Nesrine Malik asks if Labour is progressive or Tory-lite (Opinion, 8 October). She highlights how the cost of living crisis has morphed into the new normal, so no longer a crisis – but it’s worse than that. The question I have for Labour is, will it end food banks? This is not because I don’t care, but they are a shame on our society and we have become desensitised to their existence. They are even part of official strategy.
When I moved from Leeds 11 years ago, there wasn’t a food bank. As I moved to Peterborough, one was being set up. Since then, they’ve become hardwired into our social assumptions. Now we have extended them in Newport to food larders in schools, and our cathedral vestry looks like a corner shop. This year, the harvest festival collections felt like nothing special – we do this every week. I want to see an end to food banks, to the destitution that makes them necessary.
Very Rev Ian Black
Dean, Newport Cathedral
