Unicef’s help for hungry British children shows the depths to which the UK has sunk

The fact that Unicef will for the first time intervene to support those at risk of hunger in the UK is a damning indictment of the depths to which the country has sunk.

Unicef has put its funding behind a scheme designed to provide breakfast boxes to 1,800 families over the course of the Christmas holidays – marking the first emergency response in the UK by the organisation since it was founded in 1946.

Rising levels of food poverty in the UK are an absolute disgrace and the Tory government should be ashamed of this. We are supposedly one of the richest countries in the world. Our children should not have to rely on humanitarian charities that are more used to operating in war zones and in response to natural disasters.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh  

For a prime minister whose many empty boasts has been that he is always guided by the science, yesterday’s performance at PMQs was somewhat strange. Having – extremely unwisely in my opinion – launched a five-day “Christmas lockdown holiday”, and then finding himself at odds with both scientific and public opinion, he promptly failed to execute the usual and fully expected “about turn”.

So he now finds that he has committed the government to a rash and dangerous relaxation of restrictions, despite the concerted opposition of senior health professionals, and a likely majority of the public. In an almost unheard-of joint editorial from The British Medical Journal and The Health Service Journal, these publications have described the government decision as “a serious blunder”. A survey of the public’s view of the decision, published yesterday, resulted in 57 per cent opposition.

Now government ministers have been touring TV and radio studios urging the public not to do the things which the government previously approved of.

Let us hope that this potentially reckless decision by the prime minister does not have the result that so many people fear. Let us instead hope that he changes his mind in time to prevent yet another damaging bungle, and save lives instead.

William Patrick Moore

Norwich, Norfolk

I read Sean O'Grady's column (Could Brexit be over by Christmas?) with interest and a fervent wish that this will be the case. Because a no-deal scenario would be catastrophic for businesses, the public and our now very fragile economy.

This I feel is too important to be summarily pushed through, but on the other hand, if it shuts up the right-wing members of the ERG who will be pilloried if they do indeed put their customary intractable oar in, this haste might indeed speed the demise of their dictatorial influence over Boris Johnson.  

As O'Grady states the “long goodbye” will be over but as a person who still and will always be of the opinion that this is a grave mistake, I will obviously be hoping for au revoir.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

We welcome that more than 370 religious leaders from around the world are calling for a ban on so-called “gay conversion therapy".

Some conservative religious groups who support this ridiculous treatment fear that their efforts to change people might be criminalised. Quite rightly so.

This a step in the right direction but many religions, while stopping short of electric shocks, still prescribe life-long celibacy for gay people and advocate a “love the sinner, hate the sin” dogma, which is virtually the same thing.

Neil Barber

Edinburgh Secular Society

I wonder how long it will take before a politician or social commentator will, without any shame, welcome Unicef’s arrival in the UK to combat child hunger; and then mendaciously claim that they could not have helped if we were still in the EU?

Another moment when we should all be ashamed to be British.

Robert Boston

Kingshill, Kent  

When Unicef intervenes to supply breakfasts for hungry families, we as a nation really must sit up and take note of the awful road we are on. We need to find a way, and quickly, to unite across all parties and seriously tackle food poverty. We are supposedly a developed nation – our role in the world is to help Unicef not the other way around.  

There has to be a way to ensure everyone has a fundamental right to a basic standard of life (shelter, warmth, food and water). The politicians will tell us we already have that all in place – we are, after all, the sixth richest country in the world. What we see and what we hear every day tells us that we have moved well below any definition of a basic standard quite some time ago.

Paul Morrison  

Glasgow  

We decided six weeks ago to stay at home in our bubble of three for Christmas. Myself, my husband and Ted our cat. Covid-19 was a consideration but the overwhelming reason was to avoid acrimonious conversations around the Christmas dinner table about Brexit.

Liz Spencer

Ideford, Devon