For my last Tales from the Food Bank blog, let me begin with some words:
“For the last two years I’ve been volunteering each week at the Chippy Larder, a food project in my local town, which helps low income families with surplus food from supermarkets (and cuts food waste at the same time).”
Not my words, obviously, but those of former prime minister Lord David Cameron (above) of Austerity, Oxfordshire back in 2022. What a man he is. Despite being a multimillionaire, Big Lord Dave still feels the need to help those who can’t afford to eat, even in super rich Chipping Norton, Chippy as it’s known to the locals. He’s all heart, right? Hmm. If you really believe that, give your head a big wobble.
In 2010, when Big Lord Dave formed a Conservative government in which some Liberal Democrats took jobs, they imposed vicious austerity on the country, cutting living standards, wrecking public services and increasing food bank use by 2612%. Food poverty was barely a thing under the outgoing Labour government, which in 1997 promised “things can only get better” and they did. From 2010, things have got much worse.
Since the autumn of 2022, I have volunteered at the Melchester food bank. You know where Melchester is, right? It’s a fictional town, quite possibly invented by Thomas Hardy in his Wessex Tales, where the world’s greatest football team, Melchester Rovers, play. Their star player is Roy Race who is a regular visitor to our food bank. As the headline suggests, this is my 76th blog on Melchester’s food bank and my last. Here’s why.
Unless you have been living in a cave, you will be aware that a general election has been called for 4th July. The people of Britain have a straight choice between more of the same from the Conservatives or the opportunity to get our future back with a changed Labour Party. My cards are firmly on the table as to how I feel people should vote and, as is always the way with bodies who are independent of party politics, as food banks are, volunteers up and down the land have been told that while it’s perfectly reasonable to express their own points of view on politics, staff and volunteers should not make any references to the food banks they work for or volunteer at. Given that the Melchester food bank at which I volunteer doesn’t really exist, and I don’t want to damage their neutrality, it’s only right that this is the final instalment of Tales from the Food Bank.
I know how this works. I worked for the government for nearly 40 years and was barred from commenting publicly on pretty well any aspect of what I did and the same applied when I worked for the evil Red Cross and the dysfunctional brain injury charity Headway. It’s a fine line between neutrality and a ban on free speech and I am not sure we always get it right, but in this case I’m happy to stop writing about Melchester and carry on writing about the evil of food poverty on here. Above all, I value my voluntary work and if that means not referring to direct experiences, then so be it. Decisions, decisions, eh? I’ll conclude with this.
The ever odious ‘Sir’ Iain Duncan Smithm MP said it was perfectly easy to live on £53 a week. His Tory party pal Lord Freud – or should it be Lord Fraud? – said the only reason food bank use was on the rise because food was free and demand for free good was infinite and ‘Sir’ Jacob Rees Mogg MP referred to the voluntary support given to food banks as “rather uplifting” and “shows what a compassionate country we are“. With the greatest respect, which is none at all, just fuck off. There’s nothing “uplifting” about the existence of food banks. In fact, it’s a big stain on our nation that food poverty exists at all.
Thanks for reading my tales from the food bank. I’ve enjoyed writing them for you, but now it’s time to move on. The best thing we can all do to end food poverty will be to vote for the candidate most likely to beat the Conservatives.
Things can only get better? You bet.
