When a footballer is more of a statesman than anybody in government ... [View all]
Parliament voted 321-261 on 21 October not to provide free school meals over school holidays to children in England who qualify. The roll call of who voted how can be seen here.
This is in contrast to the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland governments' decisions to provide this help at least up to Easter next year.
The sums involved are minor compared to other often eyewatering and too often horrendously wasteful outlay during the COVID pandemic - e.g. the initiative will cost £10-11 million in both Wales and Scotland.
It's hard to think of any other intervention at the moment that could be more cost-effective other than paying Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson, the cabinet - indeed, the whole Tory government - to fuck off somewhere very distant and remote and never plague us again.
The backlash has been immediate, from the trivial of Rishi Sunak being given a life ban from his local pub to Tory MP Caroline Ansell resigning as parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to Nigel Farage tweeting "If the government can subsidise Eat Out to Help Out, not being seen to give poor kids lunch in the school holidays looks mean and is wrong." to a groundswell of initiatives from businesses and councils to fill the gap.
If you've been following the news over last day or so, you'll no doubt gather the footballer I'm referring to in the OP title is Marcus Rashford, who's ridden the wave of revulsion, and constructive action in response, since the vote and is serving as a very effective figurehead.
Throughout the last couple of days his Twitter account has been retweeting initiatives from all across England, ranging from Macdonald's donation of 1 million free meals to other national and local businesses offering their contributions to local councils finding the money from their already overstretched budgets to make humanitarian provision.
His last tweet this evening reads:
Link to tweet
@MarcusRashford
I’m signing off with a feeling a pride tonight. The superstars of this nation lie in local communities. Even after taking the biggest hits you have wrapped your arms around your community to catch children as they fell. I really can’t thank you enough, you’re amazing ?️
The hashtag #endchildfoodpoverty is being used to spread the word, campaign and share resources and information.
It's not hard to be heartened, like Rashford, at the outpouring of goodwill, which has gone far beyond wellwishes to concrete action.
This contrasts unflatteringly with what's come out of the government and Tories at large before, during and after the vote.
Here's Ben Bradley (FSM = free school meals):
His main contribution so far has been to pathetically pester Rashford on Twitter to attend some self-seeking local photo opportunity under the guise of "dialogue":
Here's Baronness Nicky Morgan on last night's BBC Question Time, peering down from her new elevated position in the Lords to show that charity begins at home - her home, apparently, and nobody else's - and adding an unappetizing soupçon of childish spite as her pièce de résistance:
Link to tweet
@bbcquestiontime
“The Labour party might have found they got more supporters if the deputy leader hadn’t called one of the Conservative MPs scum.”
Nicky Morgan clashes with @bphillipsonMP over free school meals. On #bbcqt, 10:45pm, @bbcone
"Scum" is among the milder expressions that are flying about at the moment:
Link to tweet
@ComradeGeordie
Working class North east people voting Tory! What did you expect would happen? Ice cream and Jelly! Save your crocodile tears
😡
I'm not the only one to have been reminded of the stellar words of a superb German comedian:
Many do pay their taxes in the UK (as an aside, charity is not unknown in Germany, either). Needless to say, the richest pay the least proportionately, and too many make it a mark of honour - good business - to pay as little as possible or none.
There's plenty of money sloshing around in the COVID slurry at the moment. The sums involved in free school meal provision are minuscule compared to the billions wasted on unscrutinized contracts that will never be fulfilled.
Maybe each and every schoolkid in need to should put in a bid to supply PPE to the government - if as successful as the Tories' cronies, they'd never go hungry again.
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