free school breakfasts and dinners in Scotland
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The SNP has pledged to expand free school meals to all primary school pupils in Scotland if the party retains power after the Holyrood elections in May, it would fund free breakfasts and lunches for all children in P1-P7.
The scheme would also run in the school holidays – not just term time.
The Scottish Conservatives announced a similar policy in September.
However the Scottish Greens said free school meals should be provided in high school as well as primary school.
SNP pledge free school meals for all primary pupils – BBC News
Our Scottish blog’s answer
Socialist Courier: Make everything free (socialist-courier.blogspot.com)
But recall it was the SSP who were called unrealistic back in 2003 when they first proposed the reform but now even the Tories are on board.
Free or subsidised school meals used to exist but was whittled down over the years. So this is a demand to restore a reform. And of course everybody has heard of Margaret Thatcher Milk Snatcher — a bit unfair on her actually as it was a Labour government that started whittling away this reform in 1968 and which completed it in 1977.
SNP continues its bribery
£100 before Christmas will be made to households in receipt of free school meals.
In February, the Scottish government is bringing in a £10 week a payment for children in low income families paid to families with children aged under six and could support up to 194,000 children this financial year.
SNP Conference: Winter payments of £100 for low income families in Scotland – BBC News
Helicoptering in money in Northern Ireland
£200 free shopping vouchers for every household.
£200 high-street vouchers to be given to every household in Northern Ireland | The Independent
As I said on another thread. I got my £100 winter fuel allowance the other day. Also, YMS refers in the MMT thread to the economic crisis that the Labour government faced in 1968. One of the measures taken to deal with this was to end free milk for secondary school children (Margaret Thatcher Milk Snatcher merely extended this to primary school children over 7 a couple of years later; a subsequent Labour government abolished it altogether in 1977).
These reforms come and go. They might help the SNP win next May’s Scottish Parliament elections, but an independent and unsubsidised Scottish government will have difficulty sustaining them.
Remember that one of the first things the independent Irish government did in 1921 was to reduce civil service pensions. That reminds me, we need to do an article on the centenary of Irish independence and the establishment of the Protestant statelet in the north in March next year.
I was once reminded by an Irish friend that the Irish Free State was not real independence, that came when Ireland formally became a Republic in 1948.
I don’t think the formal change of name to a Republic made any difference whatsoever. It was just window dressing. You could argue more plausibly that Ireland didn’t become “independent” ( of Britain) until 1978 when parity between the Irish pound and British pound was broken. But this only meant a transfer of dependence from British to German capitalism (which some Irish Republicans had wanted in both world wars).
And of course the interdependent world capitalist system means that no state can be completely independent ( as the UK is about to (re)learn the hard way after 31 December). Scotland will be in an even worse position is workers there are conned into believing that an “independent” Scotland will bring them any benefit.
And now they’re going to look verrrrrry carefully at a four day week:
https://twitter.com/ScotNational/status/1333396742017048577
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18908868.snp-conference-backs-calls-four-day-working-week/
The Tartan Reformists are clearly showering promises about in a bid to win next year’s elections. Next they’ll be promising free broadband for all. And of course “after independence” money will grow on trees. Pull the other one.
Several dictators in Latin America had free breakfast and lunch for the students attending public schools
Nicola Sturgeon has pledged to pay every NHS and social care worker in Scotland a £500 Covid bonus and has called on Boris Johnson to make the payment tax-free.
Nicola Sturgeon promises £500 for all NHS staff in Scotland | Politics | The Guardian
Yes, MS, it isn’t an original idea. India have been using free school dinners for years to counter malnutrition level in children.
Nothing in capitalism comes free particularly for the poor
Tax experts have warned that Scotland’s poorest health and care workers could lose up to 75% of the £500 bonus pledged by Nicola Sturgeon because it will not be tax-free.
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) said the lowest-paid workers who receive universal credit would be penalised the most because the extra income would be deducted from their welfare payments. NHS and care workers on universal credit who earned the Scottish median salary of £25,200 could only get £123.95 after taxes and national insurance, because the welfare system deducts 63p from every extra pound of earnings.
Wales had been through a similar situation before with the Treasury. The Welsh government was the first to pay public employees a £500 Covid bonus by giving it to 65,000 social care workers in May. It also asked the Treasury to make it tax-free, but the Treasury said since Wales set and received its income taxes, it should increase the bonus to a level high enough to cover the tax take.
NHS staff could lose 75% of Sturgeon Covid bonus, say experts | Politics | The Guardian
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