Wrong for us to judge people using food banks - Yorkshire Post Letters

For a journalist, Sarah Todd appears surprisingly unaware of the effects of the current cost of living crisis.

In the final paragraph of her column on February 1, she takes a swipe at a mother “moaning” about having to use food banks whilst that mother is sitting on a nice sofa with a “state-of-the-art” telly in the background.

But surely that highlights why the situation many people are facing is so very shocking. That mother has almost certainly not gone out and bought the sofa and telly recently; I think it is reasonable to assume that they were purchased at a time before energy prices went through the roof and mortgage rates rocketed.

Many once comfortably-off families will be struggling now, and will be fearful of what is yet to come.

And of course, even more shocking than the plight of those recently finding themselves in financial difficulties (through no fault of their own) is the undeniable fact that for people who were already on or below the poverty line, the situation must be even more desperate.

I would urge Ms Todd to think again before writing words of condemnation, and perhaps focus her criticism on the reasons this supposedly affluent nation is in such a parlous state after 13 years of Tory government.

There is too much blame thrown at those who have fallen on hard times (or were already in them) and nowhere near enough at the politicians and corporations that are responsible.

And it’s no use to anyone rolling out the same old Covid, war in Ukraine excuses - the UK is not the only country affected by those, but we are certainly among the worst dealing with the side-effects.

Oh, and going back to the mother in question - perhaps she was wearing a T-shirt because she thought it would look nicer on telly than a bulky jumper. Who knows? I don’t, and neither does Sarah Todd.