LETTER: Back to basics with priorities

I write as one who spent his childhood years during the war - when every kind of food was scarce - added to which, it was strictly rationed up until 1954. In almost all families, putting food on the table was the number one priority - all other expenditure being secondary in the household budget.

There was no room for luxuries of any kind and the government slogan, ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ ensured that very little food was wasted. ‘Use By’ and ‘Best Before’ dates were unknown but common sense was a good deal more prevalent in those days.

In those times of austerity, children did not have a choice when it came to food - one ate what was placed on the table - with the promise that if anything was left of the first course, there would certainly be no second.

The same discipline prevailed when I undertook my military service. If one did not eat every morsel of food accepted, a severe punishment followed. In short, ‘If you take it, you eat it’.

With the breakdown of the traditional family in our child-centered society, youngsters now demand food that they like - often refusing more healthy alternatives - and kicking up a fuss if they don’t get their own way. The family meal is a more casual affair - often sitting in front of the plasma TV - which along with the motor car, mobile phone and lap-top computer are considered essentials in this 21st century.

Like other decisions taken during a recession, priorities are surely of the utmost importance and, in my view, putting basic food on the table remains the number one priority. Whilst I sympathise with those made redundant, unlike the post-war austerity years, we now have various forms of State financial aid.

Doubtless those who provide food banks are well-intentioned but ironically I dare to suggest that such schemes could - in the long term - prove counter-productive. In other words, back to basics!

ROBERT B. WORLEY

Ayshe Court Drive, Horsham