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The GCGI salutes and pays tribute to Marcus Rashford and his powerful campaigning to provide food and hope for the hungry children. His advocacy for children and young people has been a source of inspiration and encouragement in these difficult times. We are proud to stand with him on this issue.

Childhood hunger is an issue that should transcend politics and ideology

'This is not about politics, it's about humanity'

The Tories rejected and defeated the Labour motion in support of Marcus Rashford’s call on providing

1.4m disadvantaged children in England with £15-a-week food vouchers during holidays until Easter 2021. 

Cruel? For sure. Unforgivable? Beyond doubt.

‘UK's 'cruel and harmful policies' lack regard for child hunger.’- Human Rights Watch

A cabal of upper-class sadomasochists, plotting ever more devious ways to hunt children, single parents, the disabled, the youth, working poor, the old and

vulnerable,..., like foxes,- the cruel blood-sport that they love.

Why? Just why do they do it? Why do they hunt, humiliate, hurt and punish a very large segment of their own fellow citizens? Why?

It is so very heartbreaking that a bunch of out of touch, born with silver spoons in their mouths, the so-called posh boys, members of The Nasty Party, have given the nation extreme poverty and inequality, austerity and inhumanity, Brexit and dictatorship, lies, cheating and mistrust

And equally, saddened and distorted that a large number of people have acted against their own self interest and have voted for them!!

I suppose for all these, the Posh Boys, are indebted to Murdochism and neoliberalism which they worship!

THE SHAME OF CHILD POVERTY IN THE WORLD’S 5TH RICHEST NATION

Voting against free school meals shames Britain- Photo:Chronicle Live

‘What kind of party opposes feeding hungry children in the middle of a pandemic? And what kind of politicians take the opportunity for snide remarks about those seeking to help them? “You know what some people call us,” Theresa May told the Conservative conference 18 years ago: “The nasty party.”

Nota bene

A government/political party drunk on market values, guided by cruel machinery of  exploitation, racism, class division, austerity, cruelty, aggression, that humiliates it’s innocent, weak and vulnerable citizens, with neoliberalism, poverty, inequality and food banks and celebrates extreme individualism, feral competition, worship of mammon, rat-race to a success that it can never deliver and ignores the struggles and plight of its children and youth, ceases to be civilised and sooner or later ceases to exist morally or spiritually.

A journey through a land of austerity, poverty and inequality: Welcome to Britain

Poverty, Destitution, Hunger and Homelessness in the Midst of Plenty

This is nothing, but a manifestation of a cruel, inhumane, and mean government

Hungry and Homeless Children of ‘Great Britain’ growing up in Shipping Containers   

'In Britain, the government’s ideological austerity agenda has contributed to plunging 4.1 million children into poverty. This means insecure accommodation, cold homes and not enough to eat – and young people absorb all of this stress. The anxiety of living like this should not be underestimated as a factor in the rise of self-harm behaviours. Worries about exams, university applications and job prospects all loom large too, particularly in a world where employment options are too often limited and precarious.'

This, surely, must be, a lasting shame and scar on the conscience of Britain

Where has the ‘Posh Boys’ (Tory Party’s) moral compass gone? 

From hubris to nemesis: the Conservative Party and Britain in crisis

Photo: Poverty in the UK is violating human rights.

‘government meanness, public kindness’*

‘What kind of party opposes feeding hungry children in the middle of a pandemic? And what kind of politicians take the opportunity for snide remarks about those seeking to help them? “You know what some people call us,” Theresa May told the Conservative conference 18 years ago: “The nasty party.”

Child food poverty means both present misery and future disadvantage. Marcus Rashford’s non-partisan campaign was compelling enough to force the government to U-turn this summer, agreeing to pay for vouchers to feed those on free school meals over the holidays. Yet this week it set its face against his call for an extension. Though five Tories backed Labour’s motion on the issue – one resigning from a government post to do so – 322 others voted against. Some added cheap jibes (“virtue-signalling”) at a man whom the government gave an MBE for his campaigning.

There has long been an audience for divisive rhetoric directed against immigrants and families on benefits (most of which are working households). Yet there was widespread revulsion at Wednesday’s vote. Even Nigel Farage chipped in to observe that voting the extension down “looks mean and is wrong”.

Racist responses to Marcus Rashford's campaign for children are no surprise

Not everyone will be familiar with Nelson Mandela’s observation that the keenest revelation of a society’s soul is the way it treats its children – but most will share his instinct. They can do the maths: more than £6,000 a day for consultants on a failing test-and-trace system versus £15 a week for food vouchers; £522m for the “eat out to help out“ scheme, subsidising those who can afford restaurant meals, versus £24m to feed children who can’t. And they will wonder why England won’t pay when Northern Ireland will do so, and Wales and Scotland have committed to pay until spring next year. The decision is all the more worrying as demand for free school meals soars, and downright odd on the eve of the chancellor’s announcement of a multibillion-pound package for businesses and workers, recognising that these are extraordinary times and that the economic crisis is only beginning.

The Nasty Tories Vs The Kind People

The outpouring of help from hundreds of businesses around the country is a visceral reaction to government meanness, as well as a welcome testament to people’s decency and generosity. Cafes, takeaways and pubs that are struggling due to Covid-19 restrictions have nonetheless promised free meals to those who would otherwise go without. What a contrast with the MPs who implied that parents were irresponsible and spoke of “nationalising children” and deepening dependency. Extraordinarily, one suggested that many of his constituents “would be appalled by the government interfering in their daily lives to ensure that their children do not go hungry”.

Many Conservatives expressed concern about hardship. They are right that more fundamental solutions than holiday schemes are needed. But years of Tory government have brought sharp rises in child poverty, thanks to measures such as the two-child limit on benefits. In one of the richest countries in the world, 4.2 million children are living in poverty: 600,000 more than in 2011-12. Even before the pandemic, that figure was projected to rise by another 1m by 2022, to 5.2 million. The MPs who say that schools should not have to feed children forget that many are already forced to do so. Local authorities who have seen their funding slashed by austerity are stepping into the breach too.

In the past, the Conservatives’ reputation for callousness was matched by a belief in their competence. That is being demolished by this pandemic. Even Boris Johnson was finally forced to admit to shortcomings in his “world-beating” £12bn test-and-trace system this week, as contact tracing fell to a new low and waiting times for test results soared to almost double the target. This is a post-shame government, brazening out its failures, untruths and sheer cruelties, assured in its vast majority and the distance of the next general election. How rich that Conservatives should lecture struggling families on responsibility, while refusing to take any themselves.’

*Editorial, The Guardian, 23 October 2020

......

After Boris Johnson’s COVID-19 recovery and discharge from hospital, I wrote him a public letter, pleading with him to change his ways and become A Man For The Common Good. As it happened, it was, nothing, but a wishful thinking on my part! He proved to me that, yes, indeed, leopards can never change their spots!

Boris for the Common Good! How miraculous that can be! God must have saved you for something good!

……

What if Britain like New Zealand had opted for Politics And Economics As If People Mattered To Focus On Empathy, Kindness and Well-Being

This is why every country needs a Jacinda Ardern to discover What it Means to be Human and Great

…...

'A HARD RAIN'

Driven and Fueled by the Lies of the Past-

‘Johnson, Gove and Cummings Drive Britain Towards Elective Dictatorship.’

The Posh Boys Destroying this Green and Pleasant Land

A poster in Kentish Town, north London, mocks Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings

and Boris Johnson. Photo: Tolga Akmen, via The Guardian

‘Britain is changing from a parliamentary democracy towards an elective dictatorship faster than people realise after Boris Johnson’s election victory…’-Brexit and Dictatorship

......

...And finally, the fundamental questions at this moment are: Can Britain be reformed? Can this huge and immoral inequality be tackled and reversed? Can people live happily? Can Britain become democratic again?...

The answer to my mind is an emphatic NO, unless the following is understood and addressed accordingly:

To reverse this destructive path we need a different model of education and we need a different economic value and economy. However, these are not possible to achieve so long as  The Fraudulent Ideology reins supreme. Full stop. Carpe Diem!

Why Love, Trust, Respect and Gratitude Trumps Economics

See also:

"Sharing the Wisdom, Shaping the Dream:

Reclaiming the Moral and Spiritual Roots of Economics and Capitalism"

By The Reverend Canon Dr. Vincent Strudwick

And

Wisdom and the Well-Rounded Life: What Is a University?

By Prof. Fr. Peter Milward