THE Westmorland Gazette has on a number of occasions in the past printed articles in support of food banks, praising the volunteers that run them, people who donate, and treating sympathetically those who are obliged to turn to them for very basic food necessities. Who would argue with any of those sentiments?

The recent report on poverty in the United Kingdom by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Poverty, has turned the spotlight on to the question of why poverty exists in the UK, and highlights the enormous scale of the problem.

We live in one of the largest economies in the world, and there is clearly no shortage of food on the supermarket shelves. Professor Alston's conclusions are that poverty in the UK is a political choice and he has stated that child poverty in this country is “not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster”.

Clearly, we need a new kind of politics, a politics which fulfils the basic needs of the many, and then we might be able finally to consign institutions such as food banks to history. Until then, make no mistake, I hugely respect all those that keep them running.

Dave Plumb

Staveley