



There has been so much support for nine-year-old schoolgirl Martha Payne and her school lunches blog Never Seconds, that the local council, who banned her from posting photographs of and rating her meals, has done a U-turn.



The Scottish food blogger had been recording the contents of her school meals every day for the past few months. Each day she accompanied the photo with a taste and health rating. But the council were horrified by a headline published in the Daily Record, ‘Time to fire the dinner ladies…", which accompanied a picture of Martha with celebrity chef Nick Nairn, and banned her blogging.









[ Related article: The best and worst school meals]









Breaking the news to her many readers yesterday, Martha, who blogs under the pen name Veg, announced, “This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.



“I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos,” she added.





But following a barrage of outrage both on and off Twitter, the council has reconsidered its decision. The order came straight from the top. SNP leader Roddy McCuish told Radio 4's World at One programme that he had ordered the ban be removed.

"There's no place for censorship in Argyll and Bute Council and there never has been and there never will," Roddy said. "I've just instructed senior officials to immediately withdraw the ban on pictures from the school dining hall. It's a good thing to do, to change your mind, and I've certainly done that."

Perhaps it had something to do with the celebrity endorsement of Jamie Oliver, who encouraged his 2,300,000+ followers to retweet his support, "Stay strong Martha, RT this to show your support #neverseconds. Jx".

Thanks to all the publicity, the blog has now raised more than £26,000 for Mary’s Meals (it was just £7,000 a few hours ago), a charity that feeds children at school in the Third World. And we're sure the figure will keep rising...



Should Martha have been banned for her blogging?





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Martha's blog is raising money for charity



