DURHAM County Council is “delighted” to be selected for a Government experiment to provide primary school children with free meals (Echo, May 1).

There is no such thing as a free meal and in the small print we find the experiment will cost £17m. Durham council will have to contribute £4m to this scatterbrained scheme. Where will that money come from? I bet the council taxpayers of this county.

Many people have raised families and paid for their children’s meals. Why at this time of international financial hardship should this crazy Government subscribe to multimillion pound experiments? It is so indicative of the spend, spend, spend philosophy of Labour.

Durham council, too, displays utter socialist profligacy in expecting us, the taxpayer, to subscribe to this social experiment.

When will Labour learn that the nanny state is faulted?

Parents and carers alone should be responsible for the way in which their children feed – not the Government.

Labour will say in its defence that a good square meal encourages learning. What rot!

Prisoners are fed three times a day, do they learn? – Colin T Mortimer, Pity Me, Durham.