NOWADAYS, in virtually every town centre, there is a proliferation of new nail bars, beauty and tattoo parlours and men’s ‘trendy’ barbers , with no short

back and sides on offer!

As for new cafes, bars and restaurants, well they are opening up, almost side by side, all over the place – the choice of menus is now vast, something to suit every taste.

And, if you enter any of them, you will quickly realise that virtually every customer who is waiting to be attended to is doing something or another on their smart phone, the average cost of which

is, I understand, about £600 a year.

So, no shortage of money to eat-out, get your nails, eyebrows and hair done, get your body inked all over and, at the same time, splash the cash on a mobile phone.

It would appear that everyone’s doing one or the other, or even all of them.

Except, according to an article published in The Argus under the heading ‘Labour’s view’, they are not.

Apparently foodbanks now outnumber the number of McDonalds in this country and 14.5 million people, who make up 22% of the population, live in poverty.

It has also been predicted that another one and a half million will soon be joining them, because of the Chancellor’s latest budgetary measures.

So, what is the truth?

Is three quarters of the population living the life of Riley, got enough money to eat whatever they desire and do whatever they want to their bodies and the other quarter, as the writer of the article said are not able to pay their household bills, meet rising food prices and face destitution?

If that is the case, then this country is in a worse state than I could have ever imagined, even though I grew up during the 1940s and the early1950s, when just about everyone was struggling to cope with shortages of just about everything that, today, we take for granted, with little choice about anything, even food.

You simply took what was on offer or went without.

Eric Waters

Lancing