It takes some cheek for the ex-chancellor, whose tenure saw vast sums taken from children’s welfare, to back Jamie Oliver
“The best value for a taxpayer’s buck,” said Jamie Oliver, urging the cause of free school meals during his guest-editing slot on the Today programme this week. He’s right about the need to feed hungry children amid soaring hardship levels. It’s a no-brainer: education can’t enter the head of a child with an empty stomach.
It’s simple: giving a tray of food to a child arouses none of the “moral hazard” fears falsely raised by Conservatives claiming that parents waste benefits on the wrong things. The cost is negligible: £2bn a year to feed every child in England every day is a cheap price to make sure no child goes hungry in a country so singularly blighted by poverty and inequality.
