THE GUARDIAN: Volunteers say they have never seen such acute need as inflation, soaring energy costs and cuts to benefits force growing numbers into dire poverty
An uncomfortable silence fills the hall of St Bride’s church in Liverpool. In a few minutes, its doors will open to some of the city’s hungriest families. Between 250 and 300 people are expected at its latest weekly food bank, although it could be more. But there is little to offer them: only 150 parcels of food and a small pile of unwanted clothes.
For the first time in years, the volunteers have to turn people away. They look aghast. “That will last half an hour at best. What do we do then?” asks Julian Sowden, one of the longest-serving volunteers. “There’s nothing else to give them. We just stop? We just shut the door?”
The answer – “yes” – is met with silence. School holidays are approaching, says another helper, the church will be “inundated with people who can’t feed their children”. Nick Mendes, one of the trustees, asks in a plaintive prayer for God to “supply our needs”. Little more than an hour later, the food has gone. » | Josh Halliday, North of England correspondent | Friday, July 22, 2022
This is heartrending! Is this what forty years of Thatcherism has reduced this once great country to? And Brexit? And twelve plus consecutive years of Tory misrule?
Make no mistake! I am no lefty. Not at all! But there is capitalism and there is capitalism. Thatcher’s version was right for the time, but it should have been placed onto the garbage of history long ago. It has outlived its usefulness, at least for the time being.
These days, we are confronting a very different set of problems than Thatcher faced. Thatcherism was joined at the hip with Reaganomics. Interestingly, and perhaps ominously, both Reaganomics and Thatcherism were economic theories based on two people’s understanding who had never studied economics!
The current Conservative leader hopefuls are arguing it out among themselves about just how much more Thatcherism this country needs. Despite being a lifelong Conservative voter until the Conservatives turned populist and anti-EU, I would say that the last thing this country needs is yet more Thatcherism. How much more ‘trickle-up’ economics does this country need? How much more inequality? How much more poverty? How many more foodbanks?
Let the lady rest in peace. This country has been almost destroyed by greed. Let’s give compassion a chance, shall we? We might well be surprised by the results. – © Mark Alexander
