'Things tentatively seem to be looking up for 2020...Trump being voted out, a Covid-19 vaccine and another U-turn by the government on child food poverty'

In 1973 the writer E. B. White wrote a letter of encouragement to someone who seemed to have lost all faith in humanity, stating: ‘things can look dark, then a break in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly’.

That feeling sums up the last week with the voting out of Donald Trump, the Covid-19 vaccine breakthrough and the second U-turn that the British government has taken on holiday hunger by committing resources to stopping children going hungry.

Things seem to be tentatively looking up for 2020.

The 46th president of the USA Joe Biden even tweets like an adult with coherent statements such as: “The bottom line: I will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around”.

It feels good to have adults back in the room, and as the new saying goes: “the future’s bright, the future’s not orange”.

Furthermore, Northampton Borough Council unanimously passed a motion to tackle holiday hunger and published the findings of its Food Poverty Scrutiny Panel which commits it to addressing food insecurity in Northampton.

This is good news for the local charitable sector, which has been bearing the brunt of supporting some of the most vulnerable members of our local communities for the last several austerity-impacted years and during this public health crisis.

The month of November focuses on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger by 2030.

National and local governments have a duty to address food insecurity.

Sustain, the national alliance for better food and farming, rightfully states: “Government, councils, health bodies and other statutory agencies should play a central role in reducing food poverty in the UK.

“This should complement the role of the voluntary and community sector.

“Action by government, councils and others should address the root causes of food poverty and avoid unreasonable demands being placed on charities, faith organisations, volunteers and others responding to local need.”

This is also Living Wage Week and a stark reminder that in the tough winter months ahead, especially in view of rising unemployment and redundancies, we need to ensure a social safety net with liveable income provided and where jobs are protected with liveable wages.

The Archbishop of York this week has made a statement supporting the scheme: “If we are going to bring real equality and level up the country, then people trapped in poverty need to be paid a proper wage.

“This is the very best future for all of us.”

Both food poverty and Living Wage UK campaigners point to the need for serious welfare reform and wage increases; a number of places have also committed to becoming Living Wage Cities and Towns.

It would be deeply encouraging to see Northamptonshire-based local governments and the new unitary authorities commit to a similar accreditation.

More than three million people across the UK have been excluded from the Government’s Covid-19 financial support scheme, including freelancers and newly self-employed individuals.

The current recession has resulted in a cross-party group of MPs calling on the chancellor Rishi Sunak to give the green light for trialling universal basic income to help deal with the failures in the safety net.

I’ve long been an advocate of universal basic income, as was the British economist and social reformer William Beveridge, who suggested it as a solution to poverty in 1942.

Each trial has shown success upon success in varying countries, but governments have often dismissed it.

However, the current public health crisis and the ongoing financial hardship it is causing many folk means it is an idea whose time has surely come.

A guaranteed income for all would help alleviate serious poverty, restore dignity and provide financial stability now and in the future.

In the words of Martin Luther King: “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective…the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”