Free Meals

What this government has done regarding welfare for the poorest, when it is busy looting the tax payers and linings their cronies pockets with vast sums of money is nothing short of disgraceful.

Of course all the charitable work being done, suits the Tories as it relieves them of paying more tax.

I can't see them doing a U- turn on this, as to do so would be to admit that the current benefits etc are inadequate.

I hope that I'm wrong though.

FannyCornforth

I can't see them doing a U- turn on this, as to do so would be to admit that the current benefits etc are inadequate.

I hope that I'm wrong though.

But it’s going to run and run isn’t it ? Well done Dominic Cummings.

I think they will do a U-turn, how can they not?

£7,000 a day for track n trace “consultants”, stop employing one for a week to feed 20,000 children.
Good that restaurants and other businesses are stepping up, but they shouldn’t have to. Meanwhile the tories who voted this down are going back to their stately homes, mansions and swish apartments.

It's just been on the news that Sunak has been banned from his local pub for voting against the bill!

sooziewoosie, I can confirm that Marcus Rashford is indeed a genius football player. Everything else you say about him is also true. He's a national hero.

Footballers wages in the big clubs are high, that's market value. Their careers don't last long, it's a young man's game. Our local chippie is run by an ex professional player. Also, most clubs have strong links with charities and do a good deal of charitable work which isn't publicised. Many individual players contribute both time and money.

Has any one seen the HoC menus? We subsidise the food with our taxes and the prices are astoundingly low. The government handing out contracts to its pals who have no track record eg in PPE/track n trace. That's only one scandal amongst many. To continue the football focus, it's beginning to look as though the government has lost the dressing room.

From the owner of the pub:

"Anyone with a decent moral compass would realise that for a government that has spent £12bn on a Test and Trace system that doesn't work, to not fund food for hungry children is ridiculous and can't be allowed to happen."

My children were all entitled to free school meals. We lived in a quite a middle class area - and lived in our own (mortgaged) house. My husband - with high professional qualification - was unable to get a job (desk one), as he was in a wheelchair - back in the 70's & 80's no disabled employment law). I have since learned that my eldest daughter, never had any lunch when she was in secondary school as she refused to go through the humiliation of being separated out to receive these.
we did not smoke, but did have a colour tv, our own very nice, new build house AND even managed to run a car (with disabled Dad and six children that was imperative.
I suppose people like Gwyneth would dismiss us as being feckless parents. I would repeat what is said in To Kill a Mockingbird about not making comments until you have 'walked in their shoes'.

Yes, we had six children, (last one adopted), like the house, came before my hubbie became disabled. I can remember the frightening times of trying to make a small amount of food stretch a very long way, or even deciding whether milk or bread should be purchased on some days,

Due to their experiences all my children (and they all went through full education including Uni) are now employed in what would be considered Service work - Education, NHS, etc). All have good careers, although in this sort of work none of them will make a fortune - but all remain caring, empathetic people and help out with such things as food banks, etc. etc.
I also know that many poorer people today do not even have cooking facilities, even those that do, may not be able to afford to use them at times. so provision of food items that require cooking are not really very helpful

Riverwalk

I think they will do a U-turn, how can they not?

Well it all depends on Cummings doesn’t it? Or are there people still seriously deluded enough to think Johnson makes decisions?

suzie Cummings is very media-savvy - surely he can see how very badly this is playing out.

I'd somehow forgotten about Johnson - we don't see much of him!

It's all Sunak, Hancock and that dope Jenrick.

Do you really think so River? He’s still being mocked months later over his method of testing his eyesight. I think he just doesn’t care- we’re all part of some gigantic experiment he’s playing out for his own deletion and nefarious purposes. He’ll do what he wants, when he wants until he’s tired of the game. When ( not if) he finally goes and the knives come out, there will be a bloodbath I’m sure.

Deletion ? What did I mean - oh yes deliction

I don't think that Cummings's is bothered one iota about the 'optics'.
He's no Alistair Campbell.

Agreed FC on both counts.

I would have been mortified if my kids had had to have free food given to them!!!! I remember being so hard up one time i had to ration what we all ate but no one ever knew and the kids never ever went hungry. My OH and i might have done on a couple of occasions but we just drank lots of tea. He worked full time but i was a stay at home mum. So it was hard at times, but we never got into debt either. Having said all that, there were not the tech items around in those days, we didn't feel hard done by if we didn't go on holiday, we only had one car so he could get to work very early or get home very late after buses had finished running. Now adays i feel sorry for people in this situation, MH, poverty and being hard done by is worn like a badge by some, not all, but i know people, some, in my extended family who live the high life on benefits, and one who during the previous lock down used the vouchers towards paying for childrens food to buy normal amount of food each week, then used the money saved to put aside for xmas. So in my mind she didn't really need the vouchers issued during the lockdown. Some of her friends also did the same thing. There are real and false needs in all situations i guess.

My grandson gets free school meals, and I couldn't feel less mortified, to be honest.

I was listening to a single parent (male) of 3 school age children ( he was WFH on a low wage) whose children were entitled to FSM. He said the food vouchers meant he could afford a cheap printer and another tablet so they could all manage whilst he was also homeschooling. I don’t think that he was misusing them at all or that he didn't need them. I’m not going to judge anyway - and certainly not whilst multi millionaire MPs eat in subsidised Hof C restaurants or used the EOTHO scheme in the summer.

MissAdventure

My grandson gets free school meals, and I couldn't feel less mortified, to be honest.

Why mortified? In my opinion in a civilised society, that has established that its citizens should have of right, shelter, education, health needs and adequate nutrition, that society has an obligation to care for all its citizens.

Oh! I’ve just read what you actually said, rather than what I thought you said.????

Isn't it strange, attendance allowance, when discussed here, was encouraged to be used as its recipient sees fit.

MissAdventure

My grandson gets free school meals, and I couldn't feel less mortified, to be honest.

I expect you are doing cartwheels of delight at whatever circumstances led to this. What would free vouchers be used for though? According to the charming MP for Mansfield brothels and crack cocaine.

MissAdventure

Isn't it strange, attendance allowance, when discussed here, was encouraged to be used as its recipient sees fit.

That was because it was seen as a worthy deserving person - a GNer.

I couldn't get any of my vouchers to be accepted at sainsbury's, so they never even actually got used.

I heard there were problems for some over the summer Miss A. I also heard that some schools exchanged them for vouchers they bought themselves and then battled with the system to get reimbursed to save parents the stress.( these were the lazy idle teachers you understand who couldn’t care less about the children)