“Hi guys,” said Rishi Sunak today at a visit to an IKEA store in Dartford. “You might have one or two concerns about inflation. But don’t be. Because I’m 100% on it. We’re going to get through this.” On he went: “We’re on this. We are good together, aren’t we? We are going to get through this.” Then finally: “I’ve never pretended this was going to be easy.” A group of puzzled looking employees of the Swedish furniture store looked at their feet, embarrassed, wishing they were somewhere – anywhere – else. I was somewhere else, at our food bank.
Due to absences, we were very short on volunteer numbers today and while I could only stay for an hour or so, our coordinator said that any amount of time would be valuable. During the time I was there, we worked flat out and given the number of appointments scheduled after my departure, I’m sure my colleagues did the same until we closed the doors.
I’m going to state the bleeding obvious here by saying that everyone who attends our food bank does so because they have no food and no money to buy any. Imagine if Sunak had made his comments in our place today? Can you just imagine it?
“Hi guys,” he would begin.”You might have one or two concerns about inflation. But don’t be. Because I’m 100% on it. We’re going to get through this. We’re on this. We are good together, aren’t we? We are going to get through this. I’ve never pretended this was going to be easy.” It’s gobbledegook, pure gobbledegook. He might as well be talking in Mandarin Chinese.
People don’t talk like Sunak, not in real life they don’t. They don’t sit around saying: “Do you know what? I’ve got one or two concerns about inflation.” No. It’s much simpler than that. They have nothing to eat and they only way they will “get through this” will be if they come to see us. They will get through this until the money runs out again. Words alone, especially those of the vacuous variety, from the mouth of a man worth circa three quarters of a billion quid, won’t feed a single person. Unless Sunak grows a heart, as well as a pair, things will continue to get worse.
Things are so bad at many food banks that they struggle to get sufficient bags to put food in for people. We’re in that boat, too. We’ve got some very basic economy bags which we double up on and hope that everything doesn’t fall out of the bottom. We’ve been reduced to begging people who have appointments to see us to bring some bags of their own and to their enormous credit today most of them did.
Most of the people I saw today are in work. One man, who lives in a shared house with a number of people he doesn’t know, returned home from work yesterday to find all his food had been removed from the fridge and cupboards, presumably by fellow tenants. With no access to any food, he had to come to us. He hated it, he said to me, but what else could he do? Starve? He’s going to keep all the food in his little room now just in case it happens again. What a life. How will he “get through this?” How will Sunak’s confident “I’m 100% on it” help him? It won’t. On Planet Sunak, if you’re in poverty, expect to stay in it. We aren’t good together because in Sunak’s world some people are more equal than others.
