was Brexit that was important wasn't it, or that is how they got voted in.
There is plenty of evidence that kids eating a healthy, balanced diet contributes significantly to improved educational outcomes. In turn, that’s giving you a lifelong improvement on economic activity for that person. I’d suggest the economic ROI on free school meals is enormous.
Now life isn't quite a zero sum game, but there are only so many doctors and so on that we need. Everyone that pulls themselves up out of poverty is taking away the birthright jobs of the kids of upper middle class Tory voters. Hence their opposition to it.
PLus the benefit doesn't kick in for decades, no politician cares about that far into the future. See also climate change.
I absolutely ****ing despise them
Completely. In fact Dear old Mum doesnt like it when I start on TORIES %$^&£$ hisssss 😆
I lived their policies.
The get on your bike one. Jesus Fk,
Worked like this.
Unemployed?
You were allowed 11weeks at your home address, ie parents house. After that you had to move somewhere else, find a job, and more importantly somewhere to sleep. The Tory inspired dhss of the time had lists of which B&B took DHSS, but get this, these lists werent available for the claimant, who had by trial and error to find one of these hell holes.
You got a fortnight to find a job and if not, you were forced to move to a different area to try there. How you get there is your own affair, hitch hiking across Britain aint fun.
Allowing wee kids to go to bed hungry is the type of evil we need to stop, by cutting it off at the fing knees. ONE PARTY is the route cause most of the problems we in the UK face.
We award our PM a healthy wage, and we cover all the expenses, as hte job is difficult, stressful and rewards are a given.
But the PM uses his position to make himself a huge pile of extra, bringing thew average to well over half a million, nearly 3/4.
So is he working for himself, or working for us 😕
If he(or any other) is working for themselves, then they have no place occupying that position of trust.
Someone who is unemployed, are given a pittance
Were they to go off and make themselves a wad of cash outwith this, they'd end up in court, and maybe prison, or be forced to return the ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE CLAIM, maybe going back decades.
You'll remember of course when we found out they were blatantly screwing the expenses for ANYTHING they could get.
The law there decided only to look at 2 years of claims, then ut in place legislation to prevent people from uncovering such corruption again.
THE LAW IS THE LAW IS THE LAW
Where the law is modified, then it either isnt the law, or the person implementing doesnt represent it.
ayjaydoubleyou
Free Member
Its a shocking measure of our society that we are punishing parents wrongdoings by letting their children starve
What's the "wrongdoing" that you are talking about in needing food?
Now life isn’t quite a zero sum game, but there are only so many doctors and so on that we need. Everyone that pulls themselves up out of poverty is taking away the birthright jobs of the kids of upper middle class Tory voters. Hence their opposition to it.
PLus the benefit doesn’t kick in for decades, no politician cares about that far into the future. See also climate change.
Not quite zero sum, but it's reasonable to suggest that increasing productivity by having a better educated workforce grows the economy. Would also say that the benefit kicks in pretty early due to reduced spending on benefits and correcting anti social behaviour issues.
The counter argument is that spending more money on benefits increases the attraction of being on benefits. Difficult to deny that one, but IMO better educational outcomes balance against that anyway for the next generation.
The counter argument is that spending more money on benefits increases the attraction of being on benefits. Difficult to deny that one
It makes a convincing soundbite, but is there any evidence to support it? Any examples of a country which increased benefits, and employment fell as a result? I am willing to listen to any hard evidence that increasing benefits tempts people out of full time employment, but I bet it doesn't exist.
What probably could be found is people so downtrodden and miserable through years of systemic abuse they are no longer looking for opportunities that experience tells them don't exist. But that is a problem that can only be solved by creating opportunity not further abuse.
Difficult to deny that one
I'll bite. And I'll deny it. People on benefits are mostly working. Work doesn't always pay to keep your family fed. No one is choosing to be paid so little that they need to claim benefits to feed their children. That's not a choice.
@kelvin, yeah that i find most frustrating, tax payers subsidise company's to pay low wages. In crease the minimum wage, to a living wage. and tax amazon more while your at it.
Much easier to just rename the "minimum wage" as the "living wage", so that people believe that it is a wage you can live on. One straight from the ministry of disinformation that one!
Anyway... this is all nice talk about long term fixes... in the short term... JUST ****ING FEED THE KIDS.
People on benefits are mostly working. Work doesn’t always pay to keep your family fed. No one is choosing to be paid so little that they need to claim benefits to feed their children. That’s not a choice.
Last stats I saw at work, two-thirds of housing benefit claimants were in employment.
We either need to raise wages, and we'll all pay more for goods and services as a result, fair enough, or we address the lack of affordable social housing, which can't happen overnight. Or better still, we do both. Starting just as soon as we've fed these kids next week, and made a plan for Christmas.
Local village pub has asked anyone who needs help next week to feed their kids to contact them. There's a lot of good people putting their own fragile businesses on the line to do the right thing by covering the government's useless arse.
I’ll bite. And I’ll deny it. People on benefits are mostly working. Work doesn’t always pay to keep your family fed. No one is choosing to be paid so little that they need to claim benefits to feed their children. That’s not a choice.
I'll be clear - it's not an argument that I'm making. It was made to me last night, by a friend of mine with plenty of experience of people absolutely getting stuck in the benefits system. It's interesting to hear the discussion from that point of view, at the time it seemed a logical point. Improving benefits does make it more attractive.
You can deny it, but I wouldn't agree. And, somewhat more importantly, the people that vote tory probably don't agree either. Perhaps the best way is to point out that it makes benefits more attractive - but this is only relevant to a small percentage of claimants so the net benefit is massively positive?
I accept the points from you and MSP. I agree that in work benefits prove a failure at a societal level. As does the generational and geographical benefits trap.
Lots of councils doing this…
https://twitter.com/kirkleescouncil/status/1319670388977291266?s=21
Kirklees just the closest to me.
the people that vote tory probably don’t agree either
They disagree because they think people choose to go on benefits, rather than end up in situations that force it on them. I can’t help their prejudices about people on benefits.
Back on topic… we can help feed these kids over the holidays without people becoming “attracted” towards being broke enough for their kids to need that help.
With the fantastic response by small (and sometime large) businesses to plug the gap. I worry the biggest problem now may be due to the toxicity off the tory narrative over the years, those who most need the help feeling ashamed for asking for it.
A classy MP writes to a 16 year old girl…
Jesus Christ is that real?
Edit: oh just looked him up, so I guess it is. This is the guy who fillibustered to try and derail legislation to protect women from violence, who also has some interesting views on climate change
