Swansea MP says food banks represent a ticking time bomb
SWANSEA MP Sian James has warned that the city's food banks represent a ticking time bomb.
"And I don't know where it's going to end," said the Swansea East MP during a Parliamentary debate.
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"There are many fearful people out there."
She urged the coalition to come up with "a solid plan to get us out of this mess", saying the situation would not improve without direct Government intervention.
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Her comments came as Labour MPs expressed concern about the growing use of foodbanks in Wales.
The number of Welsh people relying on the centres, which distribute free food to those on low incomes, has trebled in the last twelve months, with nine new foodbanks opening in Wales alone.
Ms James, who has helped distribute food in her constituency, said that due to an increase in those needing help, the foodbank in Swansea East had had to "stretch right across the city".
She told MPs: "A measure of any good society is how we look after its weakest, poorest and most vulnerable and I'm ashamed to say we're not doing a very good job.
"Over Christmas we distributed two tonnes of food…with the help of a concerted effort in Swansea we managed to help people over that period."
Swansea West MP Geraint Davies argued that Government policy was "building up a time bomb of problems in our communities".
He added: "The Government is taking money out of the pockets of the poorest."
But the Government claims the number of foodbanks rose more quickly under the previous Labour government.
Last month a spokesman for the Prime Minister said benefits were set "at a level where people can afford to eat".
He added that foodbanks were the "right place for people who feel that they need a bit of extra food".
Comments
by tellyon
Wednesday, February 13 2013, 12:46PM
“As I said on the same story yesterday.
There are 80% of the cuts yet to be made. More job losses, more frozen pay, hospitals closed, services cut.
Let's not accept the propoganda that the poorest in society caused this mess. It wasn't people on benefits, disabled people, pensioners, migrant workers, firemen, nurses or bin-men who caused this mess. It was a small clique of incredibly wealthy individuals who gambled and speculated and lost.
It's the capitalist system itself that demands ever increasing profits. Real (inflation adjusted) wages have been falling for over 10 years in the UK (for over 30 years in the USA).
Ordinary people can't afford to buy back what our work produces. Eventually there is a crisis of overproduction (i.e. not enough demand). It is the capitalist system that is failing to give us a basic standard of living.
We have the material means and technology to solve the problems of homelessness and poverty, but the profit system holds us back. We need a new system to take society forward and democratically harness the productive forces for the benefit of everybody.
We need genuine democratic socialism."
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