Tories are taking food out of our children's mouths
Monday 09 July 2012
Printable
EmailOn the same day that we were all supposed to wave the flag in support of some bloke playing tennis the Sunday Times revealed that Michael Gove has appointed two restaurateurs - Old Etonian Henry Dimbleby, son of David, and John Vincent, a former management consultant - to prepare a report into the suitability of school meals in state schools in England and Wales.
This is said to be in defiance of initiatives and plans set in place by the Labour government and Jamie Oliver, another millionaire chef but from a much humbler background to Dimbleby and Vincent.
Yet again the coalition Tory-run government is playing political football when our children's health is in the balance. With childhood obesity, anorexia and other serious disorders on the rise, Gove and his Eton elite waffle away about setting up a website "in the near future" where pupils can post their opinions of school food.
Action is needed now. Oliver calls for at least £1 per day per child spending on school dinners, a vast improvement on present levels. Also, on the same day the Tories announce they cannot afford a scheme to cap the amount elderly people have to pay towards their care in care homes.
When these same Tory and Lib Dem ministers are sat in the front row of the multi-billion pound Olympics, will they still, with calm words and faces, tell our elderly and our young that their good health is just "far too expensive?"
Dean Scurlock
Penarth
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