Protecting hungry children in the UK

[basilio]

The COVID crisis has created mass unemployment and dislocation in the UK. As usual the poorest and most vulnerable face the the biggest challenge.

Marcus Radford, a star UK soccer player, grew up poor in an environment that needed the support offered through the school meals program. When Boris Johnson decided to cancel this support over the school break while millions of additional people are unemployed he wrote an open letter to the PM outlining his experience and the value and need of the program.

Its a powerful, articulate letter from a 22 year soccer player.

'Protect the vulnerable': Marcus Rashford's emotional letter to MPs
I encourage you to hear the children’s pleas and find your humanity. Please reconsider your decision to cancel the food voucher scheme over the summer holidays

Marcus Rashford

To all MPs in parliament,

On a week that would have opened Euro 2020, I wanted to reflect back to 27 May 2016, when I stood in the middle of the Stadium of Light in Sunderland having just broken the record for the youngest player to score in his first senior international match. I watched the crowds waving their flags and fist-pumping the Three Lions on their shirts and I was overwhelmed with pride not only for myself but for all of those who had helped me reach this moment and achieve my dream of playing for the England national team.

Understand: without the kindness and generosity of the community I had around me, there wouldn’t be the Marcus Rashford you see today: a 22-year old black man lucky enough to make a career playing a game I love.

My story to get here is all-too-familiar for families in England: my mum worked full-time, earning minimum wage to make sure we always had a good evening meal on the table. But it was not enough. The system was not built for families like mine to succeed, regardless of how hard my mum worked.

As a family, we relied on breakfast clubs, free school meals, and the kind actions of neighbours and coaches. Food banks and soup kitchens were not alien to us; I recall very clearly our visits to Northern Moor to collect our Christmas dinners every year. It’s only now that I really understand the enormous sacrifice my mum made in sending me away to live in digs aged 11, a decision no mother would ever make lightly.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...able-marcus-rashfords-emotional-letter-to-mps

 

[SirRumpole]

Probably the same as in Australia bas, look after our own first I say.

 

[basilio]

Probably the same as in Australia bas, look after our own first I say.

I wasn't thinking of starting a "Support the children in UK" campaign...
I was simply highlighting first a very serious problem with families struggling to eat in the UK and the public efforts of a your black footballer to persuade the Government to recognise the problem.

 

[macca]

Probably the same as in Australia bas, look after our own first I say.

Agree 100% Rumpy, every country has its own problems and they are all doing their best to fix them, they do not need to be held up and judged by bleeding heart do gooders.

The social media and the virtue signallers have caused a lot more problems than they are ever likely to fix.

Sitting back tapping away on keyboards while the good folk are in there actually trying to repair and help only causing anger.

I truly do not understand the lefts desire to trawl the world looking for bleeding heart causes, no wonder so many suffer depression

 

[basilio]

Not surprisingly the British PM didn't support Marcus Rashfords pleas to enable poor chidren to keep getting subsidized lunches.

Boris Johnson rejects Marcus Rashford's plea for free school meals over summer

• Manchester United striker says ‘It’s not over yet’ on Twitter
  
• Prime minister set to respond as Labour back the meals appeal

.... Downing Street has confirmed the scheme will end when the school term ends. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The PM understands the issues facing families across the UK, which is why last week the government announced an additional £63m for local authorities to benefit families who are struggling to afford food and other basic essentials.

“The PM will respond to Marcus Rashford’s letter as soon as he can – he has been using his profile in a positive way to highlight some very important issues.”
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...hfords-plea-for-free-school-meals-over-summer

 

[basilio]

Just interested.
Has anyone read Marcus Rashfords open letter and considered the case he has made, in the current COVID situation, to continue supporting children with food ?

 

[wayneL]

Working class white children should not be supported with free food, they will only grow up to be racist Gammon so despised by the virtuous woke left.

We should remove them from their parents and place them into re-education gulags, to educate them in the ways of the Party so they can be good proles,

</sarc>

 

[explod]

Every one should have a home for shelter and food, Maslow's Law. And I'll add education should be free to all to 3rd year University. That was near to the case pre Thatcher. No one should take home more than one million per year. Higher earners pay up to 48% but not business, many get away with no tax. A fair system would soon see the youngsters get on board and become useful. Research has shown that 2% of the population will always be useless sludge. Now I'd guess it's around 20% and growing.

Government control of banking, transport, housing, education and medical provision would be the way. Why should any individual need more than a million dollars a year to have a good life. Some are earning billions, they control our press and governments. It's disgusting.

Not gunna happen of course, so just party.

 

[basilio]

Working class white children should not be supported with free food, they will only grow up to be racist Gammon so despised by the virtuous woke left.

We should remove them from their parents and place them into re-education gulags, to educate them in the ways of the Party so they can be good proles,

</sarc>

Indeed.... I don't think you should give up your day job.... yet.. Wayne.

 

[basilio]

Rashford has partnered with FareShare, a food distribution charity which is distributing three million meals a week to vulnerable people across the country during the pandemic. Yet the striker, who explained that his family relied on similar schemes during his childhood, believes that more needs to be done and said that he would not have become an England player without access to handouts in his youth.


“Without the kindness and generosity from the community there wouldn’t be the Marcus Rashford you see today: a 22-year-old black man lucky enough to make a career playing the game I love. Wembley Stadium could have been filled more than twice with children who have had to skip meals during lockdown due to their families not being able to access food.


“This is not about politics; this is about humanity. Political affiliations aside, can we not all agree that no child should be going to bed hungry? Food poverty is a pandemic in England that could span generations if we don’t course correct now.”

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...hfords-plea-for-free-school-meals-over-summer

 

[wayneL]

Indeed.... I don't think you should give up your day job.... yet.. Wayne.

I didn't expect you'd get my point bas

 

[basilio]

A Change of Heart... Democracy in action.

Johnson makes U-turn on free school meals after Rashford campaign
‘Covid summer food fund’ announced after pressure from footballer and campaigners

Boris Johnson has been forced into a humbling U-turn over providing food vouchers for some of England’s poorest families after a campaign launched by the footballer Marcus Rashford threatened to engulf his government in another crisis.

In an embarrassing about-face, the prime minister said that on Tuesday he had called the England and Manchester United striker to explain the reversal, and made the remarkable claim that he had only become aware of Rashford’s interest in the issue earlier in the day.

Yet 24 hours before, No 10 had rejected the footballer’s plea for it to keep paying for the £15-a-week vouchers over the summer, and ministers had been sent out to defend the government’s position. But with Conservative MPs threatening to rebel against the government, Downing Street retreated and announced a new £120m “covid summer food fund” for 1.3 million pupils in England.

Appearing at the coronavirus daily briefing on Tuesday, Johnson said he had called Rashford, 22, to congratulate him on his campaign. “I thank him for what he’s done,” he said.

Rashford, who has written about the food poverty he experienced as a child, said of the reversal on Twitter.: “I don’t even know what to say. Just look at what we can do when we come together, THIS is England in 2020.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...llion-over-marcus-rashfords-school-meals-call

 

[basilio]

 

[basilio]

Interesting follow up on this story.
Did anyone else notice the absolutely blatant, stooopid, unbelievable lie Boris Johnson made in this incident?
Essentially he firstly was notified of Marcus's letter, said NO to it but then the next day tried to say he had never heard of Marcus until that morning.

Clearly trying to out trump, Trump.

In Boris Johnson's long history of lies, the Marcus Rashford one is the strangest
Hearing the PM feign ignorance of the footballer’s campaign was like watching a particularly bad panellist on Call My Bluff
Simon Hattenstone
Boris Johnson is probably Britain’s most famous liar. He appears to have lied in every job, at every level. But this week, when discussing his U-turn on Marcus Rashford’s campaign to have England’s free school meal voucher scheme extended, the prime minister’s capacity for deception plumbed new depths. This latest lie suggests that rather than simply enjoying telling fibs, or understanding that fabrication is a useful political tool, Johnson is simply an inescapable, compulsive liar.

....on Tuesday he appeared to have taken his lying to a new, worrying level – he now seemed to be lying just for the hell of it. When commenting on the government’s latest U-turn in agreeing to provide free school meals for vulnerable kids during the summer after the footballer’s impressive campaign, the prime minister said: “I talked to Marcus Rashford today and congratulated him on his campaign which to be honest I only became aware of, recent … erm, today.”

Only the previous day Downing Street had issued a statement confirming that the school-meal voucher scheme would end when the school term ends, despite Rashford’s campaign. The prime minister’s official spokesman praised the Manchester United and England striker for “using his profile in a positive way to highlight some very important issues” before stating: “The PM understands the issues facing families across the UK, which is why last week the government announced an additional £63m for local authorities to benefit families who are struggling to afford food and other basic essentials.”
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...s-johnson-lies-marcus-rashford-prime-minister