Aditya Chakrabortty’s article (One Welsh town offers a window on to the catastrophe facing Britain. But where are the politicians?, 19 August) reminded me of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel North and South. Written in the mid-19th century, it looks at the living conditions in a mill town during the Industrial Revolution. A mill owner rejects a union’s request for a pay increase and hires agency workers. This does not end well for him or his workers. Towards the end of the book, the mill owner, in allegiance with a union representative, opens a dining room to provide free dinners for his workers. Now, more than 150 years on from the novel’s publication, we have a CEO having to do the same. How have we returned to the need for free food and talk of hiring agency workers in a rich country in the 21st century?
Karen Wynyard
Whitstable, Kent
• As a volunteer at my local food bank, I read Aditya Chakrabortty’s article on food poverty with great interest. This was a sympathetic piece and highlighted the appalling fact that in 21st-century Britain, many of our citizens live in poverty. However, I take exception to the view of the food bank model expressed in the article by Robbie Davison, who says: “It’s not food that people would choose for themselves. It’s a model that says, ‘We know you’re poor, and this’ll do.’ That’s right wing.”
It is true that food bank clients have limited choice regarding the food they are given. Nevertheless, this food stops people from going hungry, there is no charge and, at my food bank, people are treated with the greatest care and respect. The view that because people are poor what we give them will do certainly is not one that I recognise from my own work at the food bank.
Susan Le Jeune
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
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