Tis time once again loyal readers to award my prestigious, and internationally renowned, "Prats of The Week" Award.This week it goes to Gloucestershire county council, who have been conducting a very bizarre surveillance exercise on children's school lunch boxes.
For reasons that only would make sense to Nanny and her minions, staff from Gloucestershire county council have been secretly opening the contents of a sample of children's lunchboxes, photographing the contents, awarding marks according to nutritional value then offering parents advice on how to prepare "better" packed lunches.
Ermmm...to my simple mind this just sounds completely loony!
Anyhoo, the scheme was started six months ago and was the diseased brainchild of officials from Gloucestershire county council, NHS Gloucestershire and the local schools.
Quite barking mad to my view.
When I was a young lad my packed lunches tended to be spam or banana sandwiches, a chocolate cup cake, a packet of crisps and a thermos of soup or homemade lemonade.
Nothing untoward ever happened to me from eating this mixture, aside from the unfortunate incident when I dropped the thermos (shattering the inside) and drank the contents (pondering why my lemonade had silver bits floating in it). The doctor advised my worried mum that as I had not consumed any glass, the silver bits would come out in due course.
Health and safety warning: do not do this at home children and drink the shattered contents of a thermos.
Anyhoo, Jackie Hall, the council's cabinet member for schools, has now been made aware of this snooping (she claims that this was "news" to her) and has banned it.
Gloucestershire county council, well deserving Prats of The Week!
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This is not that unusual. Google "Healthy Schools" for more of this misery. One son goes to a healthy school, or so they claim. In fact, because he isn't allowed anything he actually likes in his lunchbox, he just ends up not bothering to eat at all.
ReplyDeleteYet another example of councils extending their remit.
ReplyDeleteMr Cameron needs to review and define exactly what the role of local authorities is; he needs to conduct a similar review of the NHS.
In my opinion, the state should provide law and order, education, healthcare and security. People should be able to get on with their lives without interference from the state.
It is the role of the government to govern, not to manage the population.
I wonder just how much money is spent on silly schemes like this one......I love the way they always call it "advice." One can take or ignore advice but, in general terms, failure to take "advice" from jobsworths, especially in relation to child issues, leads you to be reported to social services(The SS) and labeled a risk to children.
My own daughter has a list of "permitted" items that she recieved from the school, for the contents of my grandchildren's lunchboxes, she too uses phrases like, they're not allowed to take this or that....I question her as to whom the parent is and by what authority they are not permitted to take certain items....I said just give them what you want and let the school argue the toss and, should they confiscate an item, report them to the SS for depriving the child of food during a break.....Play them at their own game.
Too many people are so used to state interference, that they will never question anybody in a hi-viz jacket.....They work for us not the other way around.
Just say NO!! to hi-viz jackets; let's make hi-viz wear as ridiculed as the peak cap was in the past.
Not that I'm trying to advertise his blog, but you might want to check out Mrs Dales for a couple of posts about edukayshun (speling), or rather, lack of....
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to to remind this lot to do the bloody job they're paid to do, NOT poke their noses into things that are none of their business.
This is pretty typical of the way council 'officers' quietly go off on their own little busy-body projects. At least on this ocassion the elected councillor had the gumption to tell them to stop
ReplyDeleteOffering "advice" to parents, Ken? Do they actually mean "advice" which one is free to take or not, or a dictat? It's high time someone told these jobsworths where to get off! It also occurs to me that by opening children's lunchboxes in this furtive manner, and photographing contents, they are invading civil liberties.
ReplyDeleteI may be cynical, Archroy, but I suspect that the only reason it has been stopped is because the publicity surrounding the matter was making them look a right bunch of prats!
Sorry to ever so slightly disagree with you. I don't think that this scheme is loony. I think that it is actually creepy, VERY creepy. Hope we can agree to disagree on this one.....
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I agree with you: I find the whole thing sinister, very sinister. Where will it end?
ReplyDelete