Labour’s new primary school breakfast clubs setting up across the UK are the start of a social revolution – and will give kids a better chance in life by helping them concentrate in class
Hungry pupils cannot concentrate so Labour’s primary school breakfast clubs will be an education winner.
Selecting 750 primary schools for year-long pilots before rolling the programme out to 16,764 is the start of a social revolution that will leave no child behind. Wealthier parents griping about paying VAT on private school fees ignore the huge benefits for the 93% majority, by ensuring every pupil starts the day with a breakfast.
The fairness tax will fund a programme improving the life chances of not only the poorest but all working and middle-class kids. Providing free primary school lunches in those parts of England where parents are still forced to pay is a cause that has not gone away. But let us enthusiastically welcome breakfast clubs, rebuilding a wraparound welfare state in the interests of a revived nation.
Just stub it out
Plans to stop young people getting addicted to cigarettes have thankfully cleared another Parliamentary hurdle. Keir Starmer’s Labour government is right to pick up where Rishi Sunak and the Tories left off on this issue, as smoking is the most lethal cause of avoidable early deaths.
Most addicts want to give up cigarettes. Sadly, freedom-of-choice excuses are a distraction from saving lives and protecting an NHS spending a fortune on casualties of a fatal drug that would be outlawed if a modern Walter Raleigh brought it into the country.
Cigarette use and the vaping epidemic is being fuelled by companies seeking fresh customers without caring about the dangers. It is imperative that this public health issue is confronted with tough laws.
Hot Rod
Some Guys Have All the Luck and Rod Sewart bagging Glastonbury’s coveted Legends billing is a great tribute to old Hot Legs himself. No doubt, he will be able to the light up the faces of young and old next summer.