Lunch interval

David Milliband is growing up. He thinks it would be a good idea if pupils remained in school during the lunch break.

For what it is worth, I agree with him. These sort of views come to all of us in the end. At some point in your thirties you catch yourself thinking that a group of children look nice and smart in their uniforms, and it is all downhill from there.

I am alarmed, though, by what Milliband (Lord Bonkers writes: the son of my old friend Sir Ralph Millipede) thinks those pupils should be doing at lunchtime. He commended arrangements at Swanlea School in London where there is "a lunchtime programme of activities, including sporting activities, language and literacy classes and mentoring from local business people".

This is a reminder that socialism - at least Milliband's middle-class variety - is based upon fear of the working class and the young. Unless they are taught and mentored half to death, they will fall into crime and the economy will collapse.