School and Dinner

Big talking point on the Show this morning was about the Government proposal to make cooking compulsory in English secondary school to prevent childhood obesity.Come on! They'll provide two and a half million pounds to help pupils from poor families pay for ingredients. One e-mail I received said how their youngster was told to bring the ingredients to make a shepherd's pie - they were as follows: a tin of stewed beef in gravy, a tin of mixed vegetables and a packet of Smash instant mash !!! For goodness sake - er - no, not much goodness actually.
And on the same subject, we learnt that local authorities now make more money from charges than they do from council tax. Every time you fork out for parking controlled by them, the swimming pool and the like and - wait for - the school meals. Hey - why not let the kids take the raw ingredients to school and after they've made it - eat it for dinner?