Labour's free breakfasts and extra nursery places are not new ideas

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David Innes, Cliviger

Could I ask new MP, Oliver Ryan, whether Labour has any new ideas please?

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I ask because I read in his "Reporting Back" column this week how Labour is prioritising children's education and welfare by recruiting more teachers and introducing a new bill which will see primary children receiving free breakfasts and lunches.

Also creating more school based nursery places is another priority.

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Looking across the border into Scotland, the SNP has been putting all those priorities into practice for many years now and according to Scottish relatives of mine, it all sounds fabulous in theory, but in the real world, not so fabulous.

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Training up new teachers takes time and lots of money, something which we are constantly being told the Government doesn't have and by putting VAT on private school fees, won't raise so much anyway.

Free breakfast clubs often benefit the wrong families, ie they become free child minding clubs for parents who work, lunch options are often so poor, most children take their own, so huge amounts of wasteage.

And as for school based nursery places, this then puts councils in charge, so out go non for profit nurseries, because they can't survive on the peanuts the councils allocate them per child.

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This leads to a lack of choice for parents and again school nurseries have to be built and staffed and offer the flexibility working parents need.

Oliver's positive spin on it all, makes it sounds so easy, when it's not. Infact since Scotland introduce all these freebies, the standard of education has dropped.

So here's hoping it works, but let's be realistic Oliver, instead of promising the world and blaming all the problems on the previous Government as that old tune is getting a bit tired now.

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