'Food banks are a disgrace in C21st UK'

I've been told that the use of foodbanks in the UK in 2017 is an absolute disgrace, reflects very badly on the Tories and points to a failing nation.

The Trussell Trust - which derrives its income and food donations for its foodbanks from members of the public, says that 1.2m people took a three-day food package from a foodbank last year.

Personally I'm glad that the Labour-backed Trussell Trust is doing this good work and helping out people in need. And that generous people are donating food to people who happen to need some help from time-to-time.

This help is usually required when the system breaks down and people find themselves outside of the welfare system for a few days. That is regrettable of course but the reasons why they are outside the system are many and varied. There are currently about 1.6m people unemployed in the UK and net immigration last year was 273,000 (ONS).

So when one puts this into some kind of perspective, the 1.2m people using foodbanks in a year does not mean that 1.2m people rely on foodbanks for all of the food they eat. Which, I think, many lefties seem to want to be the case so they can kick the Tories.

It's 1.2m people, out of our 65m population, our 1.6m unemployed and 273,000 immigrants, who had one three-day food parcel from a foodbank during the last year.

So one in about 60 of us had help from a foodbank which covered three out of 365 days of our food requirement. Or to put these figures in percentage terms; 1.8% of the population required help with 0.82% of their meals in the last year. That is hardly a nation in chaos or crisis.

Particularly since the combination of Labour's open border (not just open but 'go and find them') legacy and our EU 'free movement' requirement has seen more than 3m more people (net) arrive here in the past ten years.

Against that background, the fact that the figures for people using foodbanks is so low is testament to the fact that the system is working pretty well.

The other point to make, obviously, is that if you offer people free stuff, they tend to take it. And that's fine, good luck to them and if it means they have a few quid over for themselves because of the generosity of others then that's a good thing isn't it? So why use this as an argument with which to beat the Tories, whose supporters are likely to be donating the lions share of the food that the foodbanks distribute in the first place?

Maybe the Tories should close down all the food banks and ban their operation - so as to avoid this nonsensical criticism. I'm sure Mr Blair would have considered this course of action. Would that make you happier lefties? That there would then be no foodbanks for you to point to as a sign of Tory failure, but some people would be going hungry occasionally?

Of course it won't happen because the Tories tend to do what's right for the population, not just what fits the spin. Unlike Blair, Brown & Corbyn's Labour party.

Thanks for reading.