GP Taylor: Osborne is the school meals snatcher

I have to say that I have never been disappointed since Jamie Oliver quite rightly pressed for healthy school meals and a moving away from the chips and pie culture.

It is a shame that there is a distinct difference between the fee-paying and the state schools. In some public schools I have visited they are not far short of a Michelin star. Dining halls are more like the trendy eateries of North London and bruschetta and olives are always on the menu.

Yet one of the best school meals I have ever had was served here in our great county. I was very honoured to be invited to Dixon’s Academy in Bradford. A truly dynamic school serving a diverse area of our county. Many of the students were allowed free school meals and the food was amazingly good.

I fully understand the importance of having children who are well fed in the classroom. A student that isn’t hungry can concentrate and pay attention better than one who is. Some 83 per cent of teachers have said that they see children coming to schools with empty stomachs. In London, over 60 per cent of children in poverty are not eligible for free school meals.

Sadly I too have met many children who have come to school with an empty stomach, empty pockets and empty lunch boxes. When the Lib Dems forced the Tories into a policy of free school meals for all Key Stage One children, I was delighted. Schools were caught out, and many had to spend valuable cash putting in or modernising kitchens, but overall it has been a valued initiative.

Child hunger isn’t just something that is seen by children who are from poor backgrounds. Sometimes those who are well off do not pay as much attention to nutrition as they should. School breakfast clubs play an important part in preparing students for a day at the desk.

I am therefore outraged that George Osborne should make such a pig’s ear of this policy. Yet, it does not come as a surprise. This cynical man knows that those who will be most affected would never vote Tory. He is prepared to steal food from the mouths of children to make the cuts to save £600m.

What was once seen as a vote-winning part of the Tory manifesto is suddenly about to be dropped when he needs to balance the books. In true Osborne fashion he again tries to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

It is annoying that he will offer to feed and house thousands of economic migrants and forget the old adage that charity begins at home.

What he doesn’t seem to understand is that some children in this country are in a state of food deprivation. A man from such a silver spoon background has most probably never had to go without food or worry where the next meal is coming from.

Osborne doesn’t understand that providing free school meals to infants could be the best way of fighting obesity in our society. Regular, nutritious and well balanced meals can teach children the value of healthy eating. Feed a child to the age of seven and they know what is good to eat for the rest of their lives.

Free school meals introduce children to food groups and types that they might never seen at home. In our fast food culture, it is important that the school plays a part not just in educating the mind but also the stomach as well. This cannot be left to some parents encumbered by busy lives, debt and social problems.

George Osborne has to understand that a policy of robbing food from the mouths of children will haunt him for the rest of his political career. The press and electorate love to have one mistake on which they can hang the character of a politician. For Nick Clegg it was tuition fees, for David Cameron it was a pig’s head and now for Osborne it will be “food stealer”.

Even amongst the chattering classes of North London, such a policy is seen as distasteful. Amongst the wise fold of Yorkshire, such an act is seen as being mean, underhand and wicked.

Perhaps such an action shows the 
true heart of modern Toryism, a 
culture firmly founded in the base 
rituals of the Bullingdon Club and 
their obvious hatred of the poor and working class.

GP Taylor is a writer and broadcaster and can be followed @GPTaylorauthor.