How easy it has been for the government’s opponents to leap on the bandwagon of Marcus Rashford’s campaign to extend free school meals through the holidays. Nothing is more guaranteed to stir up emotion than the Dickensian charge that the government is out to ‘starve’ children – while MPs guzzle down subsidised booze in the House of Commons.
Yes, the amount of money required to provide meal vouchers throughout the holidays pales into insignificance when compared with the shameless waste of Boris Johnson’s government – not least the £12 billion frittered on a test and trace system which government scientists say is making only a marginal difference on infection numbers. Yet behind the Prime Minister’s refusal to give in – so far – lies a principle which Labour once promoted: that welfare should be provided in the form of money, not benefits in kind.
In other words, don’t dole out soup and blankets to the poor – pay them an allowance which they then choose how to spend.
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