"It is no surprise that Thatcher's first significant action in Parliament was to discontinue free milk for schoolchildren"

Massive thread drift by Christmas, but he does like to splutter on about Thatcher.

Pssst Christmas, you a Minister of State for Education you have been given your allocation of resources from the Treasury and you know savings have to be made, you can spend that money on:

1: Books
2: Teachers
3: Milk

As Minister of State for Education which of those three is least important to the education of the nations children?

Why didn't the local Labour city and town councils subsidise milk? Why didn't the Liebour Government of Tony Blair reintroduce it?

From memory even in my day most of it was wasted in any case.

Now some other inconvenient facts for you Christmas:

a) Margaret Thatcher was Minister of State for Education in 1971, when according to you she "snatched the milk" from the nation's primary school children.

b) Ever read Damian Barr's book "Maggie & Me" Christmas? If not perhaps you should and you could then explain to us how Damian Barr could be writing about how much he loathed the daily dose of "school milk" that he was forced to down in 1984?

c) The true story of milk's exit from the classroom is as follows:

- 1968, Harold Wilson's government removed free milk from all 11- to 18-year-olds
- 1971, the Heath administration took away milk from 7- to 11-year-olds in England and Margaret Thatcher was singled out for everlasting blame.
- 1980, was when milk was stopped for infant classes in England
- 1984 as recollected by Damian Bar, who was still drinking school milk aged eight, when his teacher announced to his class "The Prime Minister of England has stopped free milk in schools down there and now she's trying to stop it up here as well"

Liked this by journalist Rowan Pelling:

"No one ever mentions the fact that many schoolchildren loathed that beastly bottle. Indeed, I have always felt that Thatcher helped liberate children from the tyranny of "drink it all up!" But then no politician championed personal freedom as fiercely as she did."