LIKE many others, I petitioned our MP, Mr Clifton-Brown to attend and support the House of Commons debate about Food banks. He wrote to me to say: “Unfortunately I was unable to attend the recent debate due to 'extreme pressures' on my diary'.”

I wonder if that was 'extreme pressure' of Parliamentary business, or 'extreme pressures' from his many other business interests?

Like most politicians, it is not what they say, but what they do not say that we have to study carefully.

He said in his letter that “The use of food banks went up tenfold during the previous administration”. This is true but misleading.

According to the Trussell Trust who oversee most food banks, 'Before the financial crisis, food banks were almost unheard of. In 2004, there were only two food banks, by 2006 there were 22.'

So Mr Clifton-Brown was correct in saying they 'went up tenfold'. What he did not say was that by 2011 there were 100, nearly another tenfold but to a far higher number.

The Trussell Trust says 'that the number of people helped by food banks in the last 12 months has increased by 170 per cent to nearly one third of a million.

Mr Clifton-Brown did not seem to be aware that not just anyone can wander down to a food bank and get food; everyone has to be referred to them by people like a doctor, health worker, or a Job Centre.

As I said to him 'We came through the war and were bankrupt at the end, yet we people were still being adequately fed, and the Government had installed 'British Restaurants' across the country where anyone could get a good basic hot meal (without coupons) for a few pence'.

So what is the reason that this Goverrnment cannot make sure that its own people get fed?

DAVID G P WILLIAMS

Alexander Drive

Cirencester