As Liz Truss stumbled through last week’s disastrous round of interviews with local radio stations, Basingstoke’s United Reformed church was giving away bread. Loaves donated by local supermarkets were arranged on a set of metal shelves covered by a tarpaulin. Every so often, someone would gingerly walk up and help themselves, before turning their attention to the hot food that was also available: soup, risotto and stew, cooked by a group of spirited volunteers. They told me that the town’s levels of need were suddenly increasing fast, and they were now feeding whole families.
A few yards away, I met Peter. Now retired, he had worked for the telecoms giant Motorola, a once-sizeable local employer that closed its Basingstoke operation in 2017. Rocketing bills, he told me, meant he was now limiting himself to two hours of TV a night, rationing lighting, keeping his heating off, and wearing sweaters and fleeces whenever he was indoors. Among the items in his shopping bag was a baguette he had got from the church.
