Let them eat cake!

        Hello, lovelies. 

                    With the cost of Covid relief packages skyrocketing out of control the government's coffers are running dangerously low. Many corners have to be cut. Business' are closing and people are losing their jobs. We are continually told that we must help out to save lives. But where can we cut those corners? Should we cancel MPs annual pay rise? Stop handing out multi-million-pound contracts to our friends who never deliver? Or should we stop helping out the poorest families and children at this time of crisis? Is it the rich or poor who should pay the price?

            Food and water are the most basic fundamental needs that each and every person needs, daily. 3 times a day at the very least. But with money being in such short supply, sometimes it can come to the choice between paying bills or buying food. And a lot of times food is the last thing a person can afford.

            Growing up in the early 80s food was not always in easy supply in my family. And many evenings I would only eat a jam sandwich, which at the time I thought was great. But going to my friend’s houses for a play date or sleepover, I was shocked by the sheer variety of food that I was served. But by then I had developed a love-hate relationship with food. Food was always something that I had to do in order to survive, it was not something that I had any pleasure in. And that still stands today. I don’t enjoy food. I don’t really see the point of it if truth be told. So, my diet is made up of coffee, fizzy water and a ton of junk food that I use to try and force my body to function. Leaving me unhealthy and overweight. Food was so lacking in my childhood that my schooling suffered. I was always underweight and really struggled to concentrate in the classroom. And if you put that alongside my undiagnosed dyslexia, you could say that I didn’t thrive. And I definitely did not reach my full potential. But by now, 30 odd years later, the government fully knows the danger of children suffering from malnutrition and the devastating lifelong effects. Don’t they?

            So, a wilful government that voted against feeding the nation’s poorest children over the holidays is an absolute disgrace. How can they live with themselves? These are not fully grown adults with jobs that are demanding free handouts. These are the poorest families that cannot afford food. And it most definitely is not the children’s fault. No one chooses which family to be born into. If we could, not one would choose to live-in modern-day poverty. The question the government needs to address is, should they help the most in need of their basic requirement or evoke a class war and the children are the prisoners of that war?        

            On Wednesday evening, MPs rejected the Labour motion by 322 votes to 261.  Conservative ministers voted against feeding the nation’s poorest children over the holidays. Let that sink in for a while. The voted against feeding children. Surely the strength of a nation is counted by the way it treats its most vulnerable. And at a time when parents are being placed under huge financial pressures as bills rise and life gets more expensive. But once again, who is paying the price for all of this. The children.

            But could the government afford to actually pay for the free school meals? And do the meals actually help the child? There are those people that believe that if the parents really wanted to feed their children that they could. But they choose to pay for mega screen tv’s and Netflix. But if that really was the case, shouldn’t the government help those children out more? The free school meal vouchers may not be a long-term solution, but they really help struggling families. And I’m not one for watching football, but when footballer Marcus Rashford, who is leading a campaign on child hunger, had to step in and ask the government to help the children, the country should have stopped and taken notice. But they didn’t. The government may have raised Universal Credit by £20 a week, adjusted housing benefit to help people with their rent. They have given £63m to councils to help with hardship funding. And finally listened to Manchester's request for an extra £30m a month for jobs support, as well as the tens of millions for half-term free school meals in England. The government is now citing the idea that there is no money left.

            And as the government’s borrowing in the first half of the financial year is at a record high, the highest levels of government debt in 60 years and the deficit this year is heading for its highest level outside of a world war. But without filling this blog with a ton of facts and figures, I can categorically say that we’re not running out of cash.

            And I can speak from experience that feeding hungry children can only help them improve their own lives, and not see food as something that over people have. Knowing that there is going to be food at mealtimes is so important for children. I was permanently hungry as a child and that has led to a lifelong dislike of food. We must break that circle from happening again.  

The poor are not a separate category. They’re not there to be forgotten and disparaged for their lack of money. And as a nation, we should demand that they are provided for. Because there for the grace of God go I. No one knows the future or predict where we will be. So let's lookout for everyone.