Unbelievable Jeff

It's not really important, but not sure I think we should be paying for others people's kids when they earn up to £60k pa.

Don't forget you also don't lose all your child benefit until you hit £60k...

We're talking families with one breadwinner earning over £60k per year so they receive no child benefit.

Is it by charities only then? The goods I put in the trolleys at Tesco's, where does that go? As said above, I don't know what the true number is, or whether it is a relevant issue, but it would be interesting to see how many users are also smokers. I'm not saying there people wouldn't also need to use the food banks, they may do, but it may reduce the dependency that some people obviously seem to have.

I like that idea.

Why should they rely on government handouts because they have decided to have a lot of kids?

I'm not sure it is a red herring. Someone who smokes 10 a day (moderate smoker) will end up spending around £1800 a year on cigarette, which is £150 a month. So I would say anyone that is smoking 10 a day or more and using food banks shouldn't be using them. It's 'back of a fag packet' maths, but seems pretty accurate to me. I am sure others smoke more as well. Essentially, if they pay for cigarettes it is directing money away from food, surely you can't deny that?

They were just online articles, that made some links between increased smoking in lower income families (with stats to back it up), and others that I didn't post up that said that apparently 70% of homeless adults smoke. However, I don't know how big a problem it is, as I haven't found any stats on that, but then I certainly haven't said it is one, just that I am interested to know the statistics.

True story.

Oh I agree completely, hence why the first thing I said was:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2579715/Unpalatable-truth-food-banks-Left-finds-hard-swallow-Political-football-undeserving-claimants-shame-genuine-need.html

It has gone up in Tory government, that's for sure, but maybe not by as much as advertised. It was rising up until 2011, and I presume you can only really class it from then due to that being when the policies took effect.

You win.

It's the children that suffer a lot of the time due to their parents poor choices that I feel sorry for.

It's the children that suffer a lot of the time due to their parents poor choices that I feel sorry for.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11280307/Some-people-using-foodbanks-buy-cigarettes-instead-of-food.html

But of you found out that they chose to smoke over buying food, does that not make you feel they are cheating the system a bit? Fags cost 9 quid for twenty now...

So you don't think that a proportion of people that use food banks smoke then? Happy for people to use food from food banks (I give to them), but not if they choose to spend their money on cigarettes and alcohol because there is a free food service they can use.

I'd be interested to see stats on whether cigarette or alcohol use has gone down for the people who use them - you don't get fag banks, but I'm sure if you did then the use of these would have gone up instead of food banks...

He was tapping the twins...

Way to kill the thread guys...

He lost one high profile policy, that wasn't even one of their 5 main policies. To judge a parties success on that is extremely myopic, but a lot of people have have. It's a shame.

Just had a very quick look, isn't that just showing that around a third of the council properties sold are now buy to let? I thought this was already mentioned earlier in the thread. Not sure if there as only skim reading, but I saw no reference to the practices we've been debating today. I apologise if it is mind, just haven't got time to read it as getting my little girl bathed and into bed.

Danny Alexander on 5live, I do like the Lib Dems, quite obviously the most honest party out there, I believe.

Brilliant! Today's been entertaining, so thank you for your 'insight'.