“…..[Mansfield] Tory MP Ben Bradley has claimed that free school meals vouchers are “effectively” a handout to a crack den and brothel. Even if this is true – and the evidence for it is less than overwhelming – so what? It is impossible, except at colossal administrative cost, to target help to the deserving poor and only the deserving poor. The question is what ruin do we want to incur – that of some help going to crack dealers, or that of some children going hungry? Many of us would prefer to err on the side of the former – and in an imperfect world we must err.”*

* https://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2020/10/a-great-deal-of-ruin.html