'poor Children Are Overweight' - Emily Thornberry Defends Free School Meal Plan

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39544692

I have to agree with her here. When you look at photos taken of poverty in Britain in the 1930's, you see painfully thin children. But now, the poorer you are, the fatter you are likely to be.

[mikey4444]

Islay....I agree with the second part of your argument.

[-Talbot-]

Why on earth should McDonalds take some of the blame?

[hc4361]

You can't feed kids on potatoes and pies these days - they are not active enough to burn all those carbs off.

I, too, was brought up on shepherds pie, fruit pie and custard, dripping on toast, very fatty breast of lamb and sandwiches and pork pie for lunch. Nearly forgot the stew and dumplings and rice puddings. And suet puddings smothered in golden syrup. I wasn't fat but we didn't have a car and school was 3 miles away. I walked everywhere and road my bike for miles. Playtimes I was racing around like a loon.

It's different times.

[emmie]

if schools don't teach children how to cook or the basics of home economics then i fear we will just see a
surge of fat children, and even fatter adults, as they grow up not knowing how to cook a pork chop and common potatoes, which seems to bear out the post.

Mikey
when i was growing up there was still rationing, and the women folk had no choice but to make and mend do.
hence the fairly plain meat and veg with a stodgy pudding for afters, to fill you out a bit.

[jourdain2]

Prudie's right. Growing up in the '50's we ate veg. from the garden, neighbours swapped veg.; ran around outside all day (or so it seemed); walked everywhere (I recently marvelled at the route I walked when blackberrying with Mum) and filled up with homemade
puddings.

I was pretty rubbish at Domestic Science t.b.h., but I learnt it all at home. Give me a pound of mince, spuds and carrots and I'll make a healthy meal for 6. A pound of mince, tin of tomatoes and some spaghetti and the meal will feed 8 healthily and no-one will be hungry.

I sometimes had to stand-in for lessons in 'Food Technology' as it became -it was pathetic. They were learning to read labels, not cook, and I was not even allowed to show them how to make cheese on toast because of the insurance.

Income isn't what counts - it's nous



(PS Home

[mikey4444]

I hope she is not reading this but I have a sister-in-law that makes a 10 mile round trip, once or twice a week, to bring back Happy Meals for my niece and nephew, instead of cooking something at home.

[Islay]

Mikey that's fine if the rest of the time she is providing healthy meals and the children are active.
Happy meals come with water or milk and carrot sticks instead of fries.
As I said earlier on as a treat as part of a balanced diet then Mcdonalds are not the bad food you seem to think they are!

[mikey4444]

Never seen any carrot sticks or milk in the meals my sister-in-law brings home Islay !

And if this type of food was a rarity or a "treat" than I wouldn't complain. But in her case it isn't.

[hc4361]

Are the kids fat, mikey?

[Islay]

I don't think you can complain anyway- I don't think you have the right.
What sort of food does she serve them the rest of the time? Do they do after school clubs ?

[fender62]

i agree with hc4361, seems children are stuck in front of game consoles and social media sites on computers or phones, i hardly ever see children in bicycles or playing in parks much, as was mentioned lack or cooking skills and maybe laziness all contrubute and time factors if working, no one size fits all families i understand, but is this limited to europe and america..i have no idea.

[hc4361]

Apparently obesity is spreading, fender

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4241546/Exposure-junk-food-causing-obesity-Siberian-tribes.html

[hc4361]

According to this report, we in the UK are skinny minnies compared to a lot of the world

http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/29-most-obese-countries-in-the-world.html

[fender62]

Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati they have junk food there or just big portions of rice and cocoanuts followed by a whole whale ?

[hc4361]

Fast food in all three, fender

[emmie]

why should those who send their children to private schools be picking up the tab in any way at all, to provide free school meals in your basic comp.

[hc4361]

I don't agree with free school meals for any child. Surely if every child has to pay for their meal the cost per child will come down?

Parents who send their children to private schools are already subsiding state school children.

[maggiebee]

Always remember having a chuckle at my DIL's expense. She was berating me for paying £3 odd to have something delivered from Argos as she said she could make better use of the money. Barely an hour later my son was dispatched to McDonalds for meals for six of us. Goodness knows what that cost and it was just rubbish.

[ummmm]

Fender - I live 2 mins walk from a park. It'll be busy all holidays.

You have to remember as well that kids are given much more homework nowadays.

[New Judge]

“You have to remember as well that kids are given much more homework nowadays.”

Much more than what? I don’t think they are given much more than I was at my grammar school.

Which I is interesting when it comes to Ms Thornberry. A few years ago she was berating her local authority (Islington) for not having in its area a decent school to which she could send her child. Coincidentally she lived half a mile from the site of my old grammar school (which was among the top six in London). The school, unfortunately, was forced to move out because one of Ms Thornberry’s Labour predecessors, one Anthony Crosland, vowed “if it’s the last thing I’ll do I’ll rid the country of every last f**cking grammar school.” In this he almost succeeded and London was one of the first areas to embrace the new dogma. If it hadn’t, Ms Thornberry would have had a superb school for her child to attend just up the road.

So I won’t heed any advice or opinion from Ms Thornberry on matters educational. There is no correlation between poverty and overweight children. Where there is a correlation is between overweight children and feckless parents who find it easier to send their children to McDonalds or Dominos rather than cook them a healthy meal. Many of those parents are, apparently, “poor” but that’s simply coincidental.