REGARDING the report in the Malvern Gazette (April18), "Nearly 1,500 people use town foodbank”.
Will this be the enduring image of Tory/LibDem Britain: 1,476 men, women and children, queueing up for food aid?
Not in Darfur or Sudan or Syria but here on our own doorstep in one of the most prosperous parts of the sixth richest country in the world.
And these are no scroungers or skivers, whatever the coalition Government would like us to believe.
Many are striving, hard-working families, in work but driven into near destitution by the punitive policies of an indifferent government.
Ministers have no grasp of the desperate plight of many of our fellow citizens or perhaps simply believe that their hardship is a price worth paying.
Nationally, we are told, almost a million British people have had to seek food aid at food banks in 2013/14 – almost double the number of the previous year.
Perhaps more shockingly, the number of people in Britain admitted to hospital suffering from malnutrition has also doubled.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are living in a country where two nations are living side by side in which the rich get ever richer while the poor in ever-increasing numbers are driven to the edge of despair.
Les Roberts
Treasurer
Malvern Hills Labour Party
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