It’s time to bring back nanny state

The new economic figures do not match the reality for many.

Hurrah, we’re rich! Officially, that is.

According to new figures our incomes are now rising faster than inflation so we should all be feeling comfortably wealthy.

And more good news. Unemployment figures are lower than at any time since the credit crunch struck.

So it looks as if the bleak dark days of the recession are behind us. Happy days are here again. Yippee, bring out the Bollinger!

Except that, unofficially, it’s not like that at all. Unofficially, many of us are poor and getting poorer.

Food banks are flourishing like never before. Three times more people are queuing for parcels for themselves and their families.

We pride ourselves on being a country where nobody starves, yet, on the news bulletins, parents say they are having to make a choice between feeding themselves or feeding their children.

One mother explained she often exists on a diet of bread and jam. A father reluctantly admitted that, without the free food being handed out by his local food bank, he would have nothing to give his children.

Payday loans companies and discount stores have more desperate customers than ever.

So just what is going on? How can Britain be richer and poorer at the same time?

The answer has to be that there are dangerous holes in the state safety net and some people are slipping through them.

Bring back the nanny state, I say. Not because I want the taxman to squander my hard-earned donations.

Like all the best nannies, I want her to keep a gimlet eye on fraudsters and swindlers and make sure every penny is valued and well spent.

I remember the nanny state because I grew up in it and it looked after me.

I was a toddler during the war when times were hard indeed and eggs, butter and milk were all rationed. But still, I had rose hip syrup and cod liver oil to keep me healthy and free school milk to build up my bones.

At school I was regularly weighed and measured to make sure I was growing.

I had to take regular exercise, walking at least two miles every day. So the nanny state cared for me without coddling or spoiling me and made sure I grew up strong and healthy.

This week I cleared out my fridge, throwing away half a loaf of bread which was stale, a bag of mouldy tomatoes and a packet of coleslaw so far past its sell-by date that it was sour and fizzing around the edges.

All the food I hadn’t eaten had to be thrown away.

So next time I’m shopping, I’m going to get double the amount and donate half of it to my local food bank which I know does marvellous work for desperate families. It’s the least I can do.