Today the Archbishop of Canterbury is publicising a report, prepared under the direction of the Bishop of Truro and the excellent Frank Field MP, that heavily castigates the extent of the need of British families to resort to food banks in this year of grace 2014.
The need is largely due to the fact that families are literally penniless in many thousands of cases where benefits are due to be paid, but there are institutional and bureaucratic delays in the release of the extremely modest funds to which the families are entitled. But there are many other causes of the distressing circumstance where a parent literally cannot feed a child - or herself - of which only a minority are fecklessness, cretinism, intoxication or narcotic catalepsy. Society is failing, and the economy is failing; and government has no remedy.
Meanwhile, on the same day, the Prime Minister warns his cohorts that Britain's "prosperity" would be at threat if Labour and/or the Liberal democrats will the forthcoming general election. One may ask, "What prosperity?" As the government promises some £55billion a year of cuts to public expenditure by 2020, on top of the approximately £35billion annual 'savings' so far achieved, it is legitimate to ask what of the economy, and of the social structure, will survive?
The Chief Constable of Lincolnshire has asked the Home Secretary to explain how that huge county can be policed if the foreshadowed cuts are made: we can expect no direct answer to that question.
Clegg has no answer.
Milliband has no answer.
And now Alex Salmond reckons that he can exploit an electoral stalemate next May to pursue his obsessive agenda in defiance of the democratic vote of the Scots people in the recent referendum.
In his speech announcing his intention to disrupt the UK parliament, Salmond repeated the assertion - which is almost certainly true - that the one way for him to forfeit the trust of his followers would be to enter into any sort of pact with the Conservatives.
The rump of the LibDem party is also likely to decide after the May election that their role in any future government will be with Labour.
In the unlikely event that UKIP get enough seats to swing a hung parliament, they will exact a tremendous toll for coalition with the Conservatives.
What hope have we?
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