Go Martha!

A nine-year-old girl called Martha from northern Scotland made the news today. She’s been writing a blog on which she’s commented on the standard of school meals, and posted photographs to illustrate her points. She’s also been expressing other concerns, like the fact that she doesn’t mind being fed chicken, but wants to know that it comes from free range birds because she doesn’t like to think of them having had a bad life. And she’s been collecting thousands of pounds for an international charity in aid of education provision for kids in poorer parts of the world. And it seems that she’s had the able support of both her father and the school throughout her endeavours.

The school comes under the auspices of Argyll and Bute District Council, and you might wonder whether they supported her, too. Nope; they went to war with her instead, forcing the school headmistress to stop her taking photographs and bad mouthing her to the media. If my experience of local councils is typical, this is just the sort of weasly reaction you would expect of such a body.

But justice, decency and rightness have prevailed for once. Martha has rightly become a heroine and a celebrity, and the weaslies of Argyll and Bute District Council now have their faces well and truly plastered with egg. For Martha’s sake, I just hope it was free range.