There was a food bank debate yesterday in the House of Commons. We all know that, but what few people can tell you is what was said. Instead, there is a furious debate raging about whether the Tories were laughing at poor people not having enough money for food, or whether Labour MPs were laughing too. I’ll leave that to other people to tussle over, suffice to say that it wasn’t the most edifying debate I’ve watched, mainly because as with all arguments in Westminster over food banks, both sides were jeering one another and making ugly accusations about each other too.
These accusations tend to boil the problem of food banks down to something very simple and easy: either that Labour wrecked the economy and therefore people need food banks or that the Tories rejoice in cutting people’s benefits so that people need food banks. Neither approach really takes in the complex nature of food bank demand, which I’ve written about for the magazine, the blog and the Telegraph.
Food banks are good things in that they at least help people deal with very bad things and are an organised community response to crises that in some cases have been occurring for years, with families previously at the mercy of social workers or teachers who had a few spare pounds to offer.
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