The free bottle of milk on every British school desk was put there by a 4ft 10 redhead from a Manchester slum, who was dead within 6 months of doing it.
Ellen Wilkinson grew up in Ardwick in the 1890s, in a house with no bath, and caught every illness going. She got out on scholarships. By 1935 she was MP for Jarrow, a shipbuilding town where the yard had shut and 7 men in 10 had no work.
She had seen what that did to the children. They were small, bow-legged and grey. In 1936 she walked with 200 of their fathers from Jarrow to London, nearly 300 miles, to hand in a petition. The Prime Minister would not see them.
In 1945 she was made Minister of Education. She had one thing she wanted above the rest. The Treasury told her the country was bankrupt and it could not be afforded.
In August 1946 a third of a pint of full cream milk became free for every schoolchild in Britain, every day, whatever their parents earned.
That winter was the worst of the century. Her ministry had no coal. She worked in her overcoat with bronchitis, and on 6 February 1947 she was found dead in her flat, aged 55.
She never saw a single class of those children grow up. They turned out the tallest and straightest generation the country had ever produced.
If you drank it, warm, through a paper straw, you were her life's work.
We continue to support @SuffolkFire as they attend to the ongoing fire at Dunwich Heath.
We reiterate their messaging for the public to avoid Dunwich Beach and surrounding areas at this time.
Please follow their fire safety advice as detailed here https://t.co/NGTkR1oDW4
โThe use of the word nurse gave the impression of a level of knowledge and skills that were not present." Strengthen patient safety #ProtectNurse
https://t.co/cnwVgis5Mf.
So, as a doctor I canโt accept a plastic pen from a pharmaceutical company because it might influence my prescribing decisions, but MPs can accept thousands in cash from those who want to privatise the NHS and it wonโt affect their decision-making??? CTFO
https://t.co/ax78s1RSRJ
"People screaming and shouting outside when people aren't having a good time anyway, it's not going to help anyone."
This man in Epping completely dismantles anti-migrant ideology in less than a minute.
@Crew_Clothing Awaiting an order I placed on 7th Aug. Royal mail tracker says they're expecting parcel. @crew_clothing have not responded to emails or messages. Your phone queue is ridiculously long. Meanwhile I
have paid for this item. Advise please.
@alextomo@BBCLookNorth@itvcalendar
are you going to report on this?
It's a disgrace that landowners & gamekeepers can smoke out whole towns & cities just so a few rich people can shoot grouse (too dangerous to eat).
Driven Grouseshooting belongs in the 19th century, not the 21st.