It's also not just rubbish parents who want/need children to have good quality meals at school. When I was younger due to the circumstances my father left us in the fact that we got a good quality hot meal at school was a massive help to our situation. I imagine that is (or would be) the same for a lot of people who are struggling at the moment.

We've gone so far away from what school dinners were meant for it's unreal. It's not that long since those entitled to a free school lunch were still able to get it in the school holidays so that they still got at least one decent meal a day.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18472795Some very positive outcomes[/url

It seems that the strangest circumstances still stirr our souls as members of the same species, and that is great news!

[url=http://thevoluptuousmanifesto.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/never-second-thoughts_18.htmlThe questions the journalists should have been asking.[/url

Looking at the choices issue for a second and I think this angle is being massively over-egged if you actually look at A&B's lunch menu.

Like most of the Scottish councils they work on a 4 weekly menu plan and it seems that Martha Payne and her classmates have the grand choice of two hot things.

Here's a sample of their menu;

Week 2 - Monday (Family Favourites)

Chicken in Gravy served with Boiled Potatoes and Carrots and/or Cauliflower Cheese
Or Pack a Snack Selection including Hot or Cold Wraps with
tasty fillings served with Carrot Sticks or Side Salad (v)

Tuesday: Around the World
Burger served in a Bun served with Potato Wedges, Broccoli or Side Salad
Or Creamy Ham or Vegetable (v) Tagliatelli served with Broccoli or a Side Salad

Wednesday: An Italian Feast
Meatballs in a Rich Tomato Sauce served with Pasta and Corn Cobettes
Or Pizza with a Selection of Toppings (v) served with Crunchy Diced Potatoes and Corn Cobettes

There's no a huge amount of scope there for the children to be always picking the wrong option. Some larger schools in the area serve baked potatos every day and they have a choice of having a sandwich either. The issue, to me, appears to be the quality and quantity of the actual food. For example the pizza appears on another page of the menu described as being served with a "side salad" - is 3 slices of cucumber now a side salad? Children certainly shouldn't end up having a sandwich because the hot meal options are crap.

In one report the children were told that unlimited salad and bread was available to them, and had always been available to them. Can it be possible that the majority of children in the class missed that fact or could it be that it was something that was kept quiet because it is yet another area of cost cutting? Worryingly for those associated with the primary school is that it is part of a flagship joint campus, it shares with a nursery complex and the High School. So the kids will be exposed to the crap food they are being dished up until they leave school.

... or, as I have raised in the piece linked to above, is the school doing as it should, and the photographs do not represent the whole story?

Apparently, only Martha's parents have complained about the school meals. Why? What was the nature of the complaints? WY have no other parents complained?

And frankly, as I also also mentioned above, I do not believe that the voice in the blog is the voice of a nine-year-old child.

Perhaps Mr and Mrs Payne are peeved that, in offering choices, they give their child the chance to make poor choices - and that's why Daddy has, it seems, been 'behind' this way of trying to attack the school.

And an interesting side question: why are so many people so ready, apparently, to take what is being represented by the blog at face value, and assume that it tells the whole story?

It would appear that the whole sorry saga was actually the work of a sub-editor who thought they'd got themselves a "funny" headline. If they'd simply added one small word "up", hyphenated at the end of the word "fire", then I reckon none of this would have happened.

[url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/06/15/read-the-martha-payne-article-that-made-council-bosses-overreact-and-ban-her-blog-photos-86908-23896447/The offending article[/url

For me I'm happy to take it at face value because I know that is the same crap that gets given to kids in our local school.

If you can provide a 2 course meal for £1.75 and make good amounts of profit from it then, imo, you are cutting corners somewhere.

So you're saying that the council and the school are liars?

Or perhaps I have difference in opinion on what I think is an acceptable standard of food to be serving up the children to what they do?

NLC, like A&B, will tell you they offer up "good quality, nutritionally balanced meals" for school dinners. However go into the school behind us and I guarantee you that 4 days out of 5 your first instinct will be "that's crap, I'm not eating that".

The sad thing is any positive that could have come out of the girls blog will probably end up lost in a row between the Daily Record and A&B council.

GG - did you read the piece I linked to?

I've had a quick scan through and TBH I have no problem whatsoever believing that it is, for the most part, written by a 9 year old. There are occasional passages where a quick C&P looks to have been used but nothing leaps out. Both of my kids were producing written work of a similar quality and tone at that age.