Sentinel Comment: Free meals don't add up

T HE campaign launched by Stoke South MP Rob Flello for primary school children to be provided with a free lunch is very easy to sign up to. Who could be against it, when it would save parents £8.75 a week per child? But, to coin the inevitable phrase, there is no such thing as a free lunch. While a free school dinner scheme is being tried from September in Durham and a London borough, in Stoke-on-Trent alone, such a move would cost an extra £6 million at current prices. This for an authority which is already talking about job cuts to balance the books as Government settlements are reduced in coming years.

W e confess we find it odd to see a loyalist Labour MP in Stoke-on-Trent launching this campaign in such a public fashion, as though he is seeking the righting of a deep social injustice. Who has been in power nationally for 12 years now? Who has run Stoke-on-Trent as a city or county authority for years on end, apart from the odd embarrassment? Mr Flello's party, obviously. For a man who gave the impression during the Trentham school campaign that he liked to work behind the scenes to achieve the right result, this public showboating seems bizarre. If this is such a deep wrong, let it be righted. After all Mr Flello's leader, the Prime Minister, spent yesterday unveiling his plans to put Britain on a better track. But such a move here could only come with the funding of central government. To suggest that a local authority like Stoke-on-Trent should pay from within its existing budget is nonsense, as something else would have to be cut deeply to find the money. Mr Flello knows this. Making this proposal without sensibly suggesting how it can be funded is simply irresponsible.