Response to Adrian Fullam’s ‘Free food for kids’ article

In his recent article, about free school meals, Adrian Fullam was rather misguided in much of what he said. The notion that only the Liberal Democrats could have produced such a policy is ludicrous. Firstly, many within the Labour Party have argued for just such a policy at a national level, whilst many Labour councillors have gone further and achieved such a policy at local level.

Secondly, what makes Adrian’s article and rhetoric so laughable is that where a Labour Council, Southwark, introduced free school meals, as a universal entitlement, they were criticised by Simon Hughes - Liberal Democrat MP and Deputy Leader of the party. It was precisely because the free school meals policy was universal that he opposed it.

Now to suggest that Labour would be opposed to this policy because it is a universal provision is also nonsense. Is he entirely unaware of the history of the Labour Party and the Welfare State. It was the Labour Party, as the architects of the modern welfare state, that pioneered universal benefits. Conversely, it was the Liberal Democrats, in partnership with the Tories, who voted to remove one of this country’s proudest universal benefits, Child Benefit. It was the Liberal Democrats who argued that we could no longer afford universal benefits.

Now I am pleased that the Liberal Democrats have had a change of heart and realised that universal benefits have their place. Free school meals are good for children’s health and good for their attainment. This policy will also go some way towards tackling the stigma attached to the existing means-tested provision. But let us not forget that the little financial help this provides for families, is just a drop in the ocean compared to the £6,600 real terms cut that the average worker has faced under this Liberal Democrat supported government. A government that Adrian claims his party are ‘delivering progressive change’ within.

But all of that said, there was one thing that Adrian Fullam was right about and that was that it was ‘the most eye-catching announcement from the Liberal Democrat Conference’. Make the most of it because come 2015 their conferences will go back to gaining the very little media attention they warrant.