Your front page headline in the Watford Observer - “Hidden hunger - children skip meals as cost of living crisis hits” - was one of the saddest things I’ve ever read in a newspaper. And it makes me angry because this Government could and should alleviate this sorry state of affairs. Isn’t this its job? Are Ministers not ashamed that people are forced to use food banks in 2022?

It got me wondering what those of us who find this situation disgraceful can do about it. Speaking personally, and not on behalf of anybody else, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way forward is for Labour to join together with the other progressive parties, the Greens and the Lib-Dems, to ensure that austerity is kicked out of play once and for all.

In the meantime I think we should hold our MP to account and let him know in the strongest terms how appalled we are with the increasing levels of poverty and ask him what he is doing to ensure that children do not go hungry. And we shouldn’t be satisfied with a standard response written by Conservative Central Office. We should ask him what HE is doing given that his job is to represent all of his constituents, including those who can’t afford to eat properly or heat their homes.

Philip Parry

Kitsbury Terrace, Berkhamsted