Marcus Rashford letter

How do you know that a friend hadn't done the nails, how do you know that they don't buy yellow stickered bread ?
Stop judging , for goodness sake . Remember the expression.."there but for the grace of God ", and use it.

I presume if the families concerned are as poor as is claimed they would already be getting government handouts in the form of various generous benefits.

What are these handouts for if not to feed their (often numerous) children?

Is the taxpayer really expected to cough up twice?

The Foodbank where I work has a summer holiday scheme which has run very successfully over the last few years. However to benefit from the scheme your family has to be referred by your child's school, so I don't know how that's going to work this year.

Anyway great news just in as the scheme has been extended over the summer holidays.

Quizqueen what a totally bigoted and ignorant comment. Implying that people who are poor and find themselves on hard times should not have children. Has it never occured to you that perfectly normal and financially stable families can, through absolutely no fault of their own (breadwinner loses their job, becomes too ill to work or dies) suddenly struggle? The amount the goverment pays out in benefits to 'undeserving' families is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions in tax denied this country by companies using tax avoidance schemes, ah but that's never mentioned.

Glad to say it's just been announced that the Goverment has just done a u turn!

People talk about "not judging" but there has been a lot of judgement and bullying on this thread towards QQ and others who put forward different points.

No chance of an open debate on here - people are judged and lynched before they've finished typing.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

It's just human said Ruth Davidson.

As for Denise Coffey - just read her Wiki page - she's everything I can't stand.

Someone earlier said that most of the children in her daughter’s school were already having free school lunches and breakfasts even before the virus struck.

How on earth have we got to the situation where so many irresponsible people have children they can’t afford?

Of course anyone can fall on hard times through no fault of their own with say illness for example and it’s right that they should be helped, but honestly, MOST children in a school reliant on handouts?

What a dreadful situation.

So happy to see that our government has made a U turn regarding this and the vouchers will continue through the summer. However this is an abnormal situation this year and will they continue in future years to prevent some of the sufferng for children from the poorest families. Only time will tell. I hope so, but it may require another campaign in a year's time. Well doneMarcus Rashford, but keep the pressure on. There is still much to do!

Well he’s done it big old u turn from a disgraceful government that needed a young man to tell them how to be human
Total disgrace

If you have a religious faith may I suggest you pray for a better sense of morality. Do better.
Have a good day.

Get down off your high horse, Tinydancer. QQ is entitled to an opinion whether or not other posters agree with her.

It's quite simple to disagree without being nasty.

Sparklefizz as the youngest of three children brought up by a single parent (my dad beggared off when I was 6 weeks old) I was insulted and offended by QQ 's comment - my poor mother had 3 jobs at the same time to try and make ends meet. My father did give her 'maintenance' but we still qualified for free school meals such was our poverty. My mother worked every day until the day she retired at 60. I felt very strongly that I had to call out QQ's comment it was so inflammatory.

What an embarrassment for Johnson’s government. This the third u-turn in as many weeks.

My goodness they are useless

Coffey has made herself look ridiculous

Sorry typo - should say Government not Goverment!

Iam64 You must have worked out by now that being a victim (hence the need to say "sorry") and moral indignation/outrage go hand in hand.

I'm very pleased that the government has made a (not unexpected) U turn. I expect somebody worked out how many votes they'd lose if they hadn't have done.

Marcus Rashford said his mother worked all the hours but he qualified for free meals as she earned so little. No doubt people on here would be critical of her for that. He is proud of her and she is surely proud of him.

Quizqueen et al hold strong views which they post in unequivocal language. Why the accusations of bullying when other posters have equally strong but diametrically opposed views and express them as robustly?

I don’t understand how people beg and plead for a Government to change their mind on something on good grounds, as in this instance, and then crow about them doing a u turn!

Surely that IS what you wanted (for the sake of all those children)? You weren’t doing it just for a moan, regardless? There’s loads more stuff to whinge about, move on......

Young Rashford’s response to the rethink gives yet another example of his true decent nature.

Perhaps Mr Rashford could now look at the Brexit issue?

sandelf You're right about the summer holidays. However, just to clear something up, the "working poor" aren't usually even eligible for free school meals. The eligibility criteria are so tight these days that it is usually only the children of unemployed people who receive it.

Just in case some people have been asleep for the last three months, there has been a huge jump in the number of people who are now unemployed. Most of them have paid taxes and national Insurance and could probably be forgiven for not foreseeing a pandemic when they decided to have children.

NannyC1

Lucca. Why did you even need to look. It's no ones business. Did you think nobody else could have found that information themselves.
This is all I could find
No one asked you to look. Curtain twitcher

.? Sorry I don’t understand. Anniebach asked if Rashford s mother was a widow and others described her as a single parent so I looked on google to find out. How on earth does that make me a curtain twitcher.

vegansrock He would only have been eligible for free school meals during any times his mother was unemployed. I'm not sure he actually said he received free school meals, but his mother probably did receive child tax credits.

Just a comment about food banks: Our local Sainsbury's has a collecting box for donations to the food bank. I see it every time I shop, after I finish at the checkout. I'm more than willing to donate and I know it's bad that I forget to put anything extra in my trolley before I get to the checkout but I always do. I tell myself I'll take the shopping to the car and return to the store but I forget as soon as I'm outside. If only there were reminders, at strategic product locations around the store, asking shoppers if they would consider an extra packet of pasta or tin of beans etc. for the food bank. My son suggested that people would complain that such messages would make them feel bad! Even a general reminder as I enter the store would prompt me to add items for the food bank as I go round. I've shopped online at Asda and Morrisons during lockdown. There's nowhere on their systems suggesting that I can donate to a food bank by paying an extra amount on my bill. I would happily do that. That way of shopping is private so no consciences need suffer by ignoring the request.

Today, I've emailed those two online grocery stores suggesting they add a prompt to donate at the checkout. Perhaps GNers will do the same when shopping online.