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Letters: Carol Taylor and Howard Williamson respond to Katriona O’Sullivan’s article on the grinding reality of living in poverty
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Society — The Guardian
Reading Katriona O’Sullivan’s article ( Can anyone be too poor to buy a toothbrush? Yes – I know, because that was me, 19 August ) reminded me of when I was a community worker at the Park Hill estate in Sheffield in the 1970s.
When I (young and naive) asked the mums why they bought chips for their toddlers for lunch rather than spending the money on fresh fruit (I cringe now in embarrassment), they pointed out that a bag of chips was the price of a couple of apples and one of them filled the kids up. I began to understand, and to also see why they spent money on cigarettes. As O’Sullivan says, “a few bottles [of alcohol] can feel like an escape”.
My work there gave me a lifetime of experience in a few months, which I’ve never forgotten.
• What an excellent piece by Katriona O’Sullivan – a very timely riposte to those who pass judgment from the comfort of their broadcasting pods. George Orwell made similar points in The Road to Wigan Pier – desperately poor people still tried (occasionally) to go to the cinema or buy ice-cream rather than spend their subsistence national assistance on tripe.
It was – and is – a matter of human dignity and feeling that you are still living as a person, not as an automaton, as more fortunate people might expect you to be. Perhaps cheap toothbrushes should be free to our poorest citizens as a sensible public-health intervention.
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When I (young and naive) asked the mums why they bought chips for their toddlers for lunch rather than spending the money on fresh fruit (I cringe now in embarrassment), they pointed out that a bag of chips was the price of a couple of apples and one of them filled the kids up. I began to understand, and to also see why they spent money on cigarettes. As O’Sullivan says, “a few bottles [of alcohol] can feel like an escape”.
This report is published with credit to The Guardian. Full available text from the wire is above. Read on The Guardian →
Source: The Guardian. Published 25 Aug 2026, 04:44 pm.
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