Scrutable

mediocrity511 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 18, 2020 2:12 pm

I see the book club as fairly apolitical, free school meals is weirdly politicised in our country by contrast. I've never yet heard Dolly Parton be criticised for giving children free books, so it would be odd for it to be an issue when someone else does it.

Also, we were recipients of the Dolly Parton books with miniocrity and some of them would probably invoke the wrath of the right wing culture war loons for their diversity and inclusiveness if they knew.

I was actually thinking about Dolly Parton - I knew she had done a reading scheme too.

Yeah, thanks Stephanie, Medi and Fishnut for articulating what I couldn't...Marcus Rashford has been pretty explicit that his focus is on helping children, not party politics or even politics especially. I mean I'm sure he has his opinions but I think he's right to keep out of it and let the dirty political stuff happen a few steps removed from him. We've got a real problem in this country of wanting to drag other people down so I respect that he's trying to inspire and support people rather than turn it into a battle. And also, on a slightly separate note, it's not as if philanthropy in footballers is an entirely new concept.

This is a good piece on the book club. The TL:DR is that reading rates are decreasing among British children, book ownership and reading for pleasure are important for raising these rates, as is having books where you can see yourself represented. It also points out that campaigners have been pushing for things like this for decades and that Rashford is raising the profile of this work rather than creating something completely new.

For the first time UNICEF has launched a domestic emergency response in the UK to help feed children hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

The UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide has likened the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on youngsters to that of the Second World War.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-for ... k-12163515

Matt Hancock praises free school meals before being reminded he voted against them

He told Good Morning Britain: "I'm really glad we're able to send out food for those who receive free school meals when schools are in, and I'm really glad we're able to do that when schools are out."

But it prompted Piers Morgan to point out: "If you're that glad, can I ask you a question, why did you vote against it?"

I always enjoy a bit of c.nt on c.nt violence.

Matt Hancock deserves an award for being the politician least capable of convincingly avoiding answering questions.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 12:19 am

Matt Hancock deserves an award for being the politician least capable of convincingly avoiding answering questions.

a propos which
https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1 ... 36544?s=20

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:52 pm

Matt Hancock praises free school meals before being reminded he voted against them

He told Good Morning Britain: "I'm really glad we're able to send out food for those who receive free school meals when schools are in, and I'm really glad we're able to do that when schools are out."

But it prompted Piers Morgan to point out: "If you're that glad, can I ask you a question, why did you vote against it?"

I always enjoy a bit of c.nt on c.nt violence.

Oh wow, that was quite fantastic. I still can't wrap my head around Piers Morgan being on the right side of things. Did he get a visit from a series of ghosts one Christmas or something?

I did find it infuriating the Johnson tried to attack Starmer by saying that it was the Conservatives who brought in FSMs in the first place. FSMs are an admission that your system is broken - people literally can't afford to feed their children under your governance. It's not something to be proud of, it's something to be deeply ashamed of. They're an elastoplast over an open wound. I'm so glad that Starmer showed Johnson that the "disgraceful" food parcels were, in fact, pretty much in keeping with government guidance, something he had no answer to at all.

Of course, the Tories have always been in favour of schools feeding children, particularly those that might otherwise go hungry. Ensuring good nutrition for the young has been a staple Conservative policy since noted Tory Clement Attlee first introduced free school meals.

the Education Act (1944) made it a duty of all Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to provide school meals for those who wanted them, and from 1947, the full net cost of school meals was met by the Government

Despite the warnings voiced in the Black Report, the Education Act (1980) formed part of a generalised attempt to dismantle the welfare state of which school meals were a part. School meals were relegated to a nonessential service, and the obligation on LEAs to provide meals was removed (except for those pupils entitled to free school meals)

In 1986, the Social Security Act limited the right to free school meals to those children whose parents received supplementary benefit.

Two years later, the Local Government Act (1988) introduced Compulsory Competitive Tendering, obliging all LEAs to put school meals services out to tender. The guiding principle was the ‘lowest bid wins’, and this put economy above quality in provision of the service. Local Authority providers who won contracts were defined as Direct Service Organisations and private sector companies entered the market. In effect, an unregulated school meals market had been created

On the 1 April 2001, statutory regulations for school meals came into force and minimum nutritional standards for school lunches were reintroduced.

In 2002, the Education Act amended the free school lunch eligibility criteria, thus increasing the number of children eligible to receive free school meals.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... -half-term

Do you ever get the feeling of having had dejavu again again again?


I'm guessing there will be a few newscycles of outcry while Government ministers doggedly defend this and cast nasturtiums on anybody who dares complain about it before Johnson's inevitable U-turn, after which the self-same ministers will hail the U-turn as making them very happy and what they actually always wanted.

I swear we had this debate last year.

Oh, it's because we did. Last Easter.

Oh, and last summer.

And in the October half term.

Oh, and over Christmas too.

Are we going to see the government trying and stop free school meals for every holiday, only for them to U-turn once public pressure gets too much for them? Do they think we'll just get exhausted after a while and stop fighting them so they can get on with their job of starving children? Thatcher is still remembered all these years later and she only snatched milk. Maybe we need to think of a jolly rhyme for Johnson. Though at the moment all I can come up with is "Boris Johnson is a c.nt" which probably isn't something to encourage being sung in playgrounds.

(jinx with LW)

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:00 pm

Thatcher is still remembered all these years later and she only snatched milk. Maybe we need to think of a jolly rhyme for Johnson.

She did a bit more than that. She also removed the requirement for schools to provide meals for all, abolished nutritional standards, and restricted the provision of FSM ("limited the right to free school meals to those children whose parents received supplementary benefit"). I reckon the rhyme's the reason the milk is remembered so well. So you're right, we definitely need a rhyme for Boris.

The act of refusing FSM could be called the "De Pfeffel pilfer".

jdc wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:51 pm

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 4:00 pm

Thatcher is still remembered all these years later and she only snatched milk. Maybe we need to think of a jolly rhyme for Johnson. Though at the moment all I can come up with is "Boris Johnson is a c.nt".

She did a bit more than that. She also removed the requirement for schools to provide meals for all, abolished nutritional standards, and restricted the provision of FSM ("limited the right to free school meals to those children whose parents received supplementary benefit"). I reckon the rhyme's the reason the milk is remembered so well. So you're right, we definitely need a rhyme for Boris.

That would be Boris "Bunter" Johnson.

I'll just quickly spool through the alphabet to see if anything suitable rhymes with Bunter.

Aunter ...
Bunter ...
Cu ... ooh look a squirrel!

See that well-fed w.nker Boris, starving kids called Bill and Doris?
Remember that next time you vote and get the evil f.cker out.

It's just not possible to do this without swearing. Sorry Fishnut.

There was a posh bloke called Boris,
Who resembled a slow Loris,
He liked to quote Ovid
as he starved a kid
... because he was a collosal tw.t-badgering shitgobbling lying thunderc.nt, who eats big dinners.


Needs work.

There once was a Boris-named bloke
Who drank a lot and did coke
He watched incomes halving
enjoyed children starving
His career was one long sick joke.

There once was a man short of talent
Who through bluster became heir apparent
But while in Number 10
Starved kids time and again
And now everyone thinks that he's a c.nt