Marcus Rashford and the 'free school meals'.

On the late news last night they interviewed a Leeds headmaster who keeps his school open for exactly those reasons. Also, not that he should have to, he has raised funds from businesses and others to buy food to feed the kids and also, I think, deprived families

 

True. And there is point scoring going on, but it's got to the stage that there is absolutely zero accountability, or admittance that things could have been done better. Its virtually a case of show no weakness. 12bn on a track and case where they cannot account for 8bn. Thats simply not good enough in any situation even with hindsight. Everyone is an expert with hindsight I agree.

 

When this is hopefully all over or at least at a stage where we can live with it (Covid-19), even if that means taking a vaccine every twelve months, there is going to be a big recovery job for the economy.
I don't think at the moment the government can afford to worry too much about the debt we are racking up, even though it is something we can't ignore in the future.
We need to keep supporting these businesses and their employees. They will be needed to help us recover. If the businesses are no longer there and their employees are out of work not only will they not be paying taxes to the Treasury, they will be claiming benefits.

 

I think you misunderstood what I meant about schools being open in the holiday. I didn't have in mind that vulnerable children would be getting extra school work time. It would be like a holiday club. No need for it to be staffed by teachers at all.

Every point you've raised here (and all valid parts of the discussion, thanks) are about money. That's a pretty sad place to come at this from. These kids are vulnerable due to no fault of their own. We can accurately predict the life chances for these children and it's not good for society as a whole. Identifying them and then investing in them at an early age could be beneficial to society and actually save money in the long run if we can get it right.

I absolutely agree about the borderline children by the way. I've lived it, that was me as a child. Working parents but barely managing. Neither one thing or the other. That's a different discussion about fair wages, tax credits, child tax credits and all of that.

 

My point was that not everyone is like that unlike what was being suggested and even restricting vouchers wouldn't work for the minority who might want to do that as they could be sold on.

 

Great suggestion but will all you teachers want overtime if we're eating into your 26 weeks holiday a year?

 

I still think Marcus rashford will win on this and we will see a u-turn. Not sure if anyone’s seen but he is currently highlighting businesses that are offering to feed kids during half term all over the country. He has so much universal support.

 

It's only 13 weeks holiday, how dare you!

 

I hope he does force them into a u- turn. Its not cut and dried and easy as some make out but the overriding factor has to be that hungry children take the priority in the debate over the small minority that can't or simply don't want to take responsibility.

 

The way it should be. Society pulling together without needing to rely on the government.

Good on the businesses and people for volunteering to do this. Credit to them.

 

I am fairly certain you say things to be the opposite now on purpose

 

I don't know what you mean.

As I've said a number of time I like the government being light touch and people not being reliant on them but equally don't want kids to go hungry. I like this as a societal solution to a societal problem and everyone involved should get credit.

 

I'm sure it's not the meaning of the post but that reads like "I'm glad the issue is getting resolved, I just didn't want to pay for it as it doesn't really concern me".

 

I can see why you would think that as these debates often centre around cost but I've purposely tried to veer away from that and focus on the balance of responsibility.

I suppose whenever you say that you don't want the government to step in that it can always be framed as a cost issue but to me it's more of an outlook that people shouldn't always look to the state for them to take direct responsibility for things and be overly reliant on them.

 

Perhaps you could acknowledge that there are 2 sides to every argument...

 

I don't worry about it any more. As soon as you indicate that you might prefer small government and people/society taking personal responsibility and not automatically looking to the state you might as well have two heads.

 

You're dead right, self responsibility is an alien concept to most folk today alas...