The public accepts its duty to bring up the next generation – even if the government refuses to

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Has your MP voted against the extension of free school meals for some children during the school holidays? If so, you might like to remind them of the following:

It is not a child's fault that they were born into a poor family.

It is not a child's fault that their parents are unable to afford a decent meal every day.

It is not a child's fault that their parents are unwilling victims of a greedy landlord.

It is not a child's fault that their parents have to decide between eating, clothing and heating.

It is not a child's fault that they live in (supposedly) one of the richest countries in the world but need to become unwilling users of a food bank.

It is not a child's fault that they have to go without a decent hot meal each day because well-fed, well-clothed, comfortable MPs have so decided.

You can also remind them that some MPs have said we should not nationalise children but should rely on parental responsibility. On the contrary, the vast majority of parents are only too ready and willing to take 100 per cent responsibility for their children. 

However, many of them are prevented from doing this if their jobs are taken away from them through no fault of their own and if the government is unwilling to step up and help with this responsibility. It is the solemn duty of society (as well as parents) to bring up the next generation, and we should not forget it.

Sam Boote

Nottingham  

In your article published on Saturday (“Marcus Rashford ‘blown away’ as cafes and restaurants offer free meals for children in support of campaign”) you quote a No 10 spokesperson who says that Boris Johnson has been “clear on our position” that “free school meals will continue during term time and that he wants to continue to support families throughout the crisis so they have cash available TO FEED KIDS IF THEY NEED TO” (my caps).  

Since when have any parents, even those whose dire straits Johnson could not conceive of, NOT needed to feed their kids?

What a giveaway!  

Bernard Theobald  

Nottingham  

Trump’s distraction tactics

Donald Trump is still harping on Hillary Clinton’s emails from five years ago so he can try and rile up his supporters to chant “lock her up”.   I am so sick of it and I hardly look at the internet news any more. I am done with it.

And the worse part of it – he may be re-elected. Think about that. I would leave the country if I were younger, I really would. I can not believe that the people of this country may turn around and vote for him again.  

It is unbelievable to think about that.

Lyla Wickstrum  

Address supplied  

Biden and the economy

As with Gordon Brown in 1997, if Joe Biden sits on his hands he will inherit a boom in a couple of years. Brown managed to avoid interfering for a while but after the millennium he did what Labour chancellors do. The question is, can Biden be kept away from economic levers?

Looking at his running mate and the Democrat Party's lunatic fringe, I doubt it. The costing of his tax and regulatory proposals by the Hoover Institution is frightening: workforce down by 5 million, GDP by $3 trillion, consumption by $1.5 trillion and median household income by $6,500.

Leftist economists insist all will be well: Biden learnt from the financial crisis that to keep the economy on an even keel one must throw money at everything. Ominously that sounds like El Gordo's cunning plan after 2000 and the South American default reaction since the days of Eva Peron.

John Cameron

St Andrews

Maskless exercise

Joggers and cyclists are for some reason exempt from wearing masks. However, there are no provisions for the public to shield from them.

I have been subject not only to puffs of moist-laden breath from close-passing joggers and two-wheeled passers-by, and, on occasion, actual gobbets of phlegm and even drops of sweat. 

These experiences have sometimes been compounded by foul abuse when I have objected to their potentially fatal behaviour or even simply found myself in their exclusive path.  

Exempting these people from mask-wearing does not mean they can’t transmit or receive this deadly virus and it certainly does not give anyone the right to act as though this were the case.

Matt Minshall

Brittany, France