Sefton Council, local charities and businesses are being praised for rallying around after the government refused to extend free school meals to hardpressed local families this week.

Despite strong appeals from Manchester United footballer and child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford, the government voted down the Labour Party motion to give extra free meals support to families during the current crisis by extending it over the holiday periods until next Easter.

Southport's Conservative MP Damien Moore, who has been strongly criticised for voting to reduce free school meals in the past, once again refused to support the much-needed help this time by abstaining.

Just minutes before, he also voted against giving 80% furlough support to local workers and businesses affected by Tier 3 restrictions - leaving them with just two-thirds of wages under government plans.

Southport Councillor Greg Myers says that while the MP has "utterly failed" to support local families on these issues, others are showing what the true spirit of the town and borough really is, commenting:

"Some local bodies actually realise the devastation that is going on due to this current crisis and the government's mishandling of it. Sefton Council has done much of the heavy lifting locally during this period and once again has come to the aid of local residents."

"The announcement that it will be putting in place a scheme to help our children and families who access free school meals during the half term and at Christmas will be a huge relief for many struggling local families."

"It is also giving vital support to local foodbanks, which will also be front and centre providing assistance. Meanwhile, local businesses such as The Hart Space are also now stepping in to organise collections to help the town's children and their parents and local restaurants like La Tabella are offering free kids pasta meals to help those who need it."

"We should be proud of them all for their support and basic decency. It is a strong and dignified response to a callous government and this town's MP, which have utterly failed local people on these issues."

There are a huge number of people who are confused about the description of 'poverty' By world comparisons - there is no-one who could be classed as living in poverty in the UK. What is poverty? Is it a comparison of possessions? Is it homelessness? The welfare payment for a 2 + 2 family paying a rent of £750 per month is given on the benefit calculator as £18, 600 per year. This is more money than a similar family earn working in the service sector, and without rent being included. I am also given to understand that the Conservatives have increased welfare benefits due to the Coronavirus outbreak, by a substantial amount - have invested in agencies to support the less well off and are also attempting to help people back into work. As they should be. Welfare payments should not be accepted as a life time payment - it is meant as a temporary safety net and was always intended as such. The lowest paid in society are the asylum seekers waiting to hear if their applications have been successful. These people receive £35 per week with full meals and accommodation. Most of the homeless people are on welfare benefits - neither Asylum seekers nor homeless people have children to support. There are a huge number of people who have been furloughed due to the coronavirus. They have already received 80% of their normal pay, which is fair as they will not need to find travelling costs, but most of these people are under the age of eighteen and also do not support children. Having worked with the homeless, families in need, mental health and in deprived areas where children do not know in which bed they will be sleeping at night - this headline grabbing 'free school meals' appears to be an exercise in political point scoring.

I understand that the media focused on a claim made by a professional footballer in relation to his own childhood. This would support the fact that welfare payments in these present times are far more generous than when this young gentleman was a child being brought up under a Labour government. If this same young man is sincerely altruistic, and has some knowledge of families who have somehow fallen through the net - would it not be far more convincing of his sincerity to personally help the families from his very generous earnings as opposed to requesting struggling business owners to help?

The greatest gift that can be given to those people less well off - is the guidance to encourage them to stand on their own two feet, to have a pride in themselves by taking responsibility and having an equal standing in society. The Conservative Party is giving these people that opportunity.

Originally Posted by said

There are a huge number of people...

The greatest gift that can be given to those people less well off - is the guidance to encourage them to stand on their own two feet, to have a pride in themselves by taking responsibility and having an equal standing in society. The Conservative Party is giving these people that opportunity.

Apart from the usual inaccuracies and the extremely patronising end to the ramble that is also wilfully oblivious to the mess the Conservatives are creating by their ham-fisted handling of the Covid crisis... given this is written by the same lot that bring you the fake persona of Marvin and are so rightwing as to have pushed the BNP in the past, would really rather concentrate on the awesome response from the town and borough following the failure of the Conservative MP and his colleagues in government. Cheers.

Originally Posted by said

The Conservative Party is giving these people that opportunity.

ROFL. Don’t know if you’re just completely deluded or just genuinely mad. Patronising fool.

Originally Posted by said

The welfare payment for a 2 + 2 family paying a rent of £750 per month is given on the benefit calculator as £18, 600 per year..

£18,600 less £9,000 rent leaves £9,600 pa for a family of 4.
Which is around £6.60 per person per day a day for Gas; Electricity; Food; Clothes; & everything else.

Originally Posted by said

there is no-one who could be classed as living in poverty in the UK

I think I would class someone living on £6.60 a day in this country as "living in poverty."

Interested to hear what limit "Said" would propose.

Good to know that MPs are entitled to food expenses of £25 per night if they stay overnight outside of both their constituency and the London area so they are OK,

Originally Posted by roving-eye

Sefton Council, local charities and businesses are being praised for rallying around after the government refused to extend free school meals to hardpressed local families this week.

Despite strong appeals from Manchester United footballer and child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford, the government voted down the Labour Party motion to give extra free meals support to families during the current crisis by extending it over the holiday periods until next Easter.

Southport's Conservative MP Damien Moore, who has been strongly criticised for voting to reduce free school meals in the past, once again refused to support the much-needed help this time by abstaining.

Just minutes before, he also voted against giving 80% furlough support to local workers and businesses affected by Tier 3 restrictions - leaving them with just two-thirds of wages under government plans.

Southport Councillor Greg Myers says that while the MP has "utterly failed" to support local families on these issues, others are showing what the true spirit of the town and borough really is, commenting:

"Some local bodies actually realise the devastation that is going on due to this current crisis and the government's mishandling of it. Sefton Council has done much of the heavy lifting locally during this period and once again has come to the aid of local residents."

"The announcement that it will be putting in place a scheme to help our children and families who access free school meals during the half term and at Christmas will be a huge relief for many struggling local families."

"It is also giving vital support to local foodbanks, which will also be front and centre providing assistance. Meanwhile, local businesses such as The Hart Space are also now stepping in to organise collections to help the town's children and their parents and local restaurants like La Tabella are offering free kids pasta meals to help those who need it."

"We should be proud of them all for their support and basic decency. It is a strong and dignified response to a callous government and this town's MP, which have utterly failed local people on these issues."

How generous of Sefton Council to arrange this, since they were given £363K for food and other essentials in August.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ntial-supplies

Originally Posted by r4dent

£18,600 less £9,000 rent leaves £9,600 pa for a family of 4.
Which is around £6.60 per person per day a day for Gas; Electricity; Food; Clothes; & everything else.




I think I would class someone living on £6.60 a day in this country as "living in poverty."

Interested to hear what limit "Said" would propose.

Good to know that MPs are entitled to food expenses of £25 per night if they stay overnight outside of both their constituency and the London area so they are OK,

Please dismiss my dislike. Should’ve been a like.
Great post, but if I can just add that there are 4 million children who do officially live in poverty in the U.K. This figure is projected to reach 5 million by the end of the year. A lot of these children only got one square meal a day provided by their school. And now Damien and his fellow privileged scumbag chums in Parliament have voted to take that away. https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/...-child-poverty

Originally Posted by said

. Welfare payments should not be accepted as a life time payment - it is meant as a temporary safety net

A safety net that doesn't exist until 6 weeks after you've lost your job.

. There are a huge number of people who have been furloughed due to the coronavirus. They have already received 80% of their normal pay, which is fair as they will not need to find travelling costs, but most of these people are under the age of eighteen and also do not support children.

Most people on furlough are not under 18.
Most under 18s are still in full time education!

Having worked with the homeless, families in need, mental health and in deprived areas where children do not know in which bed they will be sleeping at night

Your CV knows no bounds. It must be a bigger work of fiction than War and Peace.

We had the opportunity to create the socialist Utopia that many seem to crave last December and the country rejected the chance out of hand.

On another note, there is no such thing as the Government's money. The only money the Government has to spend is what is raised from taxpayers. So the next time you're calling for more money to be spent on all and sundry then put your hands up and volunteer that you're more than happy to see your weekly wage or monthly pension go down to pay for it. Otherwise shut up.

Originally Posted by abbeyroad

We had the opportunity to create the socialist Utopia that many seem to crave last December and the country rejected the chance out of hand.

On another note, there is no such thing as the Government's money. The only money the Government has to spend is what is raised from taxpayers. So the next time you're calling for more money to be spent on all and sundry then put your hands up and volunteer that you're more than happy to see your weekly wage or monthly pension go down to pay for it. Otherwise shut up.

Well obviously, the government has to try and save a bit of money after wasting £35 million on a useless track and trace scheme overseen by equally useless and incompetent Dido Harding-where better to take it from than the most vulnerable sector of society? Hang on, maybe they could round up the elderly and the disabled, and strip some of their benefits too?

Lot of the usual party political misinformation and point scoring- as is expected.

The cost of providing free school meals was in the region of £20 million. The Government has made available to local authorities £63 million to use as they see fit in this respect.

Some Labour controlled local authorities have done this and are doing so using either vouchers or free meals.
They have also lost no time in trumpeting that they are 'stepping in where Government have failed'. They, in turn, conveniently forgot - or omitted (I know which option my money is on) - to say they were using funds that were provided by the Government specifically for that purpose.

The political posturing and sniping from the left, in this instance, has sunk to new depths. Pathetic!

Originally Posted by abbeyroad

We had the opportunity to create the socialist Utopia that many seem to crave last December and the country rejected the chance out of hand.

On another note, there is no such thing as the Government's money. The only money the Government has to spend is what is raised from taxpayers. So the next time you're calling for more money to be spent on all and sundry then put your hands up and volunteer that you're more than happy to see your weekly wage or monthly pension go down to pay for it. Otherwise shut up.

Unfortunately, not quite right I'm afraid. Tax revenues doesn't even scratch the surface - the money is being borrowed.

Originally Posted by gazaprop

Unfortunately, not quite right I'm afraid. Tax revenues doesn't even scratch the surface - the money is being borrowed.

But the borrowing will have to be repaid at some point and that WILL come from taxation.

Originally Posted by gazaprop

Lot of the usual party political misinformation and point scoring- as is expected.

The cost of providing free school meals was in the region of £20 million. The Government has made available to local authorities £63 million to use as they see fit in this respect.

Some Labour controlled local authorities have done this and are doing so using either vouchers or free meals.
They have also lost no time in trumpeting that they are 'stepping in where Government have failed'. They, in turn, conveniently forgot - or omitted (I know which option my money is on) - to say they were using funds that were provided by the Government specifically for that purpose.

The political posturing and sniping from the left, in this instance, has sunk to new depths. Pathetic!

The government provided councils with funds for school meals for the summer holidays. Oddly enough those funds have been spent. On meals through the summer holidays.
It's now October half term.

Originally Posted by Sap33

But the borrowing will have to be repaid at some point and that WILL come from taxation.

At what point does it all have to be repaid?
The country has been in permanent national debt for 328 years.