Free school meals are more than a political ploy

By John McDermott

Nick Clegg wants all primary school children in England to receive free school meals. On Wednesday, the deputy prime minister will announce that from September 2014 an additional 1.5m kids will be eligible for free food. He would eventually like it if all school children aged 11 or under were eligible.

The policy is being viewed as a response to the ?cost of living?, a refrain that will become familiar throughout the party conference season. Of course, there is politics involved; a common occurrence in political speeches. But to see free school meals only through the prism of living standards is simplistic. Quite a lot of policy announcements concern living standards.

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Source: http://blogs.ft.com/off-message/2013/09/18/free-school-meals-are-more-than-a-political-ploy/

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