Spilt milk

The fact that Downing Street immediately went cold on the idea was a sign of how politically charged the issue of school milk remains, nearly 40 years after Margaret Thatcher earned the "milk snatcher" nickname that many will forever associate with her political career. It was also a sign which should have been picked up by Ms Wilson, the Health Minister, and Mr Willetts, the Universities Minister.

They showed a lack of political nous in failing to appreciate the strength of voters' feeling about free milk. Clearly their boss, David Cameron, was rather more attuned to the public mood. It does not take a former public relations executive to tell you that cancelling children's entitlement to the drink would harm the Conservative Party's attempt to show it has changed.

Ultimately, this is more than just a question of politics. The nutritional benefits of milk are proven and clearly, in the age of fizzy drinks and Turkey Twizzlers, there is also a wider benefit in setting children on a lifetime's path of healthy eating and drinking. Individuals and wider society will suffer if more and more young people grow up malnourished or obese. Dairy farmers, too, would not thank the Government if it cancelled one of their most long-standing contracts.

There may be ways in which the cost of providing free school milk could be reduced but without risking its supply. The dire state of the public finances means Ministers must consider

how to make the Government more efficient in everything it does, but this must be done without risking harm to the young or the poor. The milk must continue to flow.