SIR – Hundreds of thousands of people in this country are apparently turning to food banks to feed themselves and their families.

Benefits are being widely cut regardless of need and even the sick and disabled are being penalised. Public sector wages have been frozen, which in real terms means a cut. Austerity and its effects seems to be everywhere. And yet...

The Queen has just been awarded an above-inflation five per cent ‘pay rise’. £1 million has been given to Prince William and his wife to support their costs of refurbishing their 53-room home in Kensington – well, they are awaiting a new arrival – while the ‘bedroom tax’ penalises many, particularly the disabled living in social housing.

And now we hear that MPs are in favour of awarding themselves a huge increase in their salaries!

Chancellor, George Osborne once said regarding austerity: “We’re all in it together.”

Author George Orwell’s famous phrase comes to mind: “Some are (clearly) more equal than others.”

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Shipley