Nadir

I really thought we'd reached rock bottom, and that finally we'd hit a point where something was so horrible and so obviously wrong that it was finally, truly indefensible. Specifically, I am referring to the most recent Free School Meals fiasco.

The principle was simple: since schools are closed, parents would instead be given help to feed their children. In some areas, this took the form of a voucher worth £15 a week, that could only be spent on appropriate items. In some others, it took the form of a box containing food.

Well, fair enough, I guess. I have opinions both about what the appropriate value of that top-up should be and also how it should be delivered, but I can appreciate that there are arguments to be made in other ways. I don't see supplying a box of food as being inherently problematic.

But that value of that food should equal the value of the food that can be purchased by the voucher. That is, the box should include £15 worth of food. (And since economies of scale should kick in, it should actually hold more than could easily be purchased at a supermarket for the money.)

Instead, it turns out that hundreds of people were receiving boxes containing £5 worth of food. And, worse, many of those were boxes intended for two weeks, not one - and so the shortfall wasn't even 'just' two-thirds of the value, but rather five sixths.

Once upon a time, that would have shocked and outraged me - how could someone do such a thing? How could the government sign off on a deal that allowed that to happen.

Unfortunately, my cynicism has reached a point where I can see the answer to that all too easily.

But I did at least think it would be seen as indefensible. How wrong I was. Even that, even the poorest children in our country being starved, was met with a multitude more than willing to cheer them on.

What a wretched little country we have become.