Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
David Cameron's "big society" was essentially about getting the ordinary punter to pay towards services his Government were cutting down on in their "we're all in this together" austerity programme. The whole notion of food banks is on a similar theme. I agree with you to the extent that it is a disgrace that there is such a heavy reliance on them in what we're told is the fifth richest country in the world.

I'd also say that Labour have to be held culpable for there being the number of food banks there were in the noughties, but in 2019 the Trussell Trust said there had been a 3,900 per cent increase in the number of foodbanks in the UK since 2010 - when you're talking figures of such magnitude, this has to be a party political issue because it seems reasonable to believe that the increase would not have been as great if any other party but the Conservatives had been in power for that time.

https://www.charity-works.co.uk/food...st%209%20years.
The Tories freed up the use of foodbanks and made it easier for people to use them, so it is hardly surprising that their use has increased. However, a rise of 3900% cannot be put down to ease of use alone and points towards underlying structural issues in society. The left wing answer of benefits and redistribution via tax is just "foodbanks" provided for by the state, so that's not an answer to the underlying problem either.

both benefits and foodbanks are equally shameful in today's UK, but depending on where you sit on the political spectrum will determine whether you are for or against foodbanks and/or benefits. So whilst the party political acolytes from either side laud their own preference and denounce the alternative, both are equally culpable of missing the real issue at hand. But that's the level of maturity we come to expect from UK politics. All style, no substance. It is better to criticise your opponent that push forward your own policies.

We are in the midst of the greatest foreign affairs crisis since 1938, we have a cost of living crisis where people have to choose between eating and heating and we have a post Covid19 backlog of healthcare cases right across the UK including devolved administrations, but the single biggest political football this week has been about whether Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer had a beer or cake with work colleagues.

We get the system we deserve.