School Dinners

There was an amusing story on the radio this morning to the effect that, thanks to the government's Jamie Oliver-inspired healthy school meals 'initiative', uptake of meals in secondary schools has fallen by 20 percent - exactly (inversely) matching the government's target figure of a 20 percent increase by 2009. Oddly, I haven't been able to find a link to this story - maybe inept news management by the Lib Dems, who had got hold of the figures - but, as an example of the 1st law of human affairs, the Law of Unintended Consequences, it could hardly be bettered. 'Enlightened' progressive opinion makes the fundamental error of assuming that people want certain self-evidently beneficial goods and that as soon as they have access to them will take full advantage. This is entirely reasonable, and entirely wrong.
The school meals business also indicates what happens when the state gets involved in feeding people. Hospital meals - by some estimates 30-40 percent wastage - are another good example. If the state ran supermarkets, there'd be nothing on the shelves but carrots and cabbages. Oh all right, maybe potatoes on alternate Wednesdays.