Letter to the Herald

Congratulations on your scoop on the failure of the Scottish Executive's healthy eating strategy and your excellent editorial on the need for free school meals as an essential part of any healthy eating campaign (September 29). The SSP warned at the time of the launch of the executive's strategy that it was doomed to failure because, up against the power of the fast-food industry, it would founder. All the research we have looked at suggests that a major social and cultural change is required to combat the unhealthy life of Scots which puts us at the top of the European league tables for heart disease, obesity, and cancer. The most successful country we have looked at, Finland, used free school meals consciously, not only to give a balanced, nutritious lunch but to re-educate the pupils and their parents in healthy eating. This was clearly shown by the BBC Frontline Scotland programme that should be compulsory viewing for the executive.

Last week you published the OECD league tables on education which placed Finland firmly on top and the UK slipping to 22nd. Part of their success they attribute to their free school meals, which not only give the pupils a healthy lunch, helping their concentration, but also teach them how to sit together and relate to each other rather than walking around the high street grazing on unhealthy fast-food, as many of our pupils do. To those Labour MSPs who claim pupils in Scotland would not eat free school meals, Finland shows this is nonsense as 95% of pupils take free school meals. Are we so different from Finland?

The Scottish Parliament will soon have a chance of voting again on the principle of free school meals. It is getting widespread support but unless the Labour-LibDem majority changes its position, it will fail again. On the basis of your article and your editorial, the SSP and, I'm sure, many Scots will hope that it changes its position.