. >> stephen lloyd. >> last weekend, i had the pleasure of visiting a primary school in my constituency they have fought tooth and nail to introduce free school meals, and have done so successfully. will the deputy prime minister take this opportunity to congratulate motcombe and all the primary schools in my constituency and across england which have done such a fantastic job delivering on his policy? >> of course, i congratulate everybody at motcombe primary school and all the primary schools across the country which, despite all the skepticism and cynicism, have

in 1840, explorer john lloyd stephens wrote, "standing as they do "in the depth of a tropical forest, "silent and solemn, "their whole history so entirely unknown..." "with hieroglyphics explaining all, "but perfectly unintelligible. "who shall read them ?" could anyone read these odd markings ? for more than a century, they tried. but the story of the maya people, if these glyphs could reveal it, remained locked in stone. had the maya recorded their history ? many ancient people who used writing did not. in fact, writing was first used for a very different purpose. around 8000 b.c., the world's earliest farmers had settled in mesopotamia, a region of the middle east that includes iraq and iran. in their hands, desert became rich farmland, as iigation agriculture was born. the people bartered for goods and paid taxes. record-keeping was begun, with goods represented by abstract tokens. these led to writing, according to denise schmandt-besserat, professor of mid-eastern studies. schmandt-besserat: each of these shapes was meaningful. the cone probably stood for a unit of grain, a smal

. >> stephen lloyd. >> last weekend, i had the pleasure of visiting a primary school in my constituency, motcombe. they have fought tooth and nail to introduce free school meals, and have done so successfully. will the deputy prime minister take this opportunity to congratulate motcombe and all the primary schools in my constituency and across england which have done such a fantastic job delivering on his policy? >> of course, i congratulate everybody at motcombe primary school and all the primary schools across the country which, despite all the skepticism and cynicism, have delivered healthy free school meals at lunchtime to 1.5 million more children. the educational and health benefits are very considerable, and i am delighted that we are now doing this across the country. >> brian donohoe. >> will the prime minister tell us why, with crude oil now below $70 a barrel, that price is not reflected at the pumps? >> i know that my right honorable friends, the chancellor and the chief secretary to the treasury, have raised this with the industry. we all want to see the lower shifts in oil