Free school meals not a gimmick

Submitted by Matthew on 21 May, 2014 - 11:13

Nick Clegg’s policy for free school meals for all children under seven in England has been at the centre of a row between the Tories and the Lib Dems.

The plan was denounced in the media by Michael Gove’s former advisor Dominic Cummings as “dumb” and “a gimmick”, the figures for which were drawn up on “the back of a fag packet”.

It is still unclear whether Cummings was acting solo or was a stalking horse for Gove and the Tories. At Clegg’s urging, Gove and Lib Dem schools minister David Laws penned a joint article in the Times insisting the policy had “cross-party support.”

Free school meals are not a “gimmick”, nor should they be used as a political football between warring Coalition partners.

A Greater London Authority report from August 2013 found 8% of parents in London saying that their children had to skip meals because they couldn’t afford food, and over a fifth of parents in the capital have had to forego meals so that their children could eat.

Free school meals would go some way towards addressing problems of poverty, and making them universal up until the age of seven would also remove some of the stigma around children who currently receive free school meals.

We should also demand, however, that the rich be taxed in order to end means-testing and provide free and healthy school meals for all children.

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