In callously rejecting Marcus Rashford’s call for the Government to provide free school meals for disadvantaged kids over the summer, the Prime Minister demonstrated his talk of levelling up is hollow.
How heartbreaking that many tens of thousands of kids face hungry weeks because Boris Johnson ignores the England football star’s plea to continue a voucher scheme for low-income families during the holidays.
Rashford deserves praise for never forgetting his poor background and championing kids like him. Privileged Johnson deserves condemnation for his lack of support for those born with none of the advantages he enjoyed.
The Manchester United player is teaching the out-of-touch Tory a morality lesson.
Free school meals vouchers are a lifeline for struggling families. Let us hope the PM swallows his pride and ideology and thinks again – or the poorest and youngest will suffer.
Back to life
The queues in our high streets and malls as England’s shops reopened yesterday were a clear sign that many people want to return to a life as normal as possible.
Business is not yet back to normal – far from it. Northern Ireland had already reopened non-food shops but, in this Disunited Kingdom, those in Wales and Scotland stayed shut.
Yet an increasing number of people are prepared to take calculated risks despite the virus remaining a deadly, undefeated enemy.
With incompetent Boris Johnson having abandoned leadership and sending out confusing mixed messages, corporate and personal responsibility may be emerging as the best defences against a second spike.
Luxe-down
THE Queen is truly among her people when she too watches the horse-racing at Royal Ascot on TV at home, lockdown preventing her from attending in person.
But while every Englishman’s home is his castle, the monarch is cheering on the riders from an actual fortification, Windsor Castle.
