Britain saved over £1000 by denying poor kids milk

Comments

• ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Heath had just inherited a Britain reeling from Wilson’s disastrous economic performance, and cuts were demanded in every department.

  The Treasury demanded Thatcher, then Minister for Education, make departmental cuts of £9m (£125m in today’s money). Free school milk cost £14 million per year (almost £200m today), twice what was spent on textbooks.

  The previous Labour government had already abolished free milk in secondary schools in 1968, so Thatcher reasoned it would be a logical step to roll the scheme up further, and that the Education budget should be utilised to build new schools rather than deliver what she considered social services.

  However, despite the Treasury demanding total axing of the milk scheme, Thatcher lobbied to continue offering free milk to the under-7s and special needs schools.

  Thatcher had not anticipated the intense emotional response to the policy, and needed a full police protection unit whenever she visited schools. The row was so intense and so vividly remembered by Thatcher that in 1989 she immediately shut down Ken Clarke’s proposal to shut the remaining scheme down to save £4m (£11m today). Even later, the Cameron government was persuaded to abandon plans to shut the scheme down in 2011, despite costs having risen sharply to £50m (£75m today).

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• ComicalMayhem@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Upvote for rwby

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• homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The original Brexiteer

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• lurch@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  i think they should get free vegan alternatives

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• melsaskca@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Economically, that was a brilliant move! /s

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• blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I mind free school milk.

  Sometimes it froze and the frozen milk pushed the foil caps off.

  Also sometimes the blue tits used to peck through the foil and drink the milk.

  Then milk snatcher did her thang.

  No more milky memories

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• PugJesus@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Margaret Thatcher, milk snatcher

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• sepiroth154@feddit.nl ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The problem with right wing politics is that, eventually, you run out of social programs to cut.

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  • kalapala@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Then you can concentrate on exploiting the poor you just created. For example organ market needs a steady supply.

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    • drcobaltjedi@programming.dev ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I swear to god years ago I saw a post or a comment where someone unironically suggested organ donation from the poor as a way to suppliment their income. Pretty sure it was a hardcore libertarian thinking the free market could fix poverty by literally selling a part of yourself.

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    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Basta Millei.

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