Let Them Eat...?

[allenlondon]

MPs rejected the plea for free school meals to be given during holidays.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/oct/21/marcus-rashford-in-despair-as-mps-reject-free-school-meal-plan

Should be very good news for all the Answerbanks who think poor families spend too much on smoking, gambling, etc, so should get NO more handouts!

Let them eat cake! Or nothing.

Charles Dickens would not believe it.


A

[Spicerack]

You can borrow up to the value of your first payment, ummmm, and pay it back over a year.

[LadyCG]

I do agree with Sqad by the way. The choice of BA says rather more about the OP than it does about the person to whom the vituperative and invidious remark was made.

[Spicerack]

Houses are an investment, ummmm. Should poor taxpayers who live in a bedsit create a windfall for an out of work mortgage holder?

[ummmm]

I haven't thought about it that deeply. What would happen though if they lose their house? I am thinking short term, not career benefits claimants.

It's easy to say 'sell your house' but that also costs quite a bit.

[bednobs]

I wonder if those people who are saying "my mum did this, my grandmother did that, my carers used to do the other" know what their mums, grandmothers and carers actually had to do to keep afloat? It's all very well looking back from a middle class perspective, but I would doubt many people have actually spoken the their relatives about what dodgy things they did (or of course didn't do:) , or how they felt about it all, how difficult it really was

[Boto]

There was a woman on TV a couple of weeks ago saying that she couldn’t afford to feed her children. She must have been about 20 stone so perhaps she should feed her kids and not herself. Just because people say they can’t afford food it doesn’t make it true. What do they do with their money?

[naomi24]

I agree with CG - and like her I too would sell the clothes off my back - or scrub floors if necessary - to feed my children. Children are their parents’ responsibility. However, whilst some children do come from terrible homes - and hopefully they are known to Social Services - that’s not a reason to offer free meals to all children nationwide regardless of their background. Our benefits system is, in my opinion, generous, but the sad fact is some parents don't care for their children properly - even though they have the money to do so.

[bednobs]

those children you refer to that are known to SS are probably the ones who get free school meals, and who wont be getting them in the holidays tho naomi, so essentially they will be hungry

[bednobs]

"that’s not a reason to offer free meals to all children nationwide regardless of their background."
I don't think that's what is being suggested though - just that those entitled to free school meals get them out of school too

[naomi24]

Precisely, bednobs. So make arrangements for them ... not for the millions who don't need it.

[TrevorThePug]

Jackdaw33
“My grandmother, a widow, fed, clothed and housed herself and two young daughters on ten shillings (50p) a week. Mind, that was a hundred years ago.”


Lol. Ten shillings? Bloomin’ luxury.

[bednobs]

that IS who it is being suggested arrangements are made for though isn't it? Or am I completely misunderstanding?

[bednobs]

IE not all children, just those who are entitled to free school meals (those with the lowest incomes)

[ummmm]

Boto - they are probably eating high fat processed food.

[Mozz71]

I thought it was for kods who are eligible for free school meal as normal. Those who are, by definition, from less well off families.

[Mamyalynne]

Marcus has campaigned for the poorest of children to receive meals during the coming school holidays - yes.

Not all children.

[Jackdaw33]

100 years ago pawn shops did a a roaring trade. It was not unusual for someone to pawn their Sunday suit on a Monday for a few shillings to tide them over till payday, when it would be redeemed.

[Mamyalynne]

Although the Government have knocked it back it has raised a lot of local support up and down the Country.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/23/marcus-rashford-public-campaign-end-child-food-poverty-covid-food-donations-mp-reject-free-school-meals

[naomi24]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, bednobs. If it is limited to those children who really will go hungry, then yes, I'm all for it. As much as I detest people who don't do their best for their children, kids can't choose their parents. They're stuck with those they're born to .... unfortunately. Poor little mites.

[allenlondon]

What's disheartening about the replies (well, many of them), is the utter lack of compassion.

When you walk past a child, hungry and in trouble, do you just do that, walk past? Or do you say "Sorry you're hungry, lassie, but I can't do anything about it - blame your parents."

Or do you feed the child?