Your Views Online

Comments on the sluggish demand for school meals, small traders battling for custom, and mortgage-to-rent schemes

Please sir, we don't want any more. Pupils, it seems, are turning their noses up at school dinners. You don't seem surprised.

"Schools now have salad bars, panini machines and smoothie makers, as well as vegetarian options". Erm, school kids want burgers, chips, pizzas and Mcdonalds. This is why they aren't eating this stuff.
allknowing,

Looking at the menus for the primary schools, everything looks quite appetising. When it is given to the pupils on their plastic prison trays it all looks like slop – regardless of what it should be.
JJH

Today's kids want fast food rubbish, anything that is good for them they are not interested. And they wonder why they are putting on weight.
alex paterson

I tried my son on school dinners for a week. Back to packed lunches. If any other food provider cooked the food miles from the site that it was to be served and then transported it – you would expect a drop in quality. This is what happens in primary schools. If the council reopened school kitchens you might see an uptake.
Martin 2

The school meals in Midlothian are a disgrace as they are grossly overcooked. Why the cooks seem to think that vegetables need to be boiled for two hours is beyond me. It's about time they employed proper chefs who know what a nutritious meal consists of.
Journalistic licence

Sorry folks but it's nothing whatsoever to do with the quality or otherwise of the meals and all to do with it not being cool to eat in school. Hence the queues outside the shops in Musselburgh High Street and all the attendant litter.
jenny, Musselburgh

Some unpalatable truths there. On another food topic . . . you were sympathetic to the little shops attempting to take on a Goliath supermarket, but didn't hold out much hope of success.

There is only going to be one winner! The vast majority of shoppers don't want to trek around different stores when one has it all.
allknowing

It would be nice to see the wee grocer get a turn, but the only winner in the long term will be the supermarket.
alex paterson

The smaller grocers should be looking at specialising – exceptional quality, things not easily found in supermarkets, exceptional customer services.
Kate, Zurich

The shopkeepers have no chance, Asda has a better choice, selection and fresher products that those mentioned shops.
Cappo Del Monte

Cheaper food, affordable homes. There were words of advice to those selling homes to rent in an effort to make ends meet.

People should think very carefully before entering into one of these agreements, as there is rarely a happy outcome.
PaulB

"They are just happy to be in a situation where they are secure in THEIR home. The tenant is never again allowed to purchase the property" It isn't 'their' home. It never was and as soon as they sign this agreement it never will be. These are people who simply took out loans they could not afford. They are just as responsible for all this mess as the banks and the Government.
ccc