The Coalition Government may be going further and faster on reforming the state education system and the National Health Service than even those who voted Conservative expected, but some things still seem to be sacrosanct.
Witness this week's bumbling over free milk for children under five in daycare. No sooner had health minister Anne Milton suggested that the £50m scheme could be scrapped than Prime Minister David Cameron leapt in to pledge the Government's unswerving support for continuing to supply those mini bottles to the nation's pre-school children.
The question of how much free milk for under-fives improves health and whether or not the money could be better spent in pursuit of the same aims are both irrelevant. Nightmare visions of the chants of 'Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher', which have been associated with the former PM - then education secretary - ever since she abolished free milk for over-sevens in 1971 prompted Cameron to his swift rebuttal.
Those of us who actually drank the milk as schoolchildren several decades ago shed few tears at its loss, however. In those days, it always seemed to be part-frozen in winter and halfway curdled to butter in the heat of summer. Either way, it was to be feared rather than relished!
Nowadays, the refrigeration technology is better, even if the administrative burden of doing the milk claim is not a nursery manager's favourite task. Nevertheless, this climbdown on scrapping milk for under-fives is a small victory for public opinion. Perhaps those looking to save other publicly funded services should come up with a handy rhyming chant incorporating Cameron's name to aid their lobbying. Feel free to e-mail us suggestions.
