Footballers have a reasonably well known reputation for being a bit thick. This is probably a little unfair and is as much down to being constantly under a media fuelled microscope. At any opportunity they’re straight on the front page; from Gazza being a drunkard, Rooney sleeping with prostitutes who happen to be grandmas, Raheem Sterling getting a misunderstood tattoo, Cantona fighting xenophobic racists and David Beckham’s new haircut. There are an infinite number of examples but these are the ones which spring to mind immediately and which also probably show my age. If you take any spectrum of society and put it in the spotlight for long enough you’ll get exciting stories you can smuggly judge them over while feeling morally superior. It just so appears though that one of them has gone and reversed the trend.
Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United and England striker, has used his fame to pressure the government into fulfilling their end of the social contract and feeding the 1.3 million children on free school meal vouchers. Ordinarily they would stop as term time ended but with the unprecedented events relating to the coronavirus this year there have been calls for the scheme to extend throughout the six weeks of summer holiday too, as will be happening in Scotland and Wales. The government initially rejected his call, with some MPs putting their rather callous foot in it, but with widespread coverage of his request over the last twenty four hours they’ve been forced to back down and make a u-turn. There’s nothing politicians like less than admitting they were wrong and being forced to change their mind.
They claimed they had already put aside £63 million to help poor families and that this would be sufficient. Providing free school meals over the summer will cost another £120 million, at £15 per week per child, which dwarfs the previously allotted money. Now either they’ve drastically underestimated the number of children living in poverty or the £63 million was insufficient and nothing more than a token gesture for appearances sake. Why they were willing to take on a hero in the eyes of many on this is anyone’s guess, but they did and they lost. This isn’t the first time a footballer has used his position to try and achieve something positive but it is the first time I can think of that the end result has been so positive and will help so many people. I can imagine there’ll be a few more kids wanting to play as Rashford in the park from now on.
Observations and Misunderstandings 