MY elders used to bore me rigid when they talked about ‘when we were kids’, and now I find myself at their age doing the same thing.

School dinners are newsworthy again. Jamie Oliver appears to have failed with his well-publicised attempts at trying to find a suitable menu, but Mr Cameron is ensuring that the budgets are ever-tightening, so why not provide school dinners as they were ‘when we were kids’ in the late 50s and early 60s, with the whole school having the same menu?

If steak and kidney pie, cabbage and mash was on Monday’s menu, the whole school, including teachers, ate it.

It was easier for the canteen staff to provide, and would cut down on wastage.

But no doubt the many would say “Oh, but I don’t like that.”

But ‘when we were kids’ we were so hungry that we were grateful for anything. With obesity so high, the standardisation of a 10-day rotating menu would help shed a few pounds and save quite a few grand on the budget.

And whilst we may have moved on from the Dickensian Mr Bumble, sometimes the oldest remedies are the best.

ALAN BURRIDGE, Blandford Road, Upton