In the green and pleasant fields of the People’s Republic of Liverpudlia no one is unhappy and no one goes hungry. At least that’s the vibe we get from within Americana-UK Towers although of course it can be a challenge to hear stuff properly from down within our bunker being as it is reinforced with our arrogance and soundproofed against dissent. We do get a decent broadband connection however and have been following the story of how a multimillionaire ball kicker has been a thorn in the side of ‘The Government’ over providing school meals to needy children whilst the schools are on holiday. Why wouldn’t you? It would be the decent thing to do right? In the scheme of things the cost would be relatively minor and everyone (apart from the most rabid lunatic on the fringes of psychopathy) would be happy with the outcome. But no –‘The Government’ has said, from the fringes, that parents should buck their ideas up, stop swapping food for crack and make use of local council funds which generally aren’t there. The oppositional ‘Not The Government’ forced a vote on it in The House of Commons and lost. All involved then went off to a Commons dining room and feasted on heavily subsidised a la carte food to work out their expenses claims. We thought that that was a bit of a shocker.
We were more shocked though that no one thought to question how the vote went. In fact we were extremely perplexed to see the voting figures. The majority on the government benches voted against the motion (to continue to provide free school meals) and the majority on the opposition benches voted for it. And here is the rub. Education (and hence provision of meals at school) is a devolved matter. Therefore the assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland make their own arrangements in this regard and in fact have already done so. Why then did members of Plaid Cymru, the SNP, the SDLP and DUP have a vote on what happens in English schools? It’s a real shame that it has taken this issue to highlight the farcical nature of the United Kingdom’s constitution. But farcical it is and farcical it shall remain until proper constitutional reform takes place. The “West Lothian” question has been writ large…
