Government cannot foot bill for everything

SO the Government has succumbed to a huge amount of moral pressure to extend the free meals for children scheme.

The trouble is, if the Government responds to special pleading for particular groups, this again puts up to stratospheric levels the overall huge public spending debt.

This is vast and running at well over two trillion pounds.

So the problems will come down the line.

Money borrowed now will have to be paid for by this generation of children when they are grown up.

There is probably no way out of this and future generations will experience higher direct and indirect taxation, and also reduced public services.

So the terrible Covid situation notwithstanding, perhaps special interest groups need to be reminded that the more national debt we incur the less stable the country will be long term, and I suspect the less its geopolitical influence in the world.

Yes, other countries in Europe have debt and Covid problems too, but we are out of the EU now and will have to fend for ourselves in terms of managing the economy, dealing with debt and negotiating free trade deals, etc. Also, sorry, I can’t help feeling that children are their parents’ responsibility, aided by possibly grandparents, friends, neighbours, and charities. And no, they are not directly the Government’s responsibility except in the provision of education and healthcare to the population as a whole.

An additional point – other groups including the disabled and some retired people live in an almost permanent state of poverty, and this was true before Covid hit us all. So to have to respond to special pleading for children’s meals is not a good situation, morally or politically, for the Government to find itself in at the moment. Elizabeth Smith Woodmancote