An invitation to share

When free school meals were in the news last year, a Conservative MP responded to one of his constituents with the following:

“I am afraid that I cannot support such a state power grab away from the principle of parental responsibility. If we are not even going to ask parents to be responsible for feeding their children, then I wonder what we would ask them to be responsible for.”

I found this shocking. Why have the Trussell Trust needed to provide families with 1.2 million food parcels in the past six months? What allows politicians to blame “irresponsible parents” for their food insecurity? What lessons are to be learned by parents not being able to feed their children? How is this just?

I looked to the literature for greater understanding. The “veil of ignorance” technique (Rawls, 1971) requires people to imagine themselves as a blank slate. Then, from this “original position” they are asked to decide the principles of justice. He theorised that from this position, people would favour a model of equality. To use a food related metaphor, if you’re slicing a pizza and you don’t know which slice you are going to get, you’d cut them as equally as possible so that everyone, including yourself, has a fair share.

But when I’m cutting pizza, the scissors are hovering in mid air… (yes, I use scissors – that’s my choice!) and running through my mind are questions. Who is the hungriest? Who needs the most calories? Do adults need more than children? Who likes which toppings? Who can’t eat cheese? Why am I the one with the scissors? And so on… I don’t think it is possible to decide on what is fair without having information about the pizza, the pizza eaters or the pizza distributor.

Walzer (1983) stated, “justice is a human construction, and it is doubtful that it can be made in only one way”. He argues for a more complex arrangement based on the social meaning attached to goods. In our family, when it comes to pizza, olives have the highest value. However, there is more of a debate when it comes to cheese made from cows’ milk. A debate that involves factors including morals, physical health and personal preference. So, the social meaning we attach to these pizza toppings is different because we are different people.

Walzer also talks about power and warns that “the dominance of goods makes for the domination of people”. I am mulling over the dilemmas of social meaning and political power as I hold the scissors, considering and enquiring about everyone’s preferences, relationships and hunger. I’m aware of my position and attempting to share my power while still maintaining (sometimes barely) possession of the scissors in order to facilitate distribution.

I’m also wondering about the size of the government’s pizza. I have an image of this MP holding a pizza cutter (his choice). I wonder whether he thinks that parents who can’t feed their children have a choice, or whether he thinks that they got what they deserved. Perhaps he believed that if they acted more “responsibly” that they would have what they need. I was reminded of this quote:

“Living in a society that tolerates gross wealth and income inequalities makes it hard to empathise with a wide range of people… with gross inequality comes segregation and a consequent lack of knowledge about how the other person lives.” Dorling (2015, 190 – 191).

So, this leads me to one final question. What can be done differently by the enthusiastic many, to invite the resistant few to close the gap, to reconnect, to share power and think differently about equality? There is no simple answer to this dilemma. However, it seems certain to me that a solution will need to address economic, cultural and political issues across multiple systems. And in addition to grassroots groups lobbying for change, and collaborations between theorists and practitioners, I would advocate for the discussion of the principles and mechanisms of social justice in spaces for children, adults, families and communities in particular, so that intergenerational systems support a shift in awareness and motivation to address inequalities in society.