SIR – Margaret Thatcher was wrong to abolish free milk for schoolchildren when she was Secretary of State for Education (1970-74) and Emmerson Walgrove is talking nonsense when he says that by the 1980s milk was no longer needed by schoolchildren (Letters, April 13).

Free milk ensured that youngsters from all walks of life were given the chance to enrich their diets with calcium and vitamin D and thus prevent rickets, the scourge of society. Any GP will tell you that even old people still need vitamin D as their bones become more brittle.

And Karl Dallas rightly points out in his letter (T&A, April 11) that children need milk more than ever now as child poverty is growing exponentially, thanks to the present Government’s continuation of her policies.

David Rhodes, Croscombe Walk, Bradford