When people say that politicians are out of touch with the real world, they may have had in mind yesterday in parliament where two senior MPs, ‘Sir’ Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Davis, raised the subject of the well known racist and xenophobe Nigel Farage having his account with the elite rich people’s bank Coutts closed down. We only know Farage’s version of events because for reasons of confidentiality the bank cannot divulge sensitive information, like the real reasons the account was closed. I daren’t even speculate on the situation for fear of being sued, but like you, I can probably offer a good guess. Either way, it’s a strange use of parliamentary time when there are a lot of people who can’t afford to eat. It was certainly not a topic of conversation at our food bank today.
I know Rees-Mogg’s North East Somerset constituency well. Indeed, when I was working for the evil British Red Cross, I accompanied hungry people to one of the food banks in the area. Since he has been an MP for the area, I do not recall him demanding an inquiry to why we need food banks at all in such a rich country, but he did ask the government yesterday to open one to find out why Coutts closed Farage’s bank account. There are some very poor people who are represented, if that’s the right word, by the member for the Victorian Age, but he doesn’t appear to have noticed.
In the real world of Bristol, we were down to the bare bones in terms of volunteers. Fortunately, we were also relatively quiet, too, although my brilliant colleagues who select, weigh and bag up food and other provisions to give out, who were a person down, would not have described their afternoon as quiet. It’s a very hard job, which I am simply not capable of doing for all sorts of reasons.
I read recently that food banks are used proportionately more by ethnic minorities and in recent times – and this is just me speaking anecdotally – that seems to be true. For the last four of five weeks, a woman, who I know to be an asylum seeker, has been to see us. Because she is an asylum seeker, she has no access to public funds, meaning that she can’t work nor claim benefits. I won’t go into her circumstances but suffice to say we are the only place she can go to in order to get food for her and her young daughter. But this can’t go on forever. Food banks are supposed to be the option of last resort, not the first. The problem with cases like hers is very simple: her option of last resort is also her option of first resort. But it’s unsustainable for us.
But, you might say, aren’t you a place where people can go and get food when they haven’t got any? Well, yes: that’s exactly what we are but here’s the thing: how do you define an emergency? Are there different types of emergency? What do you do when you are handing out more in food parcels than what is coming in by public donation and you have already run out of some items? Aren’t you playing God by deciding who can eat and who can’t? And once you’ve thought that lot through, you ask yourself why you bother in the first place? But the paid staff don’t just abandon those who have been helped a lot. They liaise with social services, other agencies and charities to see if they can help. From what little I know about these things, something usually gets sorted. Unlike the government, the third sector and parts of the public sector don’t say, “Go away and starve to death.” That, I think, sets us apart from the Conservative and Unionist party.
I met a few first time callers who looked suitably embarrassed that they had to be with us at all. I try to put them at ease because it could have been any of us who at some time or other might have been in their situation, had luck not intervened. It must be absolutely awful working for a living but not having enough money to buy food, as my own mother knew when she was bringing me up as a lone parent, at a time before in work benefits and child benefit existed.
Meanwhile, multimillionaire politicians fret about their multimillionaire friends, hogging column inches in the red tops while millions languish in poverty. I like to think I’ve always lived in the real world and our food bank is as real, and raw, as it gets. And as I seem to be saying at the foot of everything I write these days, when the chance comes to vote the Conservatives out of office, people must take it. I should be doing something else on a Thursday rather than volunteering for a food bank. Under Sunak’s vicious government, things are getting much worse, not better.
