'Our country is well and truly in crisis'

According to new research from the Money Advice Trust, 1 in 9 people across the UK have gone without food. For Basingstoke this means that nearly 15,500 people have either skipped meals, only eaten once a day or not eaten at all on some days due to the rising cost of living.

After 12 years of Conservative rule our country is well and truly in crisis and over the last week we have seen that the age old saying “a leopard can’t change its spots” remains very real with the Conservative Party.

Unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy will inevitably lead to huge cuts to public spending to balance the books, not that there is much “fat” to trim from these already decimated services.

The U-turn from new Prime Minister, who promised no public spending reductions, must surely be the quickest of all time? At a time when we need to invest in our country the grim reality is that in order to survive, we should take the advice of Tory Party chair, Jake Berry MP, and ask for a pay rise (because businesses are so flush with money they are throwing it away like it’s Monopoly money) or get a better paid job. And what of our MP, Maria Miller? Once again she is found missing in action from the real issues that face our residents; preferring to hide back in her bunker instead!

With the Labour Party fairing well in opinion polls you’d have thought she would be doing all she can to act in our best interests because that is what Basingstoke wants and needs, not a lackey for hard right ideology that will bring people to their knees.

Cllr Alex Lee

Labour, Winklebury and Manydown

Editor's note: The Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced on Monday that the scrapping of the top rate of tax would not go ahead in the wake of market upheaval.

The pound dropped to its lowest level against the dollar after the announcement and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Bank of England intervened.