You won’t be surprised to learn that given the generous and kind-hearted person I am, I selflessly sacrificed part of my birthday to volunteer at the food bank. Of all the things I could have been doing, like sitting around drinking tea, watching webcams of planes taking off or simply listening to the radio, I decided to help others instead. If you think that’s the saddest, most pathetic excuse for self-praise for not very much that you’ve ever read, you’re right. Not only that, I don’t mean or believe a word of it. I was there because I wanted to be.
Today was my longest stint since I started work, partly because items were still being packed after our scheduled closing time of 3.00pm and because one person arrived late and partly because I wasn’t pushed for time myself and I was able to stay a bit longer.
There was a bit of a theme emerging today and that was about utility bills, specifically gas and electric bills. Now, if you’re in a position where the increases aren’t affecting you then all well and good, but I am seeing with the evidence of my own eyes and ears that they are hitting people very hard. Time after time, I heard the same story, that the heating is on very briefly in the morning and again very briefly in the evening, but never during the day. “How does that work?” I asked one person. “Well, we just freeze when we’re at home.” Now I understand that, as many older folk may do, too. I grew up in a house with a coal fire and a small electric fire and that was it. I did think, somewhat naively that those days had gone forever. What did I know? I’m seeing people from all backgrounds and circumstances, including people in full time work who cannot afford to heat and eat. If these staggeringly high bills are the new normal, society is going to take a major step towards breaking down altogether.
I’m also wondering if I am getting a bit tougher, maybe back to the levels I was at when working for the DWP fraud investigation department. I have to be honest and say that at first I found certain elements of food bank life quite upsetting and distressing. After all, what kind of society are we living in if we not only tolerate a situation where literally millions don’t have enough to eat and now many of them can’t afford to stay warm, either? But any sadness has turned into anger, now, and a sense of doing something about it. After all, it can’t be right that we have a prime minister who kept his American green card even when he was chancellor, whose wife chose to maintain non-dom status in order to avoid paying tax, despite them being worth circa £750 million, and don’t start me on Nadhim Zahawi who not only claimed government expenses for keeping his horses warm and has now incurred a fine from HMRC for avoiding tax when as chancellor he was in charge of collecting it. Meanwhile, I’m seeing people every week – and lots of them – who have nothing. I’ll carry on at the food bank and I’ll do what I can to put pressure on this government to mend their ways and at the same time campaigning to get rid of them.
The food bank wasn’t even closed when I left. There were still people waiting for some food and other essential items and my incredible colleagues will have stayed right to the very end.
Finally, we are not just helping the so-called underclass. Food and fuel poverty is working its way through society to include those who never thought for one second they might run into real trouble with their finances. We ignore the current situation at our peril. As the Manic Street Preachers said, if you tolerate this your children will be next.
