Milk snatcher Thatcher

[PerfectYear321]

I'm on a bit of a high with the change of government and am looking back at my childhood to see what Labour governments did for my childhood as a poor, free school meals child.

I googled when the Tories got rid of milk for infant school kids and was shocked to find out it was 1971, seeing as I was born in 1977 🤔

I swear I had milk at school in the 80s: little glass bottles with a slim straw. Never drank milk at home but happily drank the milk the school gave me to enjoy with my friends. Am I tripping?!

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatcher-regretted-snatching-milk-from-school-children-for-two-decades-a7500171.html

I had milk at school all the way until 1979 when I moved up to middle school. Maybe it was paid for by th council.

We had milk in the 80’s, it was warm and gross, never enjoyed it. I’m on the fence on whether they should have continued it. Some kids would have benefited from it definitely. I never voluntarily drank milk so I suppose my bones are probably stronger from the enforced milk drinking as a kid.

No. I distinctly remember milk in school in the 80s.

It might have been phased out rather than a sudden withdrawal. Local councils may have paid themselves for a while.

Also had special small milk bottles at school with cream at the top and a straw. Circa 1978-9

Also had school milk in the 80s. I had a dairy allergy that gave me eczema but was still made to drink it..,

www.edp24.co.uk/news/business/20702178.history-school-milk-schemes/

I remember having it when I was about 3, at playgroup so mid 80s.

Now it’s free for under 5s. Then you have to pay. I don’t know why they don’t just say until the end of Reception year. Its not great for one kid whose parent doesn’t pay and another gets it for free as their birthday is later in the school year!

We had school milk in the 80s. It was free if you got fsm but otherwise parents had to pay. It was 20p a week or something which seems cheap now.

I remember milk at school in the late 70s, perhaps into the 80s. Everyone had it and nobody paid. I was glad when it disappeared, I absolutely hated it. It had a horrible skin on top and was disgusting. I didn't like milk as a child anyway, but the school one was the worst of all!

Yes we had tiny bottles of milk too with yellow thick cream on top 😋

Deffo had it in the 80's but had to pay for it I remember taking my milk money into school not sure how much it was

I started school in 1980 and don’t remember having milk at school at all.

Margaret Thatcher cut back the free milk from all school children to U7's, around 1970 I think, there was a lot of wasted milk and the money it saved went towards the The Open University which at the time was fee free.

Maybe I should start a new thread, 'Baroness Thatcher who enabled everyone to buy their own home and access life long education.'

She also didn’t want to do it, but had to go along with the majority Cabinet decision so the sobriquet must have rankled.

I grew up outside the UK and we used to get milk biscuits (literally dried milk bars) in primary school.

How interesting that the funds went to establish the OU, I never knew that.

You mean Baroness Thatcher who sold off the council houses and didn't build anymore causing the housing shortage we have today? Baroness Thatcher, who sold off all the national utilities in order to make a couple of quid and left us with the absolute mess they're all in today?

Mid 80s and we had milk but you had to pay for it, 5p for plain milk and 7p for flavoured milkshake.

Yes and perhaps you could update it to reflect how selling off social housing has since contributed to a massive increase in housing-related poverty, and how the Tories and Lib Dems used austerity to hike tuition fees to eye-watering levels (as well as increasing interest on them) and ran further education into the ground? 🙄

I was also born in 77 and definitely had milk at school, including Junior school.

I've just looked at Thatcher's wiki page and she became PM in 1979
So the article from the Independent that I linked to originality is actual bullshit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Thatcher

How can she scrap it in 1971 if she didn't become PM until 1979? 😵‍💫

school milk was awful, we all poured it out of the window or down the drain, and is terrible for anyone with a lactose intolerance - most of the population of the world, just not so many northern europeans

I was born 1980 and we definitely had it in infants (which I think is yr 1-3 in modern terms) which would mean around until 86/87 I think.
I was apparently very disgruntled that it stopped when we went to juniors.

She was the Education Secretary from 1970 - 1974.

She scrapped it when she was education minister.(or maybe I mean secretary)

Is this the same Margaret Thatcher who rebuilt the UK economy after the horrors of the 70s when the Labour government had to go to the IMF with a begging bowl due to rank inflation and out of control unions. When strikes were so bad the rubbish in London wasn't collected and rats were running through the streets. Who privatised the Gas Board, Electricity Board and British Telecom and once that was done you could get through on the phone. I recall buying a flat without a phone in 1982 and the wait for one to be connected was 10 weeks.

I never agreed with the sale of council houses but seem to recall that most of the council tenants at the time fully supported the inititiative.

There were other joys such as ILEA and the Ken Livingston heavily subsidised London Transport costs, increasing rates significantly in areas such as Bromley that didn't have London Transport.