Friday, February 25, 2005
Breakfast farce
The Western Mail reports another episode in the on-going farce of the Labour Assembly Government's pledge to deliver a free breakfast to every primary school child in Wales. It seems that the Government were advised that they did not have the powers to tell schools to bring in the measure so they made it voluntary instead.
A letter from a senior official in the Assembly's education division confirmed Education Minister Jane Davidson had received legal advice over the matter and that further advice had been provided to an official by the Office of the Counsel General.
The letter says officials "volunteered a submission in May 2004 which examined the details of the manifesto commitment to provide free breakfasts, in particular as regards legal powers".
After considering the submission, the Minister decided to make the scheme optional.
This is the problem with throwing together a manifesto from the backs of several envelopes and doing the costing and legal work later.
A letter from a senior official in the Assembly's education division confirmed Education Minister Jane Davidson had received legal advice over the matter and that further advice had been provided to an official by the Office of the Counsel General.
The letter says officials "volunteered a submission in May 2004 which examined the details of the manifesto commitment to provide free breakfasts, in particular as regards legal powers".
After considering the submission, the Minister decided to make the scheme optional.
This is the problem with throwing together a manifesto from the backs of several envelopes and doing the costing and legal work later.
