Since he won't give kids free meals, we'll end his free meals too !!!

Since this evil, spiteful greedy bastard won't give poor kids free meals, how about we deprive the greedy bastard his (and ever other scumbag 'nasty party' member) their free meals too !!!


Petition to end 'free meals' for MPs gathers hundreds of thousands of signatures in 24 hours

Yahoo Staff Writer
Oct 24th 2020 4:54AM
A petition calling for the end of subsidised meals for MPs has garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures in its first 24 hours.

The campaign, set up by Portia Lawrie, a freelance writer and textile designer, from Essex, calls for "an end to the practice of paying expenses to MPs for food and drink".

It says: "We the electorate demand an end to the practice of paying expenses to MPs for food and drink; and that any and all food and drink in parliamentary establishments be chargeable to MPs at market rates."

At the time of publishing the petition had received more than 314,000 signatures and the figure was rapidly climbing.

Lawrie told Yahoo News UK: "I wanted to make a point about hypocrisy and hold up a mirror to those MPs that saw fit to vote against feeding hungry children; whilst simultaneously feeding themselves at the expense of the taxpayer.

"I was so angry that MPs had rejected the opportunity, and Marcus Rashford's campaign, to extend free school meals into the school holiday. As a mother myself, and someone who has been through similar financial hardship in the past, both as a child and an adult, it just really struck a chord with me; and clearly with many others too.

"I've honestly been astonished at the level of support this petition is getting which shows clearly that public opinion is not on the side of those MPs or convinced by their protests that they have already done enough to help the poorest in society. If they had, we wouldn't be having this conversation and there wouldn't be an explosion of foodbanks in the fifth richest economy in the world.

"Enough is enough. This is not who we are as a country."

MPs currently receive an annual salary of £79,468 and in addition can claim publicly-funded expenses "for expenditure for parliamentary purposes" which cover, in certain circumstances, housing, travel, food, iPads and telephone calls.

MPs are also allowed to eat and drink alcohol in parliamentary restaurants and bars which, while not directly subsidised, run at a loss and so are effectively subsidised with public money.

UK politicians are also entitled to food expenses (up to £25 per night) if they stay overnight outside of both their constituency and the London area, though they cannot use their expenses to buy alcohol either in their office or while they're travelling.

On Wednesday, 322 Tory MPs voted against a measure to extend free school meals for the country's poorest children over the half-term and winter school holidays.

Tabled by Labour, Conservative MPs voted against the scheme by 322 votes to 261. The blow came after England footballer Marcus Rashford, who received free school meals as a child, petitioned the government to extend the scheme to cover upcoming school holidays.

Rashford recently praised the Welsh government for committing £11 million towards providing free meals for the most vulnerable children in the country.

 

Oh my. I had a paid meal recently - grilled tofu w/ vegetables. It was good.

It's a nice perk, but fully unnecessary. I think it would be a good show of faith for government to relinquish such things if their is a need for a little bit of austerity.*