Perth is being taken “back to the 1920s” with the opening of the city’s first food bank, according to its founder.
Chairman Michael Archibald told The Courier the “emergency service” will be a “permanent institution” after accepting keys to the St Catherine’s Road premises from the provost at a ceremony on Friday.
One and a half tonnes of food will be handed out to hungry families from Monday in what Perth MP Pete Wishart described as a “political failure”.
The SNP politician pointed the finger of blame firmly at the Conservative-led Government’s austerity measures.
“This is one of the wealthiest parts of the country and we still find it necessary to have a food bank here,” he told The Courier.
“That suggests something has gone wrong in the way the economy has been managed, in the way this austerity and the welfare reforms have been pushed through. The Westminster Government has fundamentally let down Perth.”
Mr Wishart has seen a “threefold increase” in inquiries from constituents who “have found themselves in great degrees of difficulty” since the welfare reforms were introduced.
The SNP MP said: “The solution is to stop doing it. That’s what we would do. We currently have no responsibility for welfare reform but we’d love to have that responsibility. What we would do is put forward a welfare system that would be more in keeping with our values, with our ideas of support, our sense of community.
“We certainly wouldn’t be doing what the current Conservative government is doing with their welfare reform package, which is almost like castigating and blaming thepoor for their current condition. It’s something we cannot accept here.”
He insisted that Scottish independence will ensure food banks are no longer needed in Perth.
“The only way to ensure that we do not have Westminster doing this to us any more is to take responsibility for it ourselves, and that brings us quite conveniently and neatly into where we’re going next year, when people will have that option and choice.”
Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife Murdo Fraser was dismissive of the Perth MP’s view.
“I think Mr Wishart is talking entirely out of ignorance of the issue,” he said. “If he’d done his homework, he’d realise the issues are much more complex than that.
“We heard today that the Dundee food bank started in 2005, long before welfare reform and long before the economic downturn, so we’ve had a need for food banks for a long time, regardless of who’s been in power and regardless of their approach to welfare.”
Mr Archibald said: “It’s not a party political thing. Both the red and the blue are now of the opinion that people who need emergency food can find it at the food bank because they’re not going to supply it the government will not come to your help immediately and this is the attitude.
“In a way, it takes us right back to the 1920s even, when if you wanted food you went to the church. Whether it’s right or wrong, this is the way we’re going.
“It’s going to be a permanent institution, I think.”
Ewan Gurr, Scotland development officer for the Trussell Trust, who started the Dundee food bank and supported the setting up of Perth’s facility, said: “I do feel that a nation that fails to prioritise the provision of services to those who most need them is in danger of becoming as morally bankrupt as it is economically.”
He also criticised welfare reform, describing it as “a political issue that destroys human life”, though he remains “unconvinced” that independence is the answer.
Photo by Phil Hannah