What a great article from sixth form student Lola Cook (November 12) about our appalling Government and the 321 MPs who voted against free school meals during half term.

However many U-turns this Government then makes, it is surely too shaming that the decent examples of a footballer, many pubs and restaurants, food banks, and sixth formers now lead the way (see also Greta Thunberg).

As an ex-headmistress in a very deprived area of London – albeit a long time ago being now in my nineties – I have given up writing to Herefordshire MPs. They never read one’s letters and their secretaries send formulaic and patronising replies.

It is better to put one’s trust and energy into supporting ordinary people who live ordinary lives and actually know what that is like. They also increasingly experience unemployment in an exceptionally low-wage county.

So just put your faith and any money you can spare into food banks, homeless and refugee charities and gratitude galore to those volunteers who man them.

This army of volunteers, it seems to me, are those that keep the true image of our beloved Britain alive.

Maja Storey

Leominster

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