Thread by @docrussjackson

Following last night's harrowing #PANORAMA Surviving the Cost of Living, a short #THREAD on food banks.

The #CostOfLivingCrisis is catastrophic for millions of people, & the culmination of 12 years of shameless, brutal, & purely ideological Tory misrule.

https://twitter.com/IndeedItsMark/status/1513596319855697925?s=20&t=7kjA-LCpfwKVEaIgGZVzyA

"Our team are so worried about what we’re seeing... Last week we registered a 91-year-old man. During the interview, he shook his head and said “in all my life, I’ve never taken from charity. Not once. But there’s nothing left now after the bills”.

bigissue.com/news/social-ju…

More than 550 independent food banks has called on Boris Johnson & Rishi Sunak to act urgently:

“We are writing to urge you to take immediate action to reduce the rapidly rising levels of poverty, destitution and hunger in our communities."

news.sky.com/story/food-ban…

"We are deeply concerned about the scale of suffering that we are already witnessing as well as our capacity to prevent people from going hungry in the weeks and months to come. An emergency supply of food cannot resolve someone’s financial crisis."

foodaidnetwork.org.uk/letter-april22

Food bank users are in “pure desperation”.

The Government “does not know what hardship is” as they feel abandoned in their efforts to make ends meet.

“The poor people are getting poorer & the rich are getting richer.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

Food banks established as a last-ditch emergency service are becoming an essential part of social security for the working poor, the Bishop of Dudley has warned.

The Black Country Foodbank, has seen a 45% increase in referrals this year.

inews.co.uk/news/foodbanks…

In 2020/21 - before the #CostOfLivingCrisis took hold - around 2.5 million people used a foodbank in the UK, over 600,000 more than the previous year.

The number of foodbank users has increased every year, from just under 26,000 in 2008/09.

#ToryAusterity was a catastrophe.

Four million children live in poverty in the UK. About 40% of the attainment gap between poor children & their richer peers is set in stone before they start school. The @Conservatives do everything they can to prevent a fairer, more meritocratic society.

theguardian.com/education/2022…

16% of UK homes were already in fuel poverty, & with the price cap rise this will jump to a whopping 24% – almost a quarter of all households unable to adequately heat their homes - 6.5 million households - which is staggering for a developed country.

theconversation.com/energy-bills-w…

How about instead of inflicting a devastating #CostOfLivingCrisis on British people, pushing millions more children & adults into poverty & causing all manner of costly avoidable social ills, already grotesquely wealthy people just make do with being slightly less rich?