August 2024 – time for family holidays and maybe a little bit of warmth if we are lucky. And maybe a few moments to reflect. I don’t want to use this column to write about the appalling events which have disfigured our country this past week. There are other opportunities to write about the riots. Let’s focus on the remarkable people I met during my time as an election candidate in July this year. Not in order to discuss party politics, but rather to celebrate some of the wonderful people of Yorkshire.
The background is that I represent some of the poorest communities in the land. We already know that there are millions of people living in poverty in our country, despite it being one of the richest in the world.
But in the midst of those struggling communities, there are people who are not looking for minorities to blame for the poverty. Instead they have rolled up their sleeves and decided to do something. Not out of pity, or shame, or Victorian notions of charity. Their motivations are solidarity, community, neighbourliness.
Community spirit: clothing those in need
In Normanton, right there in the town centre is a clothes bank. A shop has been taken over by volunteers. If you can’t afford to buy clothes for yourself or your children, you can go and find clothes that have been donated by others in the town. Row after row, over two floors, all neatly arranged according to the size, you can find something to fit you or your relatives.
In Featherstone, there is a school uniform bank. It costs a huge amount of money these days to provide children with a school uniform. If you can’t afford to buy it, the uniform bank will help.
Decent used clothes – even shoes – which children have grown out of, are now donated for families to use. I heard of children who had to wear shoes so small that their feet were being distorted in shape. The Bag Ladies, as they call themselves in South Kirkby, told me that they had been active back in the Miners’ Strike, but that things are worse now.
Food banks and libraries
And then there are the food banks. These are now, sadly, to be found in more or less every village. I met volunteers who had opened their food bank on Christmas Day and cooked two full servings of meals. Each serving was for 60 people, seated, so that no one in the village would miss out.
And then there are the community centre volunteers who staff libraries available for all, or who offer just a friendly face for lonely people to come and meet. There are the knit and natter groups and many more. In Havercroft and Ryhill, the parish council arranges for Santa to travel right through the villages on Christmas day bringing a little light and happiness – families stand outside the houses to wave at the parade. And in Ackworth, where I live, every child who lives there can visit the grotto and receive a small present so that no child is left behind.
No scapegoats, just solidarity
The most striking thing was the number of volunteers who said users nowadays consist mainly of people who work but whose wages don’t cover the necessaries, so low are the wages often being paid.
The volunteers I met didn’t blame or scapegoat others who might have different skin colour or a different way of speaking to us. Where did the clothes, food and money deployed by the volunteers come from? It came from neighbours, local businesses and the community as a whole.
These are active communities. Expressing their solidarity with others less fortunate than themselves by giving up time and often scarce resources.
This is the Yorkshire I know and admire. In these dark days, let’s hold on to the idea that there are neighbours, friends, family who in small ways and not so small ways inspire us with the notion that there is a better way. Hold on to this thought and maybe take action yourself.
Of course, we shouldn’t need food and clothes banks. But we do and it’s been getting worse. Changing the way we organise the country economically and socially is why I got involved in politics. But that’s a story for another day.
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