Man United and England footballer Marcus Rashford. Photo: www.flickr.com/photos/cfcunofficial

• OUR children are citizens who have a basic human right to shelter, food and other essentials.

It’s not their fault that they don’t have enough food. Yet more than three million children live in poverty, with half a million of those in “destitution”, which means that they don’t have money for clothes or food.

Ten years of austerity has hit the poorest families and children hardest. And those kids are “just down the road” from us.

We all saw that the government refused to provide free school meals until Marcus Rashford spoke out. We all saw the pitiful food parcel that was sent out under the government scheme.

We all saw that the UN thought the UK situation so serious that they gave our children free meals. And we’re a prosperous country.

I think we can agree that the first duty of government is to protect its citizens against external forces. Let’s remember that for our children the economy is an external force which they have no control over.

As the 99% Organisation says, our children are set to be the first generation in living memory who are poorer than their parents.

We need to make sure this isn’t the case. Governments are elected to protect present and future generations.

We need to speak out! So, to your readers I would say: if you feel this is wrong, then write to your MP to make it change.

They work for us. We need to make them understand that this isn’t acceptable.

DOUG CRAWFORD,
NW3